Stepping Back Into Byzantium: Laura

This gold, enamel and pearl image of the Archangel Michael

was made around 1200 but it looks like it was turned

out of the shop just yesterday.

One of the museums we were most looking forward to seeing on this trip was the Royal Academy of Art. It's not just that it's world-famous. It's also the fabulous Byzantium exhibit there until March. The show did not disappoint! The assemblage (works from places as far-flung as Cleveland, Athens, Moscow, Belgrade, Paris, Ukraine, Egypt, the Vatican, Oxford, Berlin, Rome, Venice, just to name a few) is so amazing that at one point, Laura asked Scott, "How in the world did they ever get permission for all these pieces at the same time?" To which Scott replied, "It IS the Royal Academy. I don't imagine you say 'no'. " The exhibit included mosaics, chandeliers, utensils, textiles, reliqueries, jewelry, ivory works and a perfume brazier (Meredith was fascinated with this piece that includes the image of a bare bottom projecting from a basket). There were also psalters, bowls, lots of icons and the Antioch Chalice, which some claim incorporates the Holy Grail itself. The narrator of the audio guide was quite hostile about all the goodies (many of the things on display today) that the Venetians carted off to Venice, but even he had to admit that they only survive to today because of the Venetian theft. In all, the exhibit included more than 300 artifacts, many of which have never been publicly exhibited. Laura loved a 2x4 foot reliquary. It looked like a curiosity cabinet with dozens of nooks surrounding a mosaic of Jesus Christ made of tiny tesseras, each of which was the size of a pinhead. Each nook contained silk-wrapped packages with tiny labels identifying some poor martyred saint. The relics themselves were fragments of bone, a vial of blood or a hank of hair. Of course, as the audio guide pointed out, some of these saints would had to have been dinosaurs given the amount of remains gathered up in various places in the Medieval world! Nonetheless, it was a fascinating (albeit a bit macabre) peek into the mindset of these Medieval people!