A sign at the entrance said, "Bronze is uniquely suited to ... capturing the fall of light", so it was slightly disappointing that it was impossible to walk around many of the objects, and not just because of the crowds, but because of the way the objects were arranged. For example, Barbara Hepworth's Curved Form (Trevalgan) stuck in a glass box against a wall did it no favours at all.
A few objects were really interesting – like Picasso's bronze baboon that made use of a toy motor car for the head and a plant pot for the body; and two or Nigerian figures from the fifteenth century, the huge door knocker from Durham cathedral – and so on. There were so many varied and different pieces. The Chimaera of Arezzo, an Etruscan masterpiece on loan from Florence, was amazing. With a serpent for a tail, and a goat’s head grafted onto a lion’s back, this snarling, fire-breathing monster appears terrifying, and convincing. Hard to believe it's from 400BC. It was fascinating to see works of art from so many different cultures and ages so close together. For example, The Evening Shadow, an ancient Etruscan statuette of an elongated figure that’s really just a long stretched wire, and nearby there is The Cage by the 20th-century sculptor Alberto Giacometti, whom it influenced.
A few had incredible stories attached to them, for example, the recent discovery (2010) of a bronze head by someone with a metal detector, and the 4th Century dancing satyr found by fisherman in 1988 off the coast of Sicily..
