The Wyvern Collection, one of the most significant private collections of medieval art, brings together works from Africa, Asia, and Europe that shed light on the artistic developments and interconnected cultures of the Middle Ages, over the millennium between the sixth and sixteenth century. Devotional paintings from Ethiopia and Belgium, lusterware ceramics from Persia and Spain, and images of kings, dragons, and martyred saints demonstrate the powerful and prolific visual culture of the medieval world.
The selected works in this exhibition offer new insights into the medieval past and our connections to it. Several themes have guided the arrangement of the works on view: artistic media and techniques typical of medieval Europe, networks of exchange that spanned continents and promoted a flourishing and rich artistic environment, and the ways in which medieval people used the visual arts to create communities and define themselves. Points of contact between individual works transcend and expand these themes, and suggest new connections and relationships awaiting our discovery.
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