wes_von_papineäu
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SUN-SENTINEL (Fort Lauderdale, Florida) 12 November 07 The Norton gets medieval in new exhibit (Emma Trelles) {Excerpts}
The journal is a modest size, the right fit for a hand or the pocket of a robe. At times, Leonardo da Vinci kept it tied to a rope around his waist, close enough so that, at any moment, an epiphany could be recorded in his minuscule script. In the late 15th century, when the two notebooks in this volumewere compiled, da Vinci was particularly taken with the precise shapes and equations of geometry, and pentagons can be noted floating among his prose, which he shaped in neatly arrayed blocks, written backward from right to left because he was left-handed, and it was easier that way.
…
How he hashed out this and other ideas can now be viewed first hand at the Norton Museum of Art, along with 43 other objects culled from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, including bronze and copper sculpture, ivory carvings and statuettes, stained glass and enamel.
The Norton hosts the show's U.S. premiere, which holds works from the V&A's medieval and Renaissance galleries (currently closed and under revision). A trip to the Norton, or one of the four subsequent cities to offer the exhibit, is the only shot at seeing any of the London museum's artifacts from this era until 2009. This intimate gathering of rarities, dating from 400 to 1600, is not only exquisitely crafted but reveals the histories of those who made and owned them.
…
The exhibit is divided into three portions: status and display, piety and devotion and the secular world. All of the pieces in the show were originally crafted for medieval churches and chapels, or for the homes and personal use of affluent collectors, for whom these objects denoted rank and wealth.
One such stunning example is a salamander pendant crafted in Western Europe in the late 16th century. It reveals the tastes of the haute monde with its two large baroque pearls — considered more valuable than diamonds during this time. Salamanders were once thought of as a symbol of immortality, so the pendant might very well been given as a token of love and worn dangling from a chain or pinned to a sleeve.
Yet this piece also holds economic and even regional significance: In an effort to curtail public spending, the Republic of Venice deemed pearls as exclusively suitable for married women, and only then during the initial 15 years of their first marriage.
…
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/features/sfl-enmedievalnbnov11,0,7856537.story
The journal is a modest size, the right fit for a hand or the pocket of a robe. At times, Leonardo da Vinci kept it tied to a rope around his waist, close enough so that, at any moment, an epiphany could be recorded in his minuscule script. In the late 15th century, when the two notebooks in this volumewere compiled, da Vinci was particularly taken with the precise shapes and equations of geometry, and pentagons can be noted floating among his prose, which he shaped in neatly arrayed blocks, written backward from right to left because he was left-handed, and it was easier that way.
…
How he hashed out this and other ideas can now be viewed first hand at the Norton Museum of Art, along with 43 other objects culled from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, including bronze and copper sculpture, ivory carvings and statuettes, stained glass and enamel.
The Norton hosts the show's U.S. premiere, which holds works from the V&A's medieval and Renaissance galleries (currently closed and under revision). A trip to the Norton, or one of the four subsequent cities to offer the exhibit, is the only shot at seeing any of the London museum's artifacts from this era until 2009. This intimate gathering of rarities, dating from 400 to 1600, is not only exquisitely crafted but reveals the histories of those who made and owned them.
…
The exhibit is divided into three portions: status and display, piety and devotion and the secular world. All of the pieces in the show were originally crafted for medieval churches and chapels, or for the homes and personal use of affluent collectors, for whom these objects denoted rank and wealth.
One such stunning example is a salamander pendant crafted in Western Europe in the late 16th century. It reveals the tastes of the haute monde with its two large baroque pearls — considered more valuable than diamonds during this time. Salamanders were once thought of as a symbol of immortality, so the pendant might very well been given as a token of love and worn dangling from a chain or pinned to a sleeve.
Yet this piece also holds economic and even regional significance: In an effort to curtail public spending, the Republic of Venice deemed pearls as exclusively suitable for married women, and only then during the initial 15 years of their first marriage.
…
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/features/sfl-enmedievalnbnov11,0,7856537.story