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The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) has an overflowing cornucopia of exhibits this summer to give art lovers a taste of what is in store for them once the gallery reopens in its new shape in 2008. Five different exhibits, four of which will be reviewed here, are already up and will remain open to the public until the AGO closes its doors in October to install its new gallery spaces created by Frank Gehry. The fifth display, Treasures of the Tsimshian from the Dundas Collection, will open on July 18. It heralds the return to Canada of major First Nations objects after being in private foreign hands for 150 years.
London's Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) has sent 35 medieval and Renaissance treasures to the AGO, which range from about 300 AD to 1600. What is of particular interest is a personal codex by Leonardo da Vinci, but by no means to only object that is desirous of our attention. The variety of the mostly small-scale objects is astounding as is their beauty. On entering this exhibit, the eye falls immediately on two similar enameled Limoges reliquary caskets dating to around 1180-90. One was dedicated to St. Thomas ?Becket, and at one time probably contained some bone fragments of the slain archbishop of Canterbury. Next to it stands the Malmesbury Ch鈙se, which once rested in the now ruined cathedral in that Wiltshire town that no longer has the same importance that it had in the 12th century. The Malmesbury casket is the only object in the show that did not come from the V&A. It is on loan to the AGO from the [Kenneth] Thomson Collection. The late newspaper magnate had always hoped that these two pieces would one day be shown side-by-side. One can see why. They are absolutely stunning pieces of decorative art, executed with imagination and fine detail. St. Thomas Becket Casket Click images to enlargeSt. Peter Stained Glass
The three oldest items in this display are the Symmachi Panel, carved from ivory around 400 AD, and two Anglo-Saxon brooches made of gold and silver from about 600 AD. The ivory panel is part of a diptych that once belonged to the Roman Symmachi family (the other is in a French museum), who apparently still followed pagan rites at a time when Christianity became the dominant religion in the Roman Empire. It is exquisitely carved. The brooches display the skills of Anglo-Saxon goldsmiths of Kent, who decorated these two brooches with filigree and garnet inlays.