On February 12, 1970, the Metropolitan Museum of Art opened The Year 1200 as one of the central exhibitions of its centennial program. The exhibition, documented in two Met publications, ran through May 10 and examined Romanesque and early Gothic art around the turn of the thirteenth century. It was part of a broader anniversary cycle that used ambitious loan exhibitions, publications, lectures, and commissions to present the museum as both an encyclopedic collection and a scholarly institution. By pairing objects with a substantial catalogue and background survey, The Year 1200 helped frame medieval art not as a static prelude to the Renaissance but as a dynamic period of international artistic exchange.
The exhibition strengthened the Met's model of research-heavy, publication-led blockbuster scholarship.