Treasures In Heaven

Gold, Jewels Adorn Exhibits of Sacred Body Parts in London: Martin Gayford

“Treasures of Heaven,” an excellent new exhibition at the British Museum in London , is full of precious objects. Gold and jewels glitter in dramatic lighting.

To the original makers and owners, however, it wasn’t the value of these sumptuous containers that counted but what was within: dry bones, splinters of wood and sundry organic remains.

This is about the cult of relics, one of the strangest aspects of Christianity to those who are non-Christians (and to quite a few who are). Some of the exhibits, leaving aside the fact that they are masterpieces of medieval craft, are surreal.

A life-size silver gilt representation of a head, made around 1210 perhaps in Basel, contains nine pieces of human skull. Allegedly, these belonged to St. Eustace, a Roman general who converted to Christianity after seeing a crucifix between the antlers of a stag.

Stranger still is a “Reliquary of the Foot of St. Blaise” -- a 4th-century bishop from Armenia . It’s a highly realistic model from c. 1260 of what jazz pianist Fats Waller called “the pedal extremities” of the saint from the ankle down, fashioned from metals and rock crystal.

A few of the items on view go beyond mere oddity into the territory of Harry Potter . Toward the end of the show you come across the “Griffin’s Claw of St. Cuthbert.” A griffin is a mythological creature, half-eagle, half-lion. Its claws could only be obtained by a holy person in exchange for medical assistance. In 1385, St. Cuthbert’s shrine in Durham Cathedral had two of them, plus some griffin eggs. Disappointingly, the talon on display turns out to be the horn of an ibex.

All of this -- from the point of view of the 21st century, or even of a 16th-century Protestant reformer -- can seem foreign to the point of being exotic. If you want to understand art and life in the Middle Ages, however, knowing about relics is important. They weren’t just an eccentric detail of medieval religion. The power of saintly bones was a driving force.

The great Gothic and Romanesque churches had, at their heart, almost always a shrine full of bones (or, perhaps, some other holy remnant such as a piece of the True Cross or the Crown of Thorns). These were the magnets for pilgrims, and a source of revenue as important as the modern tourist industry. The economy and political power of Rome from the late Roman Empire to the Counter-Reformation was partly derived from the fact that the city held the largest repositories of saintly bones in Christendom.

Installing Treasures of Heaven « British Museum blog

Morn Capper, British Museum

As Icelandic ash clouds threatened to delay the main shipments, my Treasures of Heaven installation with the Museum Assistant team began eventfully. I need not have worried. Customs delays merely allowed us to make an especially large mountain of tissue balls with which to safely pack objects. By the evening, our lorry finally arrived back at the Museum and the crates were safely unloaded and locked away until morning.

Starting early on day two with British Museum objects, crates were opened and parcels unwrapped, as every object was examined to ensure it had survived the flight from the USA intact.

First paperwork: despite their apparently good condition, these irreplaceable treasures are hundreds of years old, and each has instructions for care and display. Relics and reliquaries also have an unusual mixture of materials. Precious metals like gold and silver prefer dry conditions, while organic materials like wood, bone and ivory need carefully conditioned humidity to stop them cracking.

Then the excitement: under the watchful eyes of the exhibition curator, James Robinson, I unwrapped the head of St Eustace – a British Museum object which has been on tour around the world – from the special intercept material which prevents him from tarnishing and carefully compared each gem, rivet, dent and scratch to the record photos to make sure he had returned safely. Satisfied, James signed St Eustace back into British Museum hands. Senior Museum Assistant, Jim Peters was given the nerve-wracking task of carrying the Holy Thorn Reliquary – a 700 year-old object made for the French royal family – across the Great Court and into the exhibition space.

Immediately, couriers from across the globe began to arrive, co-ordinated by Project Manager Rachel. Curators from Cleveland and Baltimore were joined by conservator Larry Becker from the Metropolitan Museum, New York, with the St Ursula companion: the face on every British Museum poster for the exhibition. Specialist British Museum conservators advised on their care.

Once these couriers leave site the display cases containing their objects cannot be reopened and with Museum Assistant Sam co-ordinating the effort the team had to work late into the night.

Each pin holding such relics as the sixth century necklace from Cleveland or the skull fragment of St Thomas Becket from Stonyhurst College, was expertly positioned, tested and sheathed in plastic.

Treasures in heaven, a novel

Treasures in Heaven, Armenian illuminated manuscripts

Treasures in heaven, as told to B.W. Corpany and Hal Donaldson

Treasures in Heaven; Designed for the Instruction and Encouragement of Young Latter-Day Saints

Treasures in Heaven