Gothic Art
When the Victoria & Albert Museum in London mounted an exhibition of Gothic art recently, their first port of call was the Burrell Collection. It’s testament to the depth of the Burrell’s collection of Gothic artworks from Northern Europe that a museum with as much clout as the V&A (which is a national collection), turned to the Burrell – whose collection of Gothic art and stained glass windows is one of the world’s finest – for help.
Think ‘Gothic’ these days, and you are more likely than not to conjure up images of moping teenagers dressed in black, bemoaning the state of the world as they paint their nails a gaudy shade of purple. The Burrell’s collection of Gothic art, though, is the real thing: gaze upon the wooden figures on display and you’re struck by the original meaning of the word gothic: the weird and the uncanny which lies beneath the surface of everyday reality. These are detailed statues of people who, at first glance, appear normal. Look a little longer, through, and you notice the exaggerated features; the drooping hands, the sad eyes.
The Burrell’s collection of stained glass windows is equally as important. Among the Burrell’s stained glass collection are some of the medium’s most important works: medieval German panels, still bright and full of sorrow for St John’s tribulations; 16th-century heraldic panels from Northamptonshire; and, maybe most affecting of all, 12th-century fragments from Abbot Suger’s cathedral at St Denis in France, the first Gothic cathedral.