The Mountain of Medieval Art

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun

“If the mountain will not come to Mohammed…” No, wait. That starts the wrong way around. Sam Fogg Ltd. is the mountain. And it has come to you from London’s West One.

Mr. Fogg is one of the world’s leading dealers in medieval art. A visit to his incomparable stock ranks high on the itinerary of knowledgeable travelers. Located on the top floor of the Colnaghi building just off Bond Street, the showroom is a Dickensian cross between Westminster and the British Museum. Anyone enthralled by medieval manuscripts and illuminated calligraphy of various kinds — Russian, Armenian, Asian, Islamic — finds bliss at Sam Fogg.

Exhibiting his wares in America for the first time, Mr. Fogg has staged “Art of the Middle Ages” at the uptown Alexander Gallery. The exhibition includes precious objects, sculpture, stained glass, manuscripts, and paintings.

On display are such treasures as a small ninth-century Anglo-Saxon casket made of oak and gilded with copper and silver. Two wonderful pieces from Nuremberg are here. One is a delicately carved mother-of-pearl tabernacle dated 1499; the other is a painted panel by Hans Süss von Kulmbach, Albrecht Dürer’s best pupil and successor. A composite panel of 15th- and 16thcentury stained glass is a suite of fragments painstakingly reassembled by a 19th-century collector.

Boasting an unbroken provenance of nearly 1,000 years is an 11th-century giant Bible from the Rhineland. This huge manuscript on vellum is considered the oldest existing one-volume Bible of any kind from Germany.

A velvet Cloth of State, made for Isabella of Castile at the end of the 15th century, was probably intended to decorate a throne during festivals or high state occasions. Intricately stitched with gold and silver thread, it is a gorgeous example of the heraldic embroidery and appliqué that died out with the nobility who commissioned it.

With sale prices ranging from between $10,000 and $5 million, the exhibition bills itself as “a splendid opportunity for museums and collectors to acquire major pieces in New York this autumn.” But you might want to explore the meaning of red-flag phrases like “probably preserved in Moissac Abbey” or “newly discovered.”

The Alexander Gallery can seem an intimidating place. Wear good shoes and, if you must, pretend you are doing fieldwork for the Robb Report.

Until November 2 (942 Madison Ave., between 74th and 75th streets, 212-472-1636).


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