Open: Tue-Sat 10am-6pm

17 White Street, NY 10013, New York, United States
Open: Tue-Sat 10am-6pm


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Treasures of the Medieval World

Luhring Augustine Tribeca, New York

Fri 31 Jan 2025 to Sat 8 Mar 2025

17 White Street, NY 10013 Treasures of the Medieval World

Tue-Sat 10am-6pm

In conjunction with Sam Fogg

Luhring Augustine and Sam Fogg present Treasures of the Medieval World, the fourth in a series of highly-praised collaborative exhibitions showcasing medieval masterpieces in a contemporary context, following the success of the first three iterations, Of Earth and Heaven (2018), Gothic Spirit (2020), and The Medieval Body (2022).

Artworks

Unknown artist

Germany, Thuringia, Nordhausen? Gilded silver with basse-taille enamels

11.1 × 14.5 cm

Unknown artist

Unknown artist

A complete 'Lotto' Arabesque rug, c. 1500-1525

Western Anatolia Warp, weft and pile of wool with a symmetrically knotted pile

121 × 199 cm

Unknown artist

Unknown artist

A Knight on Horseback, c. 1480

Northern Italy or Tyrol Softwood with traces of polychromy

75.5 × 86.2 × 41 cm

Unknown artist

Northern Spain Gilded silver with basse-taille enamels

22.9 × 44.7 × 17.5 cm

Unknown artist

Oil, tempera, gilding and silvering on softwood panel

59 1/2 × 30 1/4 in

Unknown artist

Unknown artist

A rock crystal processional cross, c. 1300

Spain, Catalonia Gilded in copper and polished rock crystal over an iron core

19.5 × 36 cm

Unknown artist

Unknown artist

A Schöne ('Beautiful') Madonna, c. 1430

Austria, Salzburg Softwood with large vestiges of gilding and polychromy

52 × 132 × 38 cm

Unknown artist

Portugal Gilded silver with inset reverse-glass painting

17.2 × 50.3 × 26.5 cm

Unknown artist

Unknown artist

A Standing Virgin and Child, c. 1270

Strasbourg Fruitwood

7.8 × 24 × 7 cm

Unknown artist

Unknown artist

Alabaster altarpiece of the Passion, c. 1450

Alabaster with polychromy, set into modern carcass

89 × 29 1/2 × 2 3/4 in

Unknown artist

Unknown artist

An Early Christian Icon of the Virgin and Child, 6th century AD

Northern Egypt Woven fabric of wool pile in a tabby weave on linen ground

38.5 × 78.9 cm

Unknown artist

Gilded copper alloy with champlevé enamel over oak core

5 1/8 × 7 × 2 1/4 in

Alejo Fernández

Oil on softwood panel

42 1/8 × 59 × 1 1/8 in

Unknown artist

Alpine Region Terracotta

43 × 102 × 58 cm

Master Felipe

Castile Oil on softwood panel

30.7 × 42.6 × 1 cm

Unknown artist

Unknown artist

Gargoyle representing a dog-human hybrid, c. 1300-1350

Southern France Limestone

24 × 64.5 × 18.5 cm

Unknown artist

Unknown artist

George and the Dragon, c. 1430

Austria, Tyrol Softwood with silver and polychromy

61 × 123 × 28 cm

Unknown artist

Austria Bronze

25.8 × 26.1 × 29.6 cm

Unknown artist

Unknown artist

Part of an eight-lobed 'Star Ushak' carpet, 1550-1600

Western Anatolia, Ushak Warp, weft and pile of wool with a symmetrically knotted pile

191 × 156 cm

Unknown artist

Unknown artist

Reliquary bust of a female saint, c. 1500-1510

Southern Netherlands, perhaps Limburg Oak

28 × 39 × 13.5 cm

The Master of Girona

Spain, Catalonia, Girona Oil, gilding and silvering on softwood panel

100 × 162 × 10 cm

Unknown artist

Unknown artist

Saint Christopher, c. 1350

Spain, Catalonia Softwood with gilding and polychromy

19 × 76 × 16 cm

Unknown artist

Unknown artist

Saint Crispin, c. 1520

France, Champagne Limestone with vestiges of polychromy

36 × 80 × 31 cm

Unknown artist

Unknown artist

Saint George, c. 1480-1500

Tyrol or Upper Bavaria Limewood

58 × 148.5 × 32.5 cm

Unknown artist

Unknown artist

Saint Sebastian, c. 1480

Limewood

8 5/8 × 35 3/8 × 7 1/2 in

Sigmund Gleismüller

Bavaria, Landshut Oil and softwood panel (spruce or larch)

117.5 × 129 cm

Unknown artist

Unknown artist

The Bernheimer 'Phoenix in Octagon' rug, c. 1490-1525

Southern Anatolia, Tekeogullari or Ramazonogullari Beylik? Warp, weft and pile of wool with a symmetrically knotted pile

119 × 200 cm

Unknown artist

Unknown artist

The Crucified Christ, c. 1150-1175

Gilded bronze

7 7/8 × 7 5/8 × 1 5/8 in

Maestro della Madonna di Orte

Oil, tempera, and gilding on poplar

13 3/4 × 18 1/2 × 1 in

Master of the Bamberg Altarpiece

Germany, Nuremberg Oil, gilding, and silver on softwood panel

58.8 × 106.8 × 1.7 cm

Master of the Regensburg Hostienfrevel

Germany, Regensburg Oil on spruce panel

95 × 110 × 2 cm

Regiomontanus

Rome Brass, signed 'loannis' and dedicated to Cardinal Bessarion 'Bessarionis de Cardine'

11.6 × 14 × 1.2 cm

Tilman Riemenschneider

Limewood with traces of polychromy

17 3/4 × 36 × 11 3/4 in

Niccolò di Buonaccorso

Italy, Siena Tempera and gilding on poplar

18.5 × 25.5 × 1 cm

Unknown artist

Unknown artist

The Virgin and Child on a Crescent Moon, c. 1520

Limewood with gilding, silvering, and polychromy

22 7/8 × 41 3/8 × 10 1/4 in

Unknown artist

England, York Limestone

69 × 71 × 37 cm

Sebastián de Almonacid

Walnut with gilding and polychromy

45 × 28 3/4 × 5 1/8 in

Installation Views

This new exhibition brings together over forty rare pieces of art spanning the fields of sculpture, painting, ceramics, textiles, and goldsmith’s work. Collectively they evince medieval Europe’s astonishing and enduring artistic legacy.

Highlights include one of only five autograph works carved by the master sculptor Tilman Riemenschneider still in private hands, and the only seated limewood Virgin and Child group made by him to survive anywhere in the world. Riemenschneider occupies a central position in the scholarship and appreciation for German limewood sculpture of the late Middle Ages. Never before exhibited in America, and having resided in the same Austrian collection for well over 100 years, this pioneering sculpture is a startling testament of the artist’s working processes and ground-breaking creativity.

Another major highlight is The Apparition of Christ to the Virgin, painted by Alejo Fernandez, and is the 16th-century Sevillian painter’s masterpiece. Originally displayed at the center of a monumental altarpiece, or retablo in Spanish, it is a dramatic work which straddles the late-medieval and Renaissance worlds, incorporating influences from Italian masters like Raphael, Bramante, and Pinturicchio. Famously, Fernandez is also known for his portrait of Christopher Columbus in The Virgin of the Navigators executed for the Alcazar of Seville between 1531 and 1536.

The exhibition also includes a dramatic Bavarian sculpture of Saint George trouncing the Devil, formerly part of the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection. A tour-de-force of late gothic carving, it is a masterful study of movement and tension, and is the most successful surviving work of an otherwise unknown South German sculptor who flourished before Riemenschneider’s rise to prominence.

A rare and complete English alabaster altarpiece, featuring fifteen individual carved panels and traceried canopies, will also be displayed and represents England’s often forgotten but far-reaching contribution to the aesthetic texture of the medieval world. Such altars were once found in great numbers across Europe, but in shocking testimony to the destruction wrought during the English Reformation and subsequent centuries of neglect, not a single intact alabaster altarpiece of its type survives in an English religious house today, and only a tiny few are preserved in museum collections.

A superb example of Portuguese royal display silver will also feature prominently in the presentation, alongside other examples of early European precious metalwork. This large silver-gilt ewer represents the pinnacle of goldsmith’s work produced for the European nobility at the turn of the 16th century, in a medium that has been largely lost due to the ease with which its precious metals could be melted down for extracted value. Once part of the Rothschild collection for 150 years, and one of fewer than a dozen similar vessels in existence, it showcases the opulence of the Manueline style popularized by King Manuel I of Portugal. Its intricate craftsmanship demonstrates the high level of skill involved in European goldsmithing during the period.

The exhibition’s broad spread, and its aim to represent the fluid geographical and cultural boundaries of the medieval world, will be manifested in the incorporation of a small clutch of vanishingly-rare Turkish carpets, which came to Europe early in their histories by way of Italian merchants. These carpets highlight the cultural and artistic exchange between the Christian and Muslim communities during the medieval period. One such example, the Bernheimer Phoenix in Octagon rug, was woven in a southern Anatolian community and is one of only five of its type surviving anywhere in the world.

Through these exceptional works, Treasures of the Medieval World offers a comprehensive view of the artistry, craftsmanship, and cultural exchange that defined the medieval period. The exhibition highlights the diversity of materials and forms that made up this extraordinary era in European and Mediterranean art.

Installation view of Treasures of the Medieval World, Luhring Augustine Tribeca, New York, presented in conjunction with Sam Fogg (January 31–March 8, 2025). Courtesy of Luhring Augustine, NY and Sam Fogg, London. Photo: Genevieve Hanson

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