Last week we went to the Royal Academy’s new Byzantium exhibit. While it was certainly a mistake to go within the first week of its opening (it was heaving); overall we were very impressed with the items they chose to exhibit. The icons in the latter 2/3 were amazing, it was particularly nice to see first hand, examples that previously I’ve only seen in photographs. One, in particular, an enamel icon of St. Michael which I’ve always thought a bit odd is actually rather creepy in real life.

The range of items on display include coinage, embroidery, metal work, iconography, manuscripts, and architectural pieces; and gave us ideas for projects to last quite some time. I’m now eagerly waiting for Amazon do deliver my copy of the enormous catalogue.

The only two criticisms I have is that I did expect a bit more – the first two rooms were a let down, and the RA like other London museums (most notably the BM and the V&A) seems incapable of managing the flow of crowds so as to ensure everyone’s full enjoyment of the exhibit. A number of elderly, and wheel-chair bound visitors were at a real disadvantage, as the crowd took little notice of them, and crowded them out, or brusquely pushed them aside. In Paris, for example, we’ve noticed on more than one occasion that museum exhibits have very good timed entry schemes, and keep a tight control of the number in the hall at any given time.