Pretty, shiny things

Last Friday, a group of us in the department went to the Medieval and Renaissance Treasures of the Victoria and Albert Museum that is currently at the AGO until its closure on Oct 7 (the whole museum is closing for some time due to construction). One of my cohorts organized our trip to the museum and I mostly went because I knew I should.

Unbeknownst to me, the V & A actually ponied up some pretty good stuff. Often on these "Treasures" exhibits, you can get a bunch of junk from storage, and one thing people actually want to see. Then I remembered, medieval stuff is ALL junk from storage since no one knows anything about the Malmsbury Casket except those of us in the field. I mean, if I said "Hey, the Soissons Diptych is in town, you should go see it!" you would look at me as if I had just grown a testicle on my face.

But the Soissons Diptych WAS in town - awesome. Not only that, the Symmachus ivory panel, the friggin Lorsch Gospel cover, a cute Medici garden putti made by Donatello (my fav!) and a really famous Mosan aquamanile. Anyway, it was like going to a concert at a crappy little club somewhere and finding out that the band on stage is the Rolling Stones.

For me anyway.