Leonardo's Codex Forster demonstrates his mirror-writing abilities in the exhibition. Pic © V&A Images/Victoria and Albert Museum
Exhibition Preview: Treasures from the V&A 400 – 1600 AD, Millennium Gallery, Sheffield, January 29 – May 25 2009
Treasures from the V&A has been on an international tour recently, taking in the likes of New York and Atlanta ahead of a permanent settlement in the new Medieval and Renaissance galleries opening at its host museum in the autumn.
The Symmachi Panel dates from about 400 AD. Pic © V&A Images/Victoria and Albert Museum
Sheffield will be the only UK stop the small but impressive display makes before then, featuring sculpture, metalwork and ceramics from 12 centuries of European craftsmanship starting in around 400 AD.
Christ Feeding the Five Thousand emanates from late 12th century France, cast in pot-metal glass with painted details. Pic © V&A Images/Victoria and Albert Museum
A notebook by Leonardo da Vinci showcases his ability to fluently jot scriptures readable only when held in the mirror for most mere mortals (a product of abnormal brain composition), and the Reliquary Casket of St Thomas Beckett, dating from around 1180, is a gilt copper chest depicting the “bloody dispatch” of the English Archbishop.
A gilt bronze prophet believed to date from between 1550 and 1620. Pic © V&A Images/Victoria and Albert Museum
The Symmachi Panel is a Roman ivory carving from the 5th century, waiting several hundred years for its part in a 13th century shrine, only to be destroyed during the French Revolution and rediscovered in the mid 1800s.
The Reliquary Casket of St Thomas Becket dates from the 12th century. Pic © V&A Images/Victoria and Albert Museum
A selection of works from Museums Sheffield’s own collections from the period, including artefacts from Sheffield’s Premonstratensian Beckett-honouring Beauchief Abbey and the incarceration of Mary, Queen of Scots at Sheffield Castle, will also be on view.
A Dragon Aquamanile is crafted in gilded copper alloy with niello (a black metal alloy used to fill incised designs on silver), originating from Belgium or Germany. Pic © V&A Images/Victoria and Albert Museum
Keep up to date with 24 Hour Museum's exhibition news, reviews and previews with iGoogle - a more personal way to use Google.com
