Tasmania's Museum of Old and New Art is known for its confronting contemporary works, with everything from a wall of vagina sculptures to an excrement machine.
Despite its name, the museum has never had an exhibition focused on old art, an omission that one upcoming show aims to fix.
Opening in September, Heavenly Beings: Icons of the Christian Orthodox World will be the largest ever showing in Australia of icons and religious treasures.
More than 140 items will be on display depicting saints, virgins and other Christian holy subjects dating from around 1350 to 1900.
MONA's senior research curator Jane Clark was surprised to realise the museum had never staged a show of old art but said regular visitors will find much to appreciate.
"I suspect that they will be absolutely entranced by the beauty, I think it'll be a surprise," she told AAP.
As well as painted icons, there will be portable altars and holy books, silver crosses and pilgrim souvenirs.
Many of the works come from Russia, Ukraine, Albania, Crete and mainland Greece and there are others from Ethiopia, Egypt, Syria and Palestine.
Almost all of the art has been loaned from institutions or private collections, while works from MONA, such as maps, atlases and globes of the ancient world, are used to provide context.
Some of the classic tales depicted are worth close attention, with several versions of Saint George and the Dragon.
In one of these from about the year 1500, a king and queen have reluctantly sacrificed their daughter to the dragon but George rescues her just as she is about to be eaten - and gets the keys to the city.
In the 15th and 16th centuries this legend was about much more than dragons, representing an existential war between Christianity and Islam.
The power in objects such as these lies in their deep humanity, according to Clark - many have not been kept in museums but in homes and churches, where they have been handled and touched over many centuries.
"They're so obviously touched and loved and they've got this incredible patina, I really hope people will get that sense whether they believe in it or not," said Clark.
MONA's previous exhibitions have tended to look at old and new art together, while the permanent collection treats all art with the recognition that it was once contemporary.
Heavenly Beings is likely to attract a wider audience than the museum's usual fare but perhaps it isn't so different after all.
"We do like to show our visitors a real variety so that people won't know what we're going to do next," Clark said.
Of course, there are two entirely different exhibitions opening the same day: one by Jean-Luc Moulene, and a new acquisition by Icelandic musician and artist Jonsi.
Heavenly Beings: Icons of the Christian Orthodox World is on at the Museum of Old and New Art from September 30 to April 1 next year.
Australian Associated Press
