Medieval art exhibitions in late 2014

We already had a chance to enjoy numerous medieval exhibitions this year - see for example my overview of exhibitions dedicated to various Holy Roman emperors -, but 2014 will close with a wonderful series of major exhibitions dedicated to the Middle Ages. I have collected information and links about the most important ones that came to my knowledge. Dear Readers, as you can see there is lots to choose from - feel free to let me know in a comment if you are planning to see some of these exhibitions. I will try to make it to Prague for the Benedictine exhibition, and will also have a chance to see two of the most famous medieval manuscripts during the Christmas holiday in New York. Here are some more details about the exhibitions, with texts copied from the various exhibition websites:

Open the Gates of Paradise - The Benedictines in the Heart of Europe, 800-1300

Prague, National Gallery (Waldstein Riding School and the Clementinum Gallery).

November 7, 2014 - March 15, 2015

"The purpose of this exhibition project is to introduce to scholars and general audiences the spiritual wealth and material culture of the Benedictine monasteries of the Early and High Middle Ages in Central Europe. The project is also intended to highlight the role of the Order of Saint Benedict in facilitating the acceptance of Christianity by the Central European nations, the adoption of Ancient Christian Mediterranean culture, and the process of the emergence and strengthening of states and statehood in Central Europe. Within this context, the term “Central Europe” is chiefly understood as the area occupied by the medieval states of Bohemia, Poland and Hungary, with the indispensable and entirely natural extension into the regions of the Holy Roman Empire. The exhibition will focus on prominent personalities of the Benedictine Order and its individual monastic centres, notably on the intermediary role they played in the cultural exchange between Western and Southern Europe, and the newly-Christianized Slavic and Hungarian territories."

The Magi. Legend, Art and Cult

Cologne, Museum Schnütgen
25 October 2014 – 25 January 2015

"In Cologne, the year 2014 will be devoted to the Magi, whose remains arrived in the cathedral city in 1164. During the Middle Ages, their relics transformed Cologne into a pilgrimage metropolis, and they became the patron saints of Cologne together with St. Ursula and St. Gereon. This is attested to by the Shrine of the Magi at Cologne Cathedral, Cologne’s coat of arms with the three crowns and numerous sculptures throughout the city.

The Museum Schnütgen has taken the anniversary as an opportunity to hold a large special exhibition. Throughout the centuries, the Magi have played a central role in art since the Three Wise Men were the first to recognise the Christ child as the Son of God. The exhibition will bring together ivories, sculptures, paintings, manuscripts and works of treasury art from Germany, France, the Netherlands, Italy and Spain that offer a particularly interesting interpretation of the subject and are artistically of especially high quality."

Saint Louis

Paris, Conciergerie

8 October 2014 - 11 January 2015

"A major exhibition entitled "Saint Louis" will be held in the Hall of Men-at-Armsat the Conciergerie from 8 October to 11 January 2015. This will be the culminating point of the events organised by the Centre des monuments nationaux to celebrate the 8th centenary of the birth of Louis IX in 1214.

At the age of 12, in 1226, Louis became King of France as Louis IX, in what went on to become one of the longest and most remarkable reigns in medieval France. He became a model and source of prestige for the kingdom and the Capetian dynasty, both as a king and as a saint subsequent to his canonisation just 27 years after his death.

Where better to understand Saint Louis and the issues that faced 13th-century France than in the Conciergerie, the royal residence on which he left his stamp and where he built his greatest masterpiece, the Sainte-Chapelle ? He was responsible for extending and embellishing the former Palais de la Cité, and for the time of the exhibition it will act as the showcase for 130 remarkable works which stand testimony to the intellectual energy and grace that invigorated Parisian art during his reign, and which are on loan from the collections of the greatest cultural institutions in France and abroad."

Exhibition on medieval Croatia at Musée de Cluny

Following an exhibition on the territory of Slovakia in the Middle Ages (D'or et de feu, 2010), as well as an exhibition at the sister museum of Musée de Cluny, the Musée national de la Renaissance at the Château d'Ecouen on Renaissance in Croatia, the Musée national du Moyen Âge now presents an exhibition on Croatia in the Middle Ages.

Starting from 1102, the kingdom of Croatia lost its sovereignty and was ruled throughout the Middle Ages and later in the form of a personal union with the Kingdom of Hungary. The northern part of present-day Croatia, Slavonia, was part of Hungary proper, while the region of Dalmatia often changed hands between Venice and Hungary. At the time of king Louis the Great, Hungarian power was restored in Dalmatia in 1358 by the Treaty of Zadar. History and art in the territory of Croatia is thus inseparably connected to the medieval Kingdom of Hungary, evidenced by various works in the treasuries of Croatia originating from the centers of the Kingdom, including royal gifts - such as the series of treasures donated to Zara/Zadar by Louis the Great and his wife, Elisabeth. The object selected for the poster of the exhibition - the 14th century mitre from the Treasury of Zagreb cathedral is just such an object, likely donated to the cathedral by Louis the Great. However, it is still not entirely sure, whether this precious work - reworked in 1549 - was originally made in Hungary or Venice. Restored during 2005, the object was also shown in the 2006 exhibition dedicated to King and Emperor Sigismund, the successor of Louis the Great.

Mitre from the Treasury of Zagreb cathedral, 14th century 

The present exhibition features about 40 select works of art, including reliquaries, illuminated manuscripts, warrior equipment, and jewellery. It was organised as part of an ongoing Croatian festival in France, called "Croatie, la voici", which runs from September 2012 to January 2013. The festival is the result of a Croatian-French strategic partnership signed in 2010 by the presidents of the two countries, and the exhibition was also opened by the presidents. The exhibition, titled "Et ils s’émerveillèrent…" - Croatie médiévale opened on.October 10, and will remain on view until January 7, 2013. The exhibition is accompanied by a small catalogue. You can read a little more on the exhibition in the official press release of the museum (pdf), or on the website of Croatian Tourism Office, but overall, very little is available on the exhibition online so far. A slideshow of the exhibition is available on the Flickr-site of the cultural festival, also embedded below.

Museums of Medieval Art

My recent visit to the Schnütgen Museum in Cologne got me thinking about museums focusing mainly on medieval art. I decided to make a brief list of such museums, with direct links to their collection databases - thousands of medieval artworks can be discovered this way.

Reliquary ('Ursulabüste'),
Museum Schnütgen, Köln 

Let's start with the Schnütgen Museum, then (Museum Schnütgen, Köln). Located in the Romanesque church of St. Cecilia, this 100 year old museum received a complete makeover, completed last year. The new entrance opens from a large hall, which is in the new building erected for the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum, a museum of world cultures. The collection of the Schnütgen Museum consists largely of Christian religious objects, ranging from the Early Christian period to the Baroque, with a strong focus on sculpture, liturgical textiles and stained glass from Cologne and the Rheinland. There is no full collection database online, and the English version of the website only provides basic information. The website however does provide a good overview of chief works on display. An audioguide to the museum is available for download - although I don't know what its purpose is without the artworks.

Lady with the Unicorn,
Musée Cluny, Paris

Maybe the most famous of all medieval art museums is the Musée Cluny in Paris - officially the Musée national du Moyen Age. Located in the building of the Gallo-Roman thermes and the 15th century Hôtel de Cluny, and surrounded by a medieval garden, visiting this museum is a unique experience. The collection ranges from late Antiquity to the late Middle Ages, and includes exceptional goldsmith works, stone sculptures from Parisian churches - such as the Notre-Dame, as well as the famous Unicorn tapestries. There is a brief overview of the collection on the museum's website, but a lot more objects and images can be found through the photo agency of the Réunion des musées nationaux (where you can search for specific objects, but also by selecting the museum on the search form). The Museum's objects are also incorporated into the French national art database, Joconde. You can select the Musée Cluny directly, or search for thousands of other medieval objects in various French collection. In addition, a fascinating resource on the museum is also available online: the catalogue of 13th century sculptures (Les sculptures du XIIIe siècle du musée de Cluny).

The Unicorn in Captivity
The Cloisters, The Metropolitan Museum

The only similar museum to the Musée Cluny is on the other side of the Atlantic, in Manhattan: The Cloisters, a branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Housed in a large pseudo-medieval structure, which contains actual chapels and cloisters shipped over from Europe, this is one of the finest collections of medieval art anywhere. The website of the Metropolitan Museum provides a lot of information on The Cloisters, and also on the medieval department, including a selection of works on view. The collection is rich in sculptures of all kind, goldsmith works, manuscripts and also includes another set of Unicorn tapestries. You can search these objects in the museum's Collection Database, which is continually growing. If you select The Cloisters from the list of collections, 2300 objects can be browsed at present (about half of which are on view). Selecting the Collection of Medieval Art from the list yields an incredible further 6700 medieval objects in the database.

You can also download the Metropolitan Museum's Resource for Educators on Medieval Art. 

I would like to mention that many other American museums made their collections accessible online. For medieval art, I would particularly recommend the database of the The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore (see also the manuscripts there!) and that of The Cleveland Museum of Art, with 1214 works online.

D'or et de feu

A new exhibition is coming to the Musée de Cluny (officially Musée national du Moyen Age) in Paris, titled "D'or et de feu" (Out of Gold and Fire - Art in Slovakia at the end of the Middle Ages), and opening on September 16th. The exhibition aims to survey the Late Gothic heritage of Slovakia, an area which formed the northern part of the Kingdom of Hungary. Organized in cooperation with the Slovak National Gallery (Bratislava), the exhibition will showcase paintings, sculpture, goldsmith works from several collections in Slovakia. As apparent from the (sub)title and the press release (pdf), the exhibition will focus mainly on the 15th century, thus the periods of King Sigismund and King Matthias, as well as the Jagiellonian rulers Vladislas II and Louis II (contrary to the press release, Hungary was of course not "part of the powerful Habsburg Empire" at that time).

A catalogue for the exhibition is in preparation. The curator representing the Slovak National Gallery is Dusan Buran, who organized the 2003 exhibition on Gothic in Slovakia and edited its catalogue. He is responsible for the permanent collection of this part of the Gallery.

More information on the exhibition will be posted here as it becomes available. You can follow the preparations on Twitter, courtesy of Musée de Cluny.