Sir Paul Ruddock H’19 on the Wyvern Collection at Bowdoin

Currently on view at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art (BCMA), Medieval Art from the Wyvern Collection: Global Networks and Creative Connections is the first in a series of rotating exhibitions based on the Museum’s partnership with the London-based Wyvern Collection. One of the most exceptional private collections of medieval art and objects, the long-term loan of the Wyvern Collection brings more than fifty artworks to Bowdoin for study, teaching, and public exhibition. The following conversation with Sir Paul Ruddock H’19, Chair of the Wyvern Research Institute, offers insight into the significance of and opportunities presented by the arrival of the collection to Bowdoin.

Amanda Skinner (AS): Thank you for taking the time to speak with me. We are excited about this long-term loan from the Wyvern Collection and what it means for Bowdoin and our audiences. As Chair of the Wyvern Research Institute, could you please share a bit about the Wyvern Collection and its key areas of focus? Could you also describe the broader goals of the Wyvern Research Institute?

Sir Paul Ruddock (PR): The Wyvern Collection is comprised of about 2,500 objects from the Medieval and Byzantine world, as well as the ancient Near East, Central Asia, Africa, Oceania, and the Americas. The Wyvern Research Institute is focused on object-based research as a resource for postgraduate students studying the history of arts with a focus on the ancient and medieval worlds and cross-cultural interchanges and trade, both geographically and chronologically. We are working closely with the Courtauld Institute of Art in London in particular, but also with other universities such as University College London, Oxford University, and so on.

AS: So in terms of working closely with academic institutions, what special opportunities do you think this loan presents in context of Bowdoin College, specifically?

PR: It’s really to expose undergraduate students to parts of the world and time periods they're not familiar with, as well as to expose them to the incredible craftsmanship, complexity, and richness of many of these early cultures. The hope is that students will think more broadly about culture by having the opportunity to interact with objects from time periods and geographical regions that are outside of when and where they've been brought up. It’s also worth noting that Steve Perkinson, Professor of Art History at Bowdoin, is also on the advisory board of the Institute. It will be exciting to see how the objects are used in the Bowdoin curriculum.

AS: It is indeed exciting to see the collection exhibited here at Bowdoin, and to be partnering with the Wyvern Research Institute in this way. Are there certain objects in this collection that you find particularly compelling or surprising?

PR: There are four objects currently on display in the exhibition that stand out to me. The first object I’d highlight is the little Diptych icon with Saint George and the Virgin and Child (Wyvern, 0472). The wing with the Virgin and Child was created in Crete around 1490, and the wing with St. George was created in Ethiopia around 1500. It’s significant because it shows how objects traveled vast distances. During the Middle Ages, the wing depicting the Virgin and Child traveled from the Mediterranean down to Ethiopia, where the wing depicting St. George was added. It’s stylistic influences also point to complex cultural exchange—St. George was adopted as the patron saint of not just England, Georgia, Portugal, Greece, Russia, Bulgaria but also of Ethiopia.  Pairing an Ethiopian icon of the saint with a European work of art of the Virgin and Child highlights the distance that ideas and influences would travel in the Middle Ages. So I think there’s lots of talking points here.

The other three objects I’d highlight are examples of the extraordinary virtuosity of medieval workmanship. For example, there’s the Ampulla with relic of Saint Sebastian (Wyvern, 0968), a rock crystal relic that reuses a Fatimid rock crystal of the 10th or 11th century to be turned into a 12th century Christian relic. So, this object represents significant cultural interchange and exemplifies also practices around relics and veneration.

I’d also highlight the Limoges enameled casket with crucifixion from ca. 1200 (Wyvern 0116). Limoges, France, was a major center of enameling in the Middle Ages, and they developed the champleve enameling technique on an industrial scale. This casket is a very fine example with an interesting provenance behind it.

And lastly, I’d highlight the Miniature altar with The Virgin and Child (Wyvern, 1293), a boxwood altar created in the Northern Netherlands around the early 16th century, which shows incredible finesse and superb craft.

AS: Regarding the altar, it’s hard to wrap one’s mind around the intricacy of the object and the level craftsmanship I imagine would have been necessary to create it.

PR: Well, there was a very good exhibition in 2017 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam that exhibited this piece and was called Small Wonders: Gothic Boxwood Miniatures. The exhibition was about the workshop of Adam Dircksz who was working in the Netherlands around 1500. It was only for a very short period of time that they made these, maybe only 20 to 30 years, but the Miniature altar with The Virgin and Child is a very good example.

AS: That would have been a remarkable exhibition to see. And so, along those lines, what stories do these works tell about medieval art and culture that visitors might not expect?

PR: I think audiences will be excited about the quality of the objects and will gain insight into the richness of the time period. The medieval world is often viewed as a period of darkness, but that's much more to do with Giorgio Vasari writing about it in the Renaissance and who damned the Middle Ages as a period of cultural decline. But when viewing the objects from the Wyvern Collection you can see there was a high level of sophistication about the art, craftsmanship and a significant network of cultural exchange. I think these objects will open people’s eyes to the fact that the Middle Ages was actually a period of considerable richness.

AS: Expanding a little more upon this idea of object interpretation, are there certain subjects or cross-disciplinary angles that you’re excited to see explored with the collection now that it is at Bowdoin?

PR: Well, firstly, there’s so much to talk about with the materiality of the objects in the Wyvern Collection—we're looking at the work of master silversmiths, goldsmiths, stone carvers, wood carvers, enamellers. There's a tremendous use of different materials and techniques, and I think that is interesting in and of itself.

There’s also the subject of authenticity. Though not included in the current exhibition, one of the objects on loan, an enameled reliquary of Saint Valerie, is a clear nineteenth-century fake but in the style of a 13th century Limoges enameled reliquary. And one of the Ostrogoth belt buckles has a question mark as to whether it is real or not. So, in terms of the cross disciplinary angles that you asked about, this is where scientific analysis could come into play. For example, you could conduct research in terms of metal analysis and composition and be asking questions like “Where does the silver come from?” and “Where do the garnets come from?”

And then those same questions could be addressed from the perspective of fashion and style. For example, garnets came into fashion in western China in about the fourth century, and their popularity spread to the British Isles by the sixth century. Those garnets were coming primarily from India and Sri Lanka, but they were also coming from other sources, and they clearly flowed with trade. But the supply dried up by about 600CE. Was this because of the Arab invasions of north Africa and the Near East? So there is also a lot to talk about in terms of the movement and circulation of goods and ideas, and all these interdisciplinary angles can be framed within the quite seismic changes that were happening in Europe and Western Asia during the period.

AS: Fascinating—this all points back to that idea you raised earlier of the richness and the complexity of the time period. Along those lines, I have a final question: how do these objects help us think about connections between the medieval world in our own time? Are there particular lessons or ideas that you think are particularly relevant?

PR: I think there are a couple of things. Firstly, a lot of the pieces are everyday objects. There are bowls and cups, because people have always needed to make such objects throughout time for everyday use. In the same way, a trophy created for the US Open or Wimbledon today may not be so different from the gilded silver cups created during the Middle Ages. There's always been a love of craft and ornamentation in all cultures.

Relics, for example, also hold contemporary relevance. Though religious relics are still important in many parts of the world, relics today may also be related to secular contemporary celebrity culture. The fact that somebody might want to possess something that Taylor Swift owns is a form of relic worship. So, you can connect that in a sense to the sanctity or the preciousness of something like the medieval relic which may have related to a saint—people still covet things that have been touched by famous or celebrated people.

AS: As a Taylor Swift fan myself, I appreciate this comparison! Thank you for helping us make these connections to understand the past in this way.