Sacred Splendor: Jewish Ritual Art and Christian Treasures from St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague

Sacred Splendor: Jewish Ritual Art and Christian Treasures from St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague brings Jewish and Christian sacred art from medieval to early modern Europe into dialogue, illuminating complex, interconnected histories across more than six centuries. The exhibition features Christian reliquaries on loan from St. Vitus Cathedral—the most extensive presentation of this treasury ever exhibited outside Europe—together with Jewish treasures never before shown in the United States. Through a robust presentation of over 160 objects, the exhibition examines shared urban and artistic environments, and the distinct ritual and theological frameworks that shaped sacred art across Central Europe. Highlights include rarely seen medieval Jewish-owned objects from hoards buried during periods of persecution that remained hidden for centuries, as well as Jewish ceremonial works from Bohemia and the Germanic regions, among them Torah ornaments, metalwork, and manuscripts.

On view from September 18, 2026, through February 7, 2027, the exhibition also features tehillim [Psalms] (2018) by contemporary artist Edmund de Waal, whose work engages interculturally with history, memory, and language. tehillim’s spare composition of ceramic, alabaster, and gold leaf resonates powerfully with surviving fragments from medieval Jewish hoards that are also on view, engaging with the Book of Psalms as “songs and poems of exile.” Concurrently, in the Museum’s new third-floor collection galleries, two focused contemporary installations will expand on Sacred Splendor’s themes. Featuring artists Hannah Altman and Afruz Amighi, these presentations dialogue with the themes and materiality of the treasures on display from St. Vitus Cathedral and other sources across Europe and the United States.

The exhibition’s narrative is anchored in the city of Prague, a religious and political capital at the crossroads of Central European trade routes that emerged as a key medieval center for the production of sacred art. King of Bohemia Charles IV refashioned the city’s St. Vitus Cathedral into a Gothic marvel and endowed it with important relics, commissioning elaborate reliquaries to house them. Prague’s Jewish community, well-established during this period after settling in the city centuries earlier, lived in close proximity to its Christian neighbors, developing their ritual traditions alongside one another.

Organized chronologically and thematically, the exhibition sheds light on the ways in which a shared built environment—including Gothic architecture and design—influenced stylistic developments across faiths, producing visual resonances between sacred objects. Since Jews were barred from joining professional guilds, Christian artisans often worked across Jewish and Christian communities. The same Christian masons built Prague’s Altneuschul Synagogue and the nearby Convent of St. Agnes, from which architectural fragments will be on view. Similarly, a Christian Prayer Book and an illustrated Hebrew Bible from the workshop of the late fifteenth-century Bohemian illuminator Valentine Noh will be shown together for the first time.

Against the backdrop of this shared artistic environment, ties between Christians and Jews in Central Europe often frayed. When plague swept across Europe in the late 1340s, fear and uncertainty overwhelmed already-fragile social relations. Jews were falsely accused of poisoning water wells and causing the Black Death, which led to widespread attacks, expulsions, and the destruction of long-established Jewish communities across Central Europe. Some affluent Jewish families, facing escalating threat, hid their silver, coins, and jewelry underground, including several groups of objects showcased in the exhibition. These hoards stand in stark juxtaposition to the Christian reliquaries preserved by the church with reverence over hundreds of years.

Sacred Splendor concludes in the 16th and 17th centuries when Jewish ritual life flourished, book production blossomed, and vibrant cultural exchange thrived. This period was marked by the construction of three new synagogues in Prague, the establishment of communal organizations—including the first modern burial society—and a robust Hebrew printing culture.