Most of our encounters with the religious art of Renaissance Italy are made in either churches or galleries. All too easily we ignore the broader spiritual context in which a Botticelli Madonna, a Luca della Robbia Annunciation or a Donatello John the Baptist was originally created. Artefacts as superb as these spring from a world in which devotion flourished amid private spaces, where worship was empowered through a variety of portable objects whose intrinsic beauty enhanced even the smallest gesture of faith. Rosaries, pilgrim badges and reliquaries could remind the devout of the Blessed Virgin or a favourite saint. So too could the images painted on a majolica dish or carved on an ivory comb.