Last chance to see 'Bronze'

The Pharisee, St John the Baptist and The Levite from The
Sermon of Saint John the Baptist, 1511
Giovanfrancesco Rustici  

I went to see the Bronze exhibition at the Royal Academy last month and highly recommend going before it closes on December 9th if you haven't already.

Not surprisingly this blockbuster exhibition celebrates Bronze, bringing together  more than 150 works spanning three continents, Asia, Africa and Europe, and 5,000 years - never has there been an exhibition of this medium on such vast scale. Iconic works date back to the Ancient Greek, Roman and Etruscan periods, through the Middle Ages and Renaissance, right up to the 19th century and today.

Bronze is an alloy in which copper is usually mixed with tin and is both durable and ductile meaning artists can achieve gravity defying sculptural effects that would be impossible in stone. In addition, artists working in bronze can create supple surfaces with great detail thanks to the 'lost-wax technique.' This complex process which was first used by the ancients allows artists to perfectly replicate a wax model in bronze.

Instead of exhibiting the works in chronological order they have been arranged thematically with each room focusing on something different, one is full of figures, another of faces, groups, reliefs, animals, gods, heads, busts. What this means is works from completely different time periods and movements, though of the same subject, can be seen next to each other, making it possible to contrast and compare a Greek Satyr against a futuristic figure by Boccioni. 'The resulting chronological confusion is discombobulating, exhilarating and educational by turns.'

Dancing Satyr, Greek, Hellenistic period,
C4th BCE

Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, 1913
Umberto Boccioni

Curator Professor David Ekserdjian said, 'The idea sprang to me by considering the relationships and correspondences that are especially evident with bronze - it has both range and kinship across different cultures.'  He had dreamed of putting this show for around 20 years though was unsure anyone would accept it given the wide range of works and sheer number of institutions involved in lending them. There were of course lots of works that were 'too iconic' to move and this is therefore a selection of a huge genre.