Pilgrim Badge of St George, England, 1400-1500, Lead alloy, © The Trustees of the British Museum.

Reliquary bust of an unknown female saint, probably a companion of St Ursula, South Netherlandish, c. 1520-1530, © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Gable-end reliquary, Mosan, Belgium, c.1170, © The Trustees of the British Museum.

Portable Altar, German, 1190-1200, Copper-gilt over a wood core, limestone, painted vellum, rock crystal, walrus ivory, © The Trustees of the British Museum.

Panel of the Triumphant Christ from St Oda Reliquary, Mosan, Belgium, 12th-13th century, © The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore.

The British Museum
Great Russell Street
+44 (0)20 7323 8000
London
Round Reading Room
Treasures of Heaven:
saints, relic and devotion in medieval Europe
June 23, 2011-October 9, 2011

Treasures of Heaven explores the spiritual and artistic significance of Christian relics and reliquaries in medieval Europe. Featuring some of the finest sacred treasures of the medieval age, The exhibition gives visitors the opportunity to see objects from more than 40 institutions, many of which have not been seen in the UK before, brought together for the first time.

The exhibition draws largely on the pre-eminent collections of the British Museum, the Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio, and the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. Rare loans from the Vatican, including from the private chapel of the popes, the Sancta Sanctorum, as well as from lesser-known European church treasuries are also on display. A variety of objects such as manuscripts, prints and pilgrim badges will be exhibited alongside the relics and reliquaries themselves, adding depth and context to the exhibition’s examination of this critical aspect of European history.

The exhibition traces the development of reliquaries from simple containers housing human remains to objects of enormous ritual importance and artistic significance. While the majority of objects date from between 1000-1500 AD, some of the earliest pieces include a late Roman sarcophagus dating from 250-350 AD. Sacred items related to Christ or the saints were first used during the early medieval period as a focus for prayer and veneration by Christians throughout Europe. Relics were usually human body parts, or material items sanctified through their contact with holy persons or places. This exhibition features a very broad range of the kinds of relics which were venerated, including three thorns thought to be from the Crown of Thorns, the breast milk of the Virgin Mary, and the Mandylion of Edessa; one of the earliest known likenesses of Jesus.

The beauty of a reliquary was intended to reflect the spiritual value of what it contained, and so reliquaries were made of the highest quality, often crafted in precious metals by skilled goldsmiths. Exceptional examples include the arresting 12th century bust reliquary of St Baudime from St Nectaire in the Auvergne, which once contained a vial of the saint’s blood and is shown for the first time in Britain. Equally magnificent is the British Museum’s bejewelled Holy Thorn reliquary (1390-97) that still retains its sacred relic taken from the Crown of Thorns, set amid an enamelled representation of the Last Judgement.

During the medieval period relics and reliquaries were used in a variety of different ways, both to bolster dynastic prestige and as small-scale personal symbols kept or worn in reverence to the power of the saints. In medieval Europe the political and the religious were indivisibly linked and relics were often used to serve a purpose far beyond that of private devotion; a city’s importance could be measured by the number or significance of relics held there. This is exemplified by one of the exhibition’s prize pieces, the splendid arm reliquary of St George, which has been housed in the Treasury of St Mark’s in Venice since the Sack of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade in 1204.

Treasures of Heaven looks closely at both public and private forms of relic veneration, focusing on different ways reliquaries were used and the impact this had on their design. The objects on display range from small portable reliquaries in the form of jewellery, such as a pendant reliquary housing a single holy thorn, to large containers opulently adorned with gems, silver and gold.

The exhibition also considers the role that saints’ relics and shrines played at the centre of major sites of Christian pilgrimage throughout Europe during the medieval period. Particular attention is paid to two British saints and the cults associated with them at Durham (St Cuthbert) and Canterbury (St Thomas Becket). The lavish house-shaped shrine of St Amandus from the Walters Art Museum serves as a valuable indication of the scale and appearance of a typical saint’s shrine.

The exhibiti closes by examining anti-relic movements associated with the northern European reformation of the 16th century. It also alludes to the continuing practice of relic veneration today, exploring the spiritual relevance of relic veneration in contemporary Christian worship.
Treasures of Heaven was organised with Walters Art Museum, Baltimore and Cleveland Museum of Art.

Sponsored by John Studzinski, in association with William and Judith Bollinger, Singapore, Betsy and Jack Ryan, Howard and Roberta Ahmanson and The Hintze Family Charitable Foundation.

Reliquary statue for the umbilical cord of Christ, Paris, 1407.

Arm Reliquary of the Apostles, German, c.1190, © The Cleveland Museum of Art.

Holy thorn reliquary, Paris, France, About 130-97, Gold, enamel, rock crystal, pearls, rubies, sapphires, © The Trustees of the British Museum.