Displaying items by tag: medieval

Likely created in 1240 for King Louis IX of France, the Crusader Bible originally had no text, designed to appeal to a largely illiterate population. Biblical characters are depicted in guises familiar to medieval Europeans, including battling armored knights brandishing arms, and the setting is 13th century French villages and castles.

The Crusader Bible does not illustrate the entire Bible, but rather 346 episodes from Genesis, Exodus, Joshua, Judges, Ruth and Samuel.

A rare surviving English medieval panel painting has been given a new lease of life after conservation at the Hamilton Kerr Institute, Cambridge. Remarkably, new evidence found by conservators shows the painting owes its survival to recycling during the Protestant Reformation of the Church in England.

Now on display at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, The Kiss of Judas, is one of the rarest artworks of its type.

Nicolas M. Salgo (1914-2005), a Hungarian native and former United States ambassador to Budapest, was fascinated by the art of the goldsmith in Hungarian culture and formed his own “treasury” by collecting pieces that are individual and unique. "Hungarian Treasure: Silver from the Nicolas M. Salgo Collection" will celebrate the gift to The Metropolitan Museum of Art of the major part of the silver collection assembled by this focused collector over three decades.

This large collection of silver—about 120 pieces, most dating from the 15th to the late 18th century—comprises a variety of types with especially refined appearance and high levels of craftsmanship, representing Hungarian silver at its best. The earliest works in the Salgo collection are medieval: seven objects, including two rare chalices with mastered filigree enameling.

The collector, scholar and legendary gossip Horace Walpole woke one morning in June 1764 in the extraordinary fantasy home he had created near the Thames, west of London.

Strawberry Hill had – and now has again after years of careful restoration – roof, battlement and mantelpieces bristling with spires and gargoyles, stairs and bookcases copied from the tombs of medieval kings. Its passageways and library ceilings were embellished with imagined ancestors, and windows glitter with stained glass collected by the crate load from across Europe.

The heirs of Nazi-era Jewish art dealers say they have filed a lawsuit in the U.S. suing Germany and a German museum for the return of a medieval treasure trove worth an estimated $226 million.

The suit, which attorneys said was filed late Monday in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., is the latest salvo in a long-running campaign by the heirs for return of the so-called Welfenschatz, or Guelph Treasure — which they claim their ancestors sold under Nazi pressure.

A leading Italian art restorer has denied his team has permanently damaged a series of medieval frescoes by Giotto and other artists.

Sergio Fusetti, lead restorer at the Basilica of Saint Francis in Assisi, said claims by an expert reported in the Italian press over damage to the frescoes were completely unfounded.

“The problem doesn’t exist. We carry out regular checks and maintenance, taking off the hard dust that’s been deposited on the frescoes. We have never done anything without the authorisation from the superintendency, which is the culture ministry in the territory,” he told the Guardian.

A Spanish court sentenced a man on Wednesday to 10 years in prison for crimes including the theft of a priceless medieval document considered the first guidebook to Spain's Saint James pilgrimage trail.

Police recovered the unique 12th-century manuscript in July 2012, a year after it was found to have gone missing from a safe in the famous cathedral of the northwestern city of Santiago de Compostela.

Judges in a court in the nearby city of La Coruna said in a written ruling that they "consider it proven" that an electrician who worked for years at the cathedral, Manuel Fernandez Castineiras, stole the manuscript.

Just days after four Magna Cartas were united for the first time in 800 years at the British Library in London, another ancient version of the document has been discovered by chance in a medieval coastal town in England.

Mark Bateson, an archivist in Sandwich, southern England, found the previously unknown version of the Magna Carta -- which established the principle that everybody, including the king, was subject to the law -- after historian Nicholas Vincent had asked him to look for a separate document dealing with a local forest that he was researching.

Recent additions of artwork representing medieval Europe, the Ancient Americas, 20th-century photography, and contemporary art further enhance the Cleveland Museum of Art’s permanent collection. World-renowned for its quality and breadth, the collection represents almost 45,000 objects and 6,000 years of achievement in the arts.

The latest acquisitions include a Virgin and Child, a rare 13th-century wooden sculpture from the Mosan region of Europe; a Standing Female Figure, a clay figure representative of the Classic Veracruz period on Mexico’s Gulf Coast; and Just the two of us, one of contemporary artist Julia Wachtel’s first paintings to employ cartoons. The museum also announced the addition of eight photographs by Ansel Adams, a gift from Frances P. Taft, a longtime museum supporter and trustee.

Murals of "national importance" by war artist Evelyn Gibbs have been uncovered and repaired as part of the restoration of a Medieval church. The paintings were thought to have been destroyed during 1972 modernizations, but were discovered by electricians prior to the work starting.

A celebration event was held at St Martin's Church in Bilborough, Nottingham, on Saturday. The Heritage Lottery Fund gave £744,100 towards the restoration.