British Museum's Medieval Europe Gallery: a golden compass to a dark age
The first thing you see as you walk into the magnificent new medieval gallery at the British Museum is a vast hoard of gold coins. Displayed in a deep, haphazard pile glinting in the spotlights, they are so striking that you have to fight the urge to sink your hands in and feel the sensation of ancient gold running through your fingers.
The coins, 1,273 of them, are from the Fishpool hoard, discovered along with various items of jewellery in 1966 during building works in the village of Fishpool in Nottinghamshire. According to James Robinson, the curator of the show and author of a splendid accompanying book, the hoard could have been part of a fund raised by Margaret of Anjou in support of her husband, the deposed Lancastrian King Henry VI, and deposited during the Wars of the Roses.
Medieval England enjoyed a highly sophisticated visual culture. Regular processions, ceremonies and rituals allowed colourful displays of ornaments and ritual objects designed to project the power and mystique of the royal family and the nobility on to the minds of the people.
The British Museum owns one of the pre-eminent collections of medieval art, artefacts and archaeological pieces in the world. For 25 years it has been languishing in an uninspiring gallery that many visitors unfortunately treated as the corridor on the way to the Egyptian section.
Now the collection, which includes the famous Royal Gold Cup, the beautiful Dunstable Swan Jewel and many other unique works, is being redisplayed in a renovated first-floor gallery (formerly used for storage). It has been given the space, the context and the focus to show a degree of sophistication that may surprise many.
Read entire article at Times (UK)
The coins, 1,273 of them, are from the Fishpool hoard, discovered along with various items of jewellery in 1966 during building works in the village of Fishpool in Nottinghamshire. According to James Robinson, the curator of the show and author of a splendid accompanying book, the hoard could have been part of a fund raised by Margaret of Anjou in support of her husband, the deposed Lancastrian King Henry VI, and deposited during the Wars of the Roses.
Medieval England enjoyed a highly sophisticated visual culture. Regular processions, ceremonies and rituals allowed colourful displays of ornaments and ritual objects designed to project the power and mystique of the royal family and the nobility on to the minds of the people.
The British Museum owns one of the pre-eminent collections of medieval art, artefacts and archaeological pieces in the world. For 25 years it has been languishing in an uninspiring gallery that many visitors unfortunately treated as the corridor on the way to the Egyptian section.
Now the collection, which includes the famous Royal Gold Cup, the beautiful Dunstable Swan Jewel and many other unique works, is being redisplayed in a renovated first-floor gallery (formerly used for storage). It has been given the space, the context and the focus to show a degree of sophistication that may surprise many.