Depth of Field: The place of relief in the Time of Donatello, the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds
The current show at the Henry Moore Institute (HMI) in Leeds, Depth of Field: the Place of Relief in the Time of Donatello, is a one-off collaboration with the Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A), made possible by the closure of galleries in London.
The V&A has given the HMI the opportunity to borrow 40 works from its collection of fine and decorative art. One of the six curators involved admits that the partnership is an experiment for the HMI.
Depth of Field features many different types of reliefs - a technique halfway between painting and sculpture - created in 15th-century Florence. The exhibition asks why artists such as Donatello used relief as a means of depiction and how it affects our perception of the object.
On show are sculptural reliefs together with decorated objects such as oil lamps, seals, antique gems and a newly restored Bishop's crozier.
The institute claims that Depth of Field also 'examines the reasons behind the remarkable interest in relief sculpture in Florence' by practising artists.
In the exhibition, a text panel states that 'we are in the colour full [sic] world of Renaissance Florence'.
Well, not quite, this is 21st-century Leeds after all and the HMI's three galleries are less palazzo than pristine white boxes. Instead of ornate marble, I sat on a minimalist black ash and chrome bench to make my notes.
Setting the scene in the first gallery of the exhibition is a series of pairings, arranged in random time order, which work well together on a visual level.
Donatello's utterly sorrowful bronze Lamentation over the Dead Christ is paired with Bellano's marble version, which is larger and equally dramatic.
The fine quality of relief is most obvious in the nail marks and veins on Christ's hands.
Another successful pairing of works in different media, but on the same theme, is the bronze plaquette, Virgin and Child, shown alongside a painted and gilded stucco version.
Stephen Feeke, one of the Leeds-based team working on the show, commented that there is hope among the HMI's staff that some of the presentation ideas at the exhibition might feed into the V&A's own displays.
A cassone or marriage chest, for example, would have been carried on the bearer's shoulders during a wedding, so at Leeds it has been displayed at a similar height. As a result, visitors can better appreciate the decoration. Conversely, the tombstone slab from Bologna is shown as low as possible.
It is certainly good to see objects from the V&A away from their usual more cluttered surroundings. The cobalt blue glass roundel of mother and child, shown alone in a bespoke case, is a colourful introduction to the second gallery, which presents a selection of images of the virgin and child made for public or private devotion.
A mix of terracotta street Madonnas and marbles from churches are displayed together. This gallery is particularly serene, evoking the atmosphere of a chapel (if not the bustle of a Florentine street), a feeling enhanced by the quality of light from the skylights.
The star of the show is undoubtedly Donatello's The Ascension with Christ Giving the Keys to St Peter. The entire scene is carved within a marble plane only a few millimetres deep. It is one of the outstanding masterpieces of the V&A's collection, and was acquired in 1861.
This is the first time this Donatello relief has been shown outside London and it is given due respect. It is gorgeously presented and given a gallery on its own, which is theatrically dressed with green gauze.
The text panel says that the historical context has been much discussed by art historians in the past. But here the curators' main concern is to present Donatello's sculpture as an object worthy of quiet, reflective contemplation. It floats, iceberg-like, on its white plinth.
If there's one thing the HMI invariably does well, it is the way it presents works of art. In Depth of Field we are offered exquisite objects that are artfully arranged. This pleased the group of art curators - fans, like me, of the 'less is more' approach - I saw the exhibition with.
From a purely aesthetic point of view Depth of Field is a
wonderful exhibition. But what about those visitors who want
to discover why relief sculpture flowered in Florence during
the Renaissance?
While the V&A and most other museums are trying to find better ways to interpret their collections, the HMI addresses its visitors through traditional verbose text panels accompanied by thin labels: title, date and artist but nothing more.
This is a shame because each object has been borrowed and placed to make a specific point, but what the curator's points are, isn't easy to discover. I spent much of my visit, as did two old ladies, bent over the catalogue looking for information.
Remarkably, six curators from both museums worked on this project and they all make an appearance on the cover of the catalogue. It's an unusual image. They are posed in tableaux, removing the reliefs from the V&A travelling cases.
But many hands have not resulted in a catalogue as beautiful as the exhibition. It looks and feels cheap and shows signs of being put together in a hurry. Inserts of images, badly cut, have been pasted into the essays in the same way that corrections are usually dealt with.
The V&A is certainly no stranger to sending its collections on the road to contemporary spaces. Give and Take, a partnership project with London's Serpentine Gallery in 2001, was hailed as a success because it helped people to see the V&A collections with fresh eyes.
The trick has worked again here at the HMI in Leeds, although I am not sure if the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council had an exhibition quite like Depth of Field in mind when it first called for a renaissance in the regions. If only a better balance had been struck between the beautifully displayed fine objects and their interpretation.
Caroline Worthington is the curator of art at the York Museums Trust
The current show at the Henry Moore Institute (HMI) in Leeds, Depth of Field: the Place of Relief in the Time of Donatello, is a one-off collaboration with the Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A), made possible by the closure of galleries in London.
The V&A has given the HMI the opportunity to borrow 40 works from its collection of fine and decorative art. One of the six curators involved admits that the partnership is an experiment for the HMI.
Depth of Field features many different types of reliefs - a technique halfway between painting and sculpture - created in 15th-century Florence. The exhibition asks why artists such as Donatello used relief as a means of depiction and how it affects our perception of the object.
On show are sculptural reliefs together with decorated objects such as oil lamps, seals, antique gems and a newly restored Bishop's crozier.
The institute claims that Depth of Field also 'examines the reasons behind the remarkable interest in relief sculpture in Florence' by practising artists.
In the exhibition, a text panel states that 'we are in the colour full [sic] world of Renaissance Florence'.
Well, not quite, this is 21st-century Leeds after all and the HMI's three galleries are less palazzo than pristine white boxes. Instead of ornate marble, I sat on a minimalist black ash and chrome bench to make my notes.
Setting the scene in the first gallery of the exhibition is a series of pairings, arranged in random time order, which work well together on a visual level.
Donatello's utterly sorrowful bronze Lamentation over the Dead Christ is paired with Bellano's marble version, which is larger and equally dramatic.
The fine quality of relief is most obvious in the nail marks and veins on Christ's hands.
Another successful pairing of works in different media, but on the same theme, is the bronze plaquette, Virgin and Child, shown alongside a painted and gilded stucco version.
Stephen Feeke, one of the Leeds-based team working on the show, commented that there is hope among the HMI's staff that some of the presentation ideas at the exhibition might feed into the V&A's own displays.
A cassone or marriage chest, for example, would have been carried on the bearer's shoulders during a wedding, so at Leeds it has been displayed at a similar height. As a result, visitors can better appreciate the decoration. Conversely, the tombstone slab from Bologna is shown as low as possible.
It is certainly good to see objects from the V&A away from their usual more cluttered surroundings. The cobalt blue glass roundel of mother and child, shown alone in a bespoke case, is a colourful introduction to the second gallery, which presents a selection of images of the virgin and child made for public or private devotion.
A mix of terracotta street Madonnas and marbles from churches are displayed together. This gallery is particularly serene, evoking the atmosphere of a chapel (if not the bustle of a Florentine street), a feeling enhanced by the quality of light from the skylights.
The star of the show is undoubtedly Donatello's The Ascension with Christ Giving the Keys to St Peter. The entire scene is carved within a marble plane only a few millimetres deep. It is one of the outstanding masterpieces of the V&A's collection, and was acquired in 1861.
This is the first time this Donatello relief has been shown outside London and it is given due respect. It is gorgeously presented and given a gallery on its own, which is theatrically dressed with green gauze.
The text panel says that the historical context has been much discussed by art historians in the past. But here the curators' main concern is to present Donatello's sculpture as an object worthy of quiet, reflective contemplation. It floats, iceberg-like, on its white plinth.
If there's one thing the HMI invariably does well, it is the way it presents works of art. In Depth of Field we are offered exquisite objects that are artfully arranged. This pleased the group of art curators - fans, like me, of the 'less is more' approach - I saw the exhibition with.
From a purely aesthetic point of view Depth of Field is a
wonderful exhibition. But what about those visitors who want
to discover why relief sculpture flowered in Florence during
the Renaissance?
While the V&A and most other museums are trying to find better ways to interpret their collections, the HMI addresses its visitors through traditional verbose text panels accompanied by thin labels: title, date and artist but nothing more.
This is a shame because each object has been borrowed and placed to make a specific point, but what the curator's points are, isn't easy to discover. I spent much of my visit, as did two old ladies, bent over the catalogue looking for information.
Remarkably, six curators from both museums worked on this project and they all make an appearance on the cover of the catalogue. It's an unusual image. They are posed in tableaux, removing the reliefs from the V&A travelling cases.
But many hands have not resulted in a catalogue as beautiful as the exhibition. It looks and feels cheap and shows signs of being put together in a hurry. Inserts of images, badly cut, have been pasted into the essays in the same way that corrections are usually dealt with.
The V&A is certainly no stranger to sending its collections on the road to contemporary spaces. Give and Take, a partnership project with London's Serpentine Gallery in 2001, was hailed as a success because it helped people to see the V&A collections with fresh eyes.
The trick has worked again here at the HMI in Leeds, although I am not sure if the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council had an exhibition quite like Depth of Field in mind when it first called for a renaissance in the regions. If only a better balance had been struck between the beautifully displayed fine objects and their interpretation.
Caroline Worthington is the curator of art at the York Museums Trust
Project data
Funder: Henry Moore Foundation
Design: Curatorial team at the Henry Moore Institute
Funder: Henry Moore Foundation
Design: Curatorial team at the Henry Moore Institute
