Siren Aquamanile, Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin, circa 1230 Maybe it was the dramatic staging, but this piece changed my narrow mind about a whole genre of medieval art that previously I had just passed by with a shrug of the shoulders as I moved on to shinier objects. At the Kupferstichkabinett, or the Museum of Prints and Drawings in Berlin, there is a a large room of medieval treasures, all products of what is now called Germany and Austria. The item above is an aquamanile: a pitcher,...

The funerary monument for Christopher Columbus stands in the south transept of the Seville Cathedral, Apart from a coating of dust, it looks startlingly lifelike; as though four 16th century heralds of thte rulers of Spain are waiting only for a flourish of trumpets to prompt them to carry toward the altar the coffin of the man to whom the Crown had bestowed the titles admiral, viceroy, and governor. The monument is a tomb, however, and after decades of multiple studies and a few genetic...

Christ's Ascension, Ceiling Boss, Norwich Cathedral, 14th century It's a tricky assignment: visually representing a supernatural experience--a disappearing act. The ascension of Christ into heaven, forty days after his resurrection from the dead, is related three times in the New Testament ( Mark 16:19 , Luke 24:50-53 , and Acts 1:9-11 ), but the details are scant and vague. He is "lifted" or "taken, " or "carried" up to heaven. Only in Acts does it say that "...a cloud took him out of their...