Preparations for Arts of the Mongol World exhibition at Royal Academy

20 August 2021

Working with co-curators Professor Sussan Babaie (Courtauld Institute of Art) and Dr Adrian Locke (Royal Academy of Arts), Professor Shane McCausland is continuing to develop an exhibition project on the arts of the Mongol world in the long thirteenth century, to be held in galleries at the Royal Academy, Piccadilly, in around 2024. The curators are working on the exhibition concept, exploring ideas around stories of objects, stories of empire and the lives of artists. The Fonthill vase in Dublin is an example of an art object with a remarkable story to tell: made at Jingdezhen in south China in the mid-fourteenth century, it was gifted by the then Mongol khan to the pope in Europe and then re-gifted or sold among Europe's royalty and collecting elites until acquired at auction by the National Museum of Ireland in 1882. An update on the extraordinary 'Courtauld bag' will have to await a further instalment.

Image copyright of the National Museum of Ireland