This fascinating exhibition brings together an unprecedented array of objects ranging in date from the 5th century BC to the 1960s. Terracotta – literally ‘cooked earth’ – has been an important medium since the earliest days of domestic production as well as artistic expression. Although many art lovers tend to associate works in terracotta particularly with the 16th to 18th centuries, this carefully curated group brings together objects which emphasise the enduring legacy of the medium. Always prized for its malleability and its ability to record the freshest of details, terracotta has also been admired for its durability. In Baptism of Fire, one will be able to experience works including a powerful fragmentary panther head from Southern Italy of the late 5th century BC before moving to an equally moving pair of angels from late baroque Rome attributed to the artist Francesco Moratti (circa 1669-1719). Chronologically, the exhibition finishes with an extraordinary shallow relief by Picasso, which represents an important moment in the artist’s homage to Manet’s Le Dejeuner sur l’Herbe, which he created in 1964.