This year opens with a number of exhibitions on medieval matters of the more esoteric kind. Autumn will bring a major exhibition in Paris on the Merovingians.
The Art of Food for Festivals
Elaborate artworks made of food were created for royal court and civic celebrations in early modern Europe. Like today’s Rose Bowl Parade on New Year’s Day or Mardi Gras just before Lent, festivals were times for exuberant parties. Public celebrations and street parades featured large-scale edible monuments made of breads, cheeses, and meats. At court festivals, banquet settings and dessert buffets displayed magnificent table monuments with heraldic and emblematic themes made of sugar, flowers, and fruit. The exhibition features rare books and prints, including early cookbooks and serving manuals that illustrate the methods and materials for making edible monuments. A caralogue accompanies the exhibition.
The Edible Monument: The Art of Food for Festivals
Getty Museum, Los Angeles
13.10. 2015 – 13.03 2016
One God – Abraham on the Nile.
It is often claimed that the God of Jews, Christians and Muslims is none other than the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Major exhibition at the Bode Museum in Berlin focus on the common destiny of people living together in Egypt from Roman times to the end of the Fatimid Rulers in the 12th century. More than 150 objects are exhibited forging an understanding of what the organisers characterise as “the peaceful coexistence of the three religions” in Egypt in Antiquity and the Early Medieval period.
EIN GOTT – Abrahams Erben am Nil. Juden, Christen und Muslime in Ägypten von der Antike bis zum Mittelalter
BODE-MUSEUM, Berlin
01.12.2015 – 30.04.2016
The World in Play: Luxury Cards, 1430–1540
Only three decks of European hand-painted playing cards are known to have survived from the late Middle Ages. These include The Cloisters Playing Cards, which will form the core of this small exhibition highlighting one of the more intriguing works of secular art from The Cloisters Collection. Examples of cards from the earliest hand-painted woodblock deck as well as fifteenth-century German engraved cards, north Italian tarot cards of the same period, and the finest deck from the early sixteenth century will complete the display. Collectively, the figures and scenes depicted on these cards reflect changing worldviews during a period of tumultuous social, economic, and religious change, charting the transition from late medieval to early modern Europe. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue. On the website a generous number of illustrations have been made available, perfect to use for designing outfits for living historians and reenactors
The World in Play: Luxury Cards, 1430–1540
The Cloisters, New York
20.01.2016 – 17.04.2016
Traversing the Globe through Illuminated Manuscripts
Embark on a kaleidoscopic journey through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance to consider how illuminated manuscripts and other portable objects—like ceramics, textiles, glassworks, gems, and sculptures—contributed to one’s outlook on the world in Europe, Africa, Asia, and the early Americas. Drawn primarily from the Getty’s collection of illuminated manuscripts, with complementary loans from collections across Los Angeles, the exhibition presents stunning and at times surprising images and a range of ideas about exploration, exotic pursuits, and cross-cultural exchanges in the then-known world.
Traversing the Globe through Illuminated Manuscripts
Getty Museum, Los Angeles
26.01.2016 – 26.06.2016
Celts
In March the major exhibition on the Celts, which has been organised in partnership between British Museum and the National Museum of Scotland moves to Edinburgh. However, the exhibition is changed slightly on the way and rumour has it the exhibition will be less “postmodern” and more “factual. Probably a special trip to the North will be worth the expense for anyone fascinated by the world of the Celts.
Celts
National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh
10.03.2016 – 25.09.2016
Enamels from Limoges as profane décor
Cardinal Guala Bicchieri (c. 1150 – 1227) was an Italian diplomat and papal official, and cardinal. He was the papal legate in England from 1216 to 1218, and took a prominent role in the politics of England during King John’s last years and Henry III’s early minority. But he was also a great collector of enamels from Limoges and is famous for the walnut trunk decorated with medallions, which was made for him in the beginning of the 13th century. Due to an exceptional loan from the Palazzo Madama-Museo Civico d’Arte in Turin, Musee de Cluny in Paris has been able to mount an important exhibition showcasing the use of such enamels in a profane context. More than 40 works will be displayed illustrating the aristocratic culture of the 12th and 13th centuries.
Les émaux de Limoges à décor profane. Autour des collections du cardinal Guala Bicchieri
Musee du Cluny in Paris
13.04.2016 – 29.08.2016
A Brief History of Underwear
The V&A will be sorting through its smalls in April for an exhibition that examines the history of underwear through the centuries. More than 100 men’s and women’s garments and accessories, as well as photographs, films, packaging and fashion plates, will be on show. To what extent medieval underwear will be on show is not at present known. However, the V&A possess a collection of shirts from the 16th century. Hopefully some of those will be pulled out from storage.
Undressed: A Brief History of Underwear
Victoria & Albert Museum, London
16.04.2016 – 12.03.2017
Eva’s Beauty Case – jewelry and styling Through the Ages
The LVR-Landesmuseum in Bonn owns one of the most important collections of Roman jewelery north of the Alps as well as one of the largest and most important collections of early medieval jewellery. “Eva’s Beauty Case” invites you to experience the many facets of the struggle for human beauty: The exhibition spans a number of unique cultures and epochs from the Stone Age to the present day and presents a unique opportunity to look at gems, hairstyles, jewellery and make-up utensils through history.
Eva’s Beauty Case: Schmuck und Styling im Spiegel der Zeiten
LWR-Landesmuseum Bonn
09.06.2016 – 22.01.2017
Opus Anglicanum: Masterpieces of English Medieval Embroidery
From the 12th to the 15th centuries, England was internationally famous for one type of artistic product – elaborate luxury embroideries. These objects, were sought after by Kings, Popes and Cardinals, and often bear elaborate imagery. This exhibition aims to bring together an outstanding range of the surviving examples of this celebrated period in England’s artistic production to both highlight the exquisite craftsmanship and to explore the world in which they were created. Alongside the magnificent embroideries, many from the V&A’s own collection, will be related material in other media such as paintings, manuscripts, metalwork and sculpture.
Opus Anglicanum: Masterpieces of English Medieval Embroidery
Victoria & Albert Museum, London
01.10.2016 – 05.02.2017
Merovingian Times
Autumn will see a major exhibition mounted at the Musee de Cluny in Paris showing the art and culture of France in Merovingian times, ca. 500 -800. The exhibition will be mounted in collaboration with RMN-GP (Grand Palais). On show will be precious illuminated manuscripts, the throne of Dagobert, silverware and other incredible treasures which are very seldom on view for reasons of preservation.
Les temps mérovingiens. Trois siècles d’art et de culture en gaule franque
Musee du Cluny, Paris
19.10.2016 – 30.01.2017