...explore medieval art at the V&A, the Met and the Musée de Cluny?

Whilst working in Paris five years ago, I stumbled onto the Musée de Cluny whilst exploring the city. Housed in the former Abbey Cluny, and tiny, by Parisian museum standards, it showcased wonderful illuminated manuscripts and other artefacts from the Middle Ages. I fell in love with a series of six tapestries, called the La Dame à la licorne (The Lady and the Unicorn).

Woven in Flanders in the fifteenth century, each of the tapestries shows a lady flanked by a lion and a unicorn ; five of them each showcase allegorical symbols of the five senses – taste, hearing, sight, smell and touch, while the more ambiguous sixth plays on the theme of “À mon seul désir" (“to my only desire”). Exquisite and intricate, the tapestries awakened an interest in medieval art, which I realised is so much more than the rather dull painted altar pieces one sees as the precursor to the Renaissance and the Old Masters in European painting.

Since then, this interest has lain rather dormant, crowded out by more flamboyant eras like the Pre-Raphaelites and the Impressionists. Over the last two weekends though, I was in turn at the new Medieval and Renaissance wing at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Medieval rooms at the Metropolitan Museum of New York.

The V&A’s Medieval and Renaissance Wing was revamped at the cost of £30M, and was rightly lauded in the press for breathing new life to the wonderful medieval artefacts owned by the V&A, some of which have never before shown to the public. Airy and flooded with natural light, the gallery looks and feels like a cathedral, particularly with the beautiful stained glass panes illuminating the space within. The effect was transcendental.

Highlights include the dazzling Gloucester Candlestick with dragons at its feet, the sparkling Thomas à Becket enamelled casket from Limoges, Leonardo Da Vinci’s notebooks, a choir screen in its entirety from 's-Hertogenbosch , a fifteenth century version of Aesop Fables in Latin and Italian, and many well-preserved illustrated manuscripts, the writing and illustration of which were the sole occupation of many monks in that period. My favourite works were the carved ivory pieces, particularly the miniature altar panels, some so intricately carved it make me gasp. My boyfriend, A, and I had fun with the many quizzes within the interactive programmes positioned throughout the gallery; we now know for instance, that pointed arches and curved bodies in carvings were characteristic of the Gothic period. We barely made it through half of the exhibits during our afternoon there, so long did we linger in each room. I will have to return at some stage.

In New York just last weekend on a quick stopover for work, I nipped into the Met to re-acquaint myself with some of the wonders within. This time around, instead of hanging out on the second floor where the major paintings are displayed, I found myself lingering within the medieval rooms. Less informative and a shade less accessible compared to the V&A, the Met still has some breath-taking pieces, like the jewelled enamel caskets and tapestries showing the four stages of men. One piece did make me smile – a tapestry depicted man, represented by a stag, being hunted and chased by hounds representing vanity, overconfidence, rashness and desire, which were released by a lady representing ignorance. Read into it what you will…