Lavish remains

The death of Henry VIII in 1547 marks the overdue end point of this exhibition of late Medieval Gothic art. While the visual arts were flourishing elsewhere in Europe, the view persists that England, still suffering under the destructive forces of successive wars, remained crudely undeveloped in terms of its visual culture.

This beautifully presented and lavish exhibition aims to go some way toward acting as a corrective, though it's true that much of the work in the exhibition was commissioned from overseas: tapestries from Brussels and glassware from the Netherlands.

A Florentine, Pietro Torrigiano created the life-like terracotta painted bust of Henry VII, while even our court painters weren't homegrown, as the paintings - a dazzling Lady with a Squirrel and a Starling, on loan from the National Gallery, and a huge cartoon of Henry VIII for Whitehall Palace - of the German Hans Holbein the Younger demonstrate.

As well as ecclesiastical and royal patronage, came the demands of the burgeoning mercantile class. A magnificent stained glass window for a family chapel, commissioned not by a noble but by a wool merchant, show that the upwardly mobile were ready to start imitating their social betters.

Generations of wars, the Reformation and the destructive reign of Edward VI, son of the last Henry, have ensured there is not much that has survived down the centuries. We're fortunate to be able to feast on the remains.