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Past Exhibitions
Set in Stone: The Face in Medieval Sculpture
September 26, 2006–February 19, 2007
Robert Lehman Wing
“Set in Stone” presents more than 80 medieval sculpted heads, half from the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art and half selected loans from American and European collections. Because historical events isolated these objects from their original settings, they became objects that could be collected, and objects whose lost histories curators and scholars would hope to recover. The exhibition considers several artistic and historic themes, including: the destruction of statues as an act of iconoclasm, the evolving notions of the “portrait,” the use of science in the search for provenance, and more. Created from materials as diverse as marble, limestone, polychromed wood, and silver gilt, the carved heads date from the third century A.D. through the early 1500s and represent French, German, Italian, Spanish, Byzantine, English, and other medieval sculptural traditions. The exhibition draws together science, connoisseurship, archaeology, and history to examine these stunning works from different points of reference. Accompanied by a catalogue. The exhibition is made possible by The Florence Gould Foundation. Additional support is provided by the Michel David-Weill Fund.
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