Treasures of Heaven exhibition at the British Museum

Before it closed (a couple of weeks ago) I went to see the Treasures of Heaven exhibition at the British Museum.


One of the most important displays they have ever put on, it made me think deeply about medieval religion.

Bust reliquary of St Baudine - this item once contained blood from the saint, as if they were putting the blood back into a body.

Panel (painted by Bellini) from the door of the Bessarion reliquary - a "how to" guide on how the reliquary was to be used (postures to adopt, attitudes to take, devotional aura to be expected etc).

Illuminated Life of St Edmund, wonderful glimpse of the Saxon world (a monk kneeling before an ornate structure, the tiled room worthy of World Of Interiors magazine) - writing was regarded as a form of magic in the early medieval period.

An assortment of pilgrim badges - like a collection of Pokemon.

Bernard von Breydenbach's fabulous fold-out woodcut illustrated Journey to the Holy Land - perhaps envisaged as the flash of life's experiences at the moment of death (and he was very thorough including Alexandria and Damascus).

Very fine Hinton St Mary mosaic (were those apples?), although I disagreed with the blurb on the captions in this room.

Exceptional workmanship of some gold-glass roundels, especially St Agnus.

Shrines within shrines.

Reliquaries meant to be taken into battle.

A rock crystal window to the True Cross.

Helena in a stained glass window from Tattershall.

Exquisite relics from Constantinople (looted by the crusaders) including the small gold hand of St Marina.

Beautiful gold box of the martyrs of Trebizond (did Rose Macauley ever see this item?).

Humble earthenware flask from Abu Mina in Egypt - this was one of the most evocative objects of the whole exhibition, and still exuded holiness even after all this time.

Also from Abu Mina an ivory pyxis showing the execution of St Menas (Justin Timberlake in his curly-headed period).

Superb gothic shrine of St Amandus (as always, it was the gothic items that were most thrilling).

Box-shaped marble altar with irmunsul designs at the corners.

Relics wrapped in tiny bundles and labeled with parchment.

Bell shines from Ireland.

The Hedwig Beaker as good as Lalique.

The Franks Casket, designed to hold a Biblical text (you could spend a lifetime studying this one object).

Limoges reliquary of a very stylishly dressed St Valerie.

Reliquary head of St Eustace with removable top.

One of the stars of the show was the Reliquary of the Holy Thorn.

At this point I felt all reliced-out and left the exhibition, promising myself I would go back. But I didn't. At least I have the wonderful full-colour exhibition catalogue to read and re-read.