Of Earth and Heaven: Art from the Middle Ages

"Of Earth and Heaven: Art from the Middle Ages" will highlight Europe’s artistic flowering between the 12th and 16th centuries, bringing together many of the finest masterpieces of Medieval and Renaissance art still in private hands. A fully illustrated catalogue will be available at the time of the exhibition.

The centerpiece of the exhibition will be three monumental sections of carved stonework from the south transept window of Canterbury Cathedral, one of the most important pilgrimage sites in Europe. The window was designed by Thomas Mapilton (d. 1438), a master mason who worked on Westminster Abbey and the Tower of London prior to his appointment at Canterbury. The window, made from limestone specially quarried at Caen in Normandy, France in 1428, was one of the most ambitious projects of English Gothic architecture, filling almost the entire height and width of the cathedral’s vast south transept.

The exhibition will also feature a carefully selected group of paintings, sculptures, and goldsmith’s work. Highlights will include an extraordinary stained-glass window depicting the Creation of the World and the Expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, painted in 1533 by the celebrated Renaissance glass-painter Valentin Bousch. There will also be one of the most significant Netherlandish paintings to emerge onto the market in decades: a large painted triptych dedicated to the Virgin and Child which retains its wings and original frame. Among the small-scale treasury objects to be presented is a precious 13th-century Limoges reliquary chasse, outstanding in its nearly pristine gilded decoration.

Sam Fogg’s experience with the finest Spanish art of the Middle Ages will also be highlighted with a life-size corpus of Christ in carved and polychromed wood, and a massive panel painting of Saint Christopher by the Valencian painter Nicolás Falcό, measuring over nine feet in height.

A one-day symposium, Collecting Medieval Art: Past, Present and Future, will take place off-site as part of the exhibition on Saturday, January 27, 10am – 5pm.