Treasures from the V&A 400-1600AD features shining examples of Medieval and Renaissance sculpture, metalwork and ceramics.

Download a podcast tour of the exhibition to you own computer or portable music player. Left click on the following link and hit 'save target as': Podcast tour of Treasures from the V&A 400-1600AD

It was a period when artists fashioned awe-inspiring symbols of human wealth, power and religion, whether created to adorn the altars of Europe's most beautiful churches or the homes of its richest families.

A major international tour comes to an end at Museums Sheffield this January as works from one of the world's finest collections of European decorative arts go on display at the Millennium Gallery.

Sheffield is the only UK date for the exhibition which presents a rare opportunity to see highlights from the V&A's collections outside London before they go on display as part of its newly-refurbished Medieval and Renaissance galleries opening in November.

It is the last date of an international tour and comes directly from the USA where it was seen at New York's Metropolitan Museum.

Highlights include the Symmachi Panel, a fifth-century Roman ivory carving which went on to form the doors of a 13th-century shrine until its destruction during the French Revolution, only to be rediscovered in the mid 1800s, and the Reliquary Casket of St Thomas Becket, circa 1180, an ornate gilt-copper and champlevé enamelled chest depicting the bloody dispatch of the English Archbishop that once housed his relics.

That is displayed prominently as you enter the gallery, along with the equally eye-catching Dragon Aquamanile in gilded copper alloy with niello and silver overlay made in the Low Counties around 1120.

Inside, the exhibition is divided into three strands – Piety and Devotion, Status and Display and the Secular World.

In the first section are works commissioned for churches or for chapels of private homes.



Thanks to the dissolution of the monasteries there is a lack of British examples, although one exception is a senser and incense boat which was later found in a bog in Huntingdonshire and assumed to be from nearby Ramsey Abbey.

The three parts are not strict definitions and some items could just as easily qualify for another category, explained curator Clara Morgan.

On the wall of Status and Display is The Winged Putto with Fantastic Fish by Donatello from 1435, which was part of a fountain (water flowed from the fish's mouth and the penis of the cherub, but alas not in this exhibition) and thought to be commissioned for the garden of a Medici villa.

Among the most treasured of the treasures is Leonardo Da Vinci's Codex Forster 1, dating from the late 1400s and an excellent example of the celebrated notebooks featuring Leonardo's distinctive 'mirror script'.

Despite the presence of these big name artists, most of the makers remain anonymous because it is only comparatively recently that the reputation of the artist enhanced the status of the person commissioning it.

And the material used as much as the craftsman commissioned could be a signal of wealth, said Clara Morgan, pointing to the Salamander Pendant with enamelled gold, pearls and an emerald from the late 16th century. "There was local legislation determining that only high status people could wear pearls."

Complementing the V&A's exhibits is a selection of works from Museums Sheffield's own collections from the period as well as significant loans from national and local collections. Most notably, these will include pieces from nearby Beauchief Abbey as well objects relating to Manor Lodge and Sheffield Castle and the incarceration there of Mary Queen of Scots during the mid-16th century.

"She was probably the person of highest status to live in Sheffield so it seemed appropriate to focus on her," explained Morgan.

The V&A provided items relating to Mary from its own collection especially for the Millennium Gallery such as letters, tapestry and a miniature portrait by Nicholas Hilliard, thought to have been painted during her time here.

There is also a display relating to Bishops' House.

"William Blythe, who lived there, might not have been as high status as some of the great Europeans but in the Sheffield of the time he was successful and wealthy, as shown in the inventory of his possessions we have borrowed from Lichfield Archives (because the house was then in Derbyshire) and being shown in the city for the first time.

"We hope that by showing objects from Sheffield in the same time frame will encourage people to think of their own history and to treasure these things as much as the shiny European stuff."

Treasures from the V&A 400 – 1600AD is at the Millennium Gallery until May 25.

Download a podcast tour of the exhibition to you own computer or portable music player. Left click on the following link and hit 'save target as': Podcast tour of Treasures from the V&A 400-1600AD

You can also listen to the tour online by clicking the green play button.


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