After drifting on cloud nine through the Metropolitan Museum's glorious "Byzantium: Faith and Power (1261–1557)," captivated by some of the most transporting art ever made in the West, I came to the final gallery, where I was jarred by the sight of the exhibition's first and only appearance of perspectival space. As my mind reeled and my eyes adjusted, I had a bittersweet revelation: In the three centuries covered by this show, space, formerly so erratic, was being codified. In that last, albeit magnificent, gallery (with works by van der Weyden, Van Eyck, Memling, and others), I knew I was leaving an age of magic for... More >>>