No running planned for December due to various party and shopping trip commitments - also its a bit cold and slippery ...
Managed a fair bit of culture in December - the highlights being RED at the Donmar Theatre (all about Mark Rothko) and a visit to the new Medieval and Renaissance galleries at the V & A. Fortunately, I had seen Graham Dixon-Taylor on the Culture Show and he introduced his top 5 pieces. One of them was a very rare wax model of a slave by Michelangelo used to make a final marbel sculpture now in the Accademia in Florence for the tomb of Pope Julius II.
Apparently, when he was carving a large marbel sculpture, he would place a wax model in water and gradually raise it to reveal more of the form.
My next favourite was this silver hand which is a reliquary - not something I had come across before. Valuable relics would have been put inside the reliquary- these were often modelled on parts of the body.
In this one the relics, now lost, would have been visible through the windows in the fingers .
My other highlight was the Luck of Edenhall Goblet - the glass beaker was made in Egypt or Syria, probably in the 13th century. At the time the Arab lands produced the world's finest glassware, which was decorated with enamelled and gilded designs.
Its true origins were forgotten, and a legend grew up to explain its presence. According to this tale, a party of fairies were interrupted while making merry round a north english spring called St Cuthbert's Well. As they fled, they left the beaker behind, and one of the last cried out, 'If this cup should break or fall, Farewell the Luck of Edenhall'.
Well worth a visit.
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