Return to Medieval and Renaissance Treasures from the Victoria and Albert Museum
This is one of two panels (the other survives in the Musée National du Moyen Âge5Thermes de Cluny, Paris) originally hinged to form a diptych. Inscribed on the ivories are the names of two pagan aristocratic Roman familiesEthe Symmachi on this panel and the Nichomachi on the Paris panel. The diptych may have been commissioned to commemorate a marriage between them. Both panels show priestesses performing pagan rituals. Here a priestess stands before an altar sprinkling incense on a fire.
These ivories once decorated the front cover of a luxurious copy of the Gospels made for the abbey of Lorsch, Germany, which was patronized by Charlemagne. The Virgin and Child are flanked by Saint John the Baptist on the left and the prophet Zacharias on the right. Above, two angels bear a medallion of Christ, and the Nativity and the Annunciation to the Shepherds appear below. The back cover (now in the Vatican) shows Christ between two archangels.
An aquamanile is an animal- or human-shaped vessel for pouring water used in the washing of hands, an essential component of religious and secular rituals in medieval society. The word derives from the Latin words for water (aqua) and hand (manus).This aquamanile, inspired by textile designs from the Near East, is perhaps the earliest surviving Western example. It is both beautiful and witty, as waterErather than fireEpoured from the dragon's mouth.
This panel and the three that follow it are from three windows of a church in Troyes, in the Champagne region of France. The vivid images tell stories about Jesus and the saints. The panels represent the Feeding of the Five Thousand, the story of St. Nicholas being chosen as bishop of Myra, and two Temptations of Christ.
This moving image was probably once part of a crucifix that would have been placed on an altar, where only the officiating priest could have seen the exquisite carving.The sculptor, Giovanni Pisano, was one of the leading artists in Tuscany. His workshop also produced monumental works in marble and a number crucifixes in wood.
Although only about sixty examples of the ceramic known as Saint-Porchaire survive, the Museum's Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts includes seven other examples, on view in the French Renaissance galleries. Using clay from the region of Deux-Sèvres, potters combined eclectic sources from architecture, prints, and metalwork to create these whimsical works.
This figure, along with with the one that follows, belonged to an altar memorial dedicated to Christoph Fugger (152051579), a member of an Augsburg banking family. The monument reflected family piety and wealth as well as its patron's innovative artistic taste. The dynamic poses of both of these statuettesEtwo of the finest German bronzes of the periodEowe much to the influence of the classicizing sculpture that Hubert Gerhard had seen during his stay in Florence.
Donatello, the greatest and most innovative sculptor of his day, probably made this classically inspired and playful fountain figure for one of the Medici gardens. Jets of water would have sprayed from the mouth of the fish and the penis of the putto, who probably played with a waterwheel (now missing) with his right hand.
This finely worked mirror back is decorated with a satyr holding a cup (left) and a bacchante pressing milk from her breast (right). It was intended as an allegory of procreation, suggesting that it may have been an intimate and expensive wedding gift that alluded to the desire to bear healthy sons. The Latin inscription at the base translates: "Nature encourages what necessity demands." With a goldsmith's precision, the artist covered the surface with profuse motifs, many studied from classical gems.
Leonardo's notebooks reveal the extraordinary range of his interests and pursuits. He described himself as a "disciple of experience" and stressed the importance of verifying knowledge through the senses. This volume contains two notebooks, subsequently bound together, that reflect Leonardo's fascination with mathematics, especially geometry. In this opening folio, he examines a method for calculating the dimensions of a body as its length and volume are decreased to a given size and how "to make a pair of compasses diminish or increase a part of their measurement with equal proportion in each part." In the exhibition galleries, the codex is opened to a different folio.