Even for someone who likes to get lost in museums, especially “museums of all things” like New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, London's Victoria and Albert Museum might have been my Waterloo. The statistics are mind-boggling. Over 5,000 years of artistic activity, more than 60,000 works (from a collection of approximately 2.8 million pieces) are on display in approximately 150 galleries under 21 acres.
The V&A typically welcomes around three million visitors a year, but even on its busiest days, the museum has the space and facilities to avoid much of a sense of competition with the crowds. Visiting the permanent collection is free (some exhibitions cost up to £20, or about $25), so you can start exploring as soon as you walk in the door. To the right, you'll find medieval mosaics and Renaissance tapestries, and to the back, you'll find his 1940s Parisian fashion, Baroque sculpture, and even Buddhist art.
It's easy to spend a day at the V&A. We would like to introduce you to a plan that will help you enjoy your visit to the fullest. First, a little background.
A diverse treasure trove
The British Museum is known as the Attic of England and houses a wealth of artistic and cultural artefacts from across the Kingdom and around the world. And the V&A is Britain's classroom. This is also a treasure trove of exemplary works, from Raphael's detailed drawings to his fascinating 1970s plastic radio. From Coptic tunics to Alexander McQueen's couture dresses. Brightly colored Islamic tiles adorn a collection of luxurious English beds. These objects were exhibited not only to the delight of enthusiasts, but also to provide great art and ideas to educate British designers, manufacturers and workers in taste and technical ability.
The museum was a pet project of Queen Victoria's consort, Prince Albert, who saw that British industrial products were not always of the highest quality. The new museum will democratize aesthetic appreciation by exhibiting applied arts (textiles, ceramics, glass, and other industrial products) alongside fine arts (architecture, painting, sculpture), creating better products for better products. It will inspire your design.
Originally known as South Kensington Museum, the V&A opened in 1857 in temporary buildings while a new building was being constructed. The new museum incorporated libraries and schools for science and art, including one for women. Major artists of the time, including Frederick Leighton and William Morris, contributed to its decoration. It embraced modernity so much that the world's first museum exhibition of photography (the medium was not “invented” until his 1820s) was held here in 1858.
Prince Albert died in 1861, but the museum continued to expand. In 1899, Queen Victoria laid the foundation stone for a grand new entrance, Her Wing, on Cromwell Road and renamed the complex the Victoria and Her Albert Museum.
If that sounds like a hassle, it's not. More than 165 years after its founding, the V&A's pioneering spirit remains intact. Fashion blockbusters such as Naomi: In Fashion (opening June 22nd), which celebrates model Naomi Campbell, are must-see shows. Also, its outreach programs, studio classes, and parties attract the public as most museums do. Recently, the V&A's reach has expanded, with spin-offs such as his V&A Dundee in Scotland, the children's-focused Young V&A, and his two new museum buildings in East London (one in 2025). (with approximately 250,000 works on display) will open.
Many contemporary artists and designers claim that the V&A is their favorite museum and one they return to again and again. Although I'm neither an artist nor a designer, I too claim the V&A as my favorite museum, and I'd go there for anything, whether just to wow my young children with giant plaster casts of European monuments, or just to get out and about. I've been there a dozen times, usually for less than an hour. About the rain.
But I knew there were sections I hadn't visited yet. So, for the first time in three years, he spent the day there, coming up with strategies to help others navigate its vast halls.
visit
If you get there at 10 a.m., when the doors open, you can sneak through the first-floor galleries while it's still mostly empty and make your way to more remote locations.
Because fabrics are fragile and fade, the fashion exhibits change regularly, ensuring you always see something fresh and appealing. From the elegant simplicity of Ming Chinese furniture, to the intricately carved lacquerware of Japan, to the striking bright blue tile reliefs and stunning silk rugs, such as the 16th century Ardibil carpet. Walk through the gateway to discover Asian art. From Persia.
Next, enter the cast court. Three huge galleries are filled with full-size reproductions (plaster and metal castings) of sculptures and building fragments from all over Europe. Exact copies of medieval tombs line the floor, and masterpieces such as Michelangelo's David, Trajan's Column, and Renaissance church facades soar to the ceiling. One could easily get stuck here, awed by its scale and fascinated by the concept of bringing together giant replicas created over the centuries in a playground for architecture enthusiasts.
From there, you can easily move to the adjacent Medieval and Renaissance galleries, which cover Europe from 300 to 1600. There, fragments of colorful tapestries from the 4th and his 5th centuries are exhibited, or a glittering gold-lined mosaic from Ravenna, Italy is revealed. The Dark Ages were not completely devoid of light and color.
Subsequent galleries reveal how connected and sophisticated many regions of Europe were during the Renaissance. Exquisite regional products became popular on international markets, including metalwork and armor from Germany, glittering lusterware ceramics from Spain, and tapestries from Brussels.
carve your own path
In such a vast museum, there is no single logical or even chronological path to follow. For many, that's part of the V&A's appeal. It's a strange juxtaposition that you come across as you wander around the six floors (the ground floor is marked with a 0, so the “4th floor” is actually the 5th floor; the V&A also has a -1 basement floor). .
So on this visit, after the gallery started filling up at noon, I took the elevator to the ceramics gallery on the fourth floor, then headed downstairs.
On the fourth floor, floor-to-ceiling cases display just about everything ever made from clay or porcelain, including min, majolica, and Meissen, including a pile of Chinese bowls salvaged from sunken ships. It feels like there is. 1400 degrees off the coast of the Malay Peninsula.
Just when you think you can't stretch the clay any further, you stumble upon an exhibit about Josiah Wedgwood and his innovative jasperware, which was all the rage around the world in the 18th century. (The V&A also has a dedicated Wedgwood outpost in Stoke-on-His Trent). The rest of his fourth-floor gallery displays furniture from the past 600 years.
The third floor showcases a similar range of media and eras, from all aspects of international glass to architectural models. One might expect Venetian Murano glass to reign supreme, but his quirky and colorful 18th-century German enamelled glass, as well as goblets decorated with green glasses and glass chunks, is attracting attention.
Upstairs, a long network of galleries allows you to delve into religious stained glass, small-scale bronze sculptures, British paintings and drawings, and tapestries. Nearby are gorgeous murals by Frederick Leighton, promoting his V&A propaganda with themes such as “Art Applied to War” and “Art Applied to Peace.”
Also on the second floor, the Center for Photography has recently expanded its gallery to become the UK's largest photography exhibition centre. A portion of the exhibit, called “Design: 1900-Now,” features recent acquisitions. A store-bought snorkeling mask was transformed into a functional oxygen mask by an Italian designer during the darkest days of the 2020 coronavirus crisis.
In a country famous for its crown jewels, the V&A's spotlight-lit jewelery gallery is filled with everything from 5th-century Byzantine bracelets to stylish body jewels from the 1970s. Standouts include Townsend's Jewels, a virtual encyclopedia of gemstones ranging from colored diamonds to opals. Each one is set in a separate ring and displayed in a swirl of vibrant colors.
And finally, almost the entire second floor is filled with every type of ironwork imaginable. These works, such as his monumental 19th-century Gothic Revival choir screen in Salisbury Cathedral, remind us of Goethe's words: “Architecture is frozen music.''
Please take a break before continuing
Even if you're not hungry, head to the ground floor for the Refreshment Room, the world's first museum cafe, which opened in 1868. It was designed by the leading talents of the time: James Gamble, William Morris, Philip Webb, and Edward Byrne. Jones and Edward J. Poynter – With most of its original decor intact, it is a snapshot of Victorian modernity. In the past, each room had a different menu and catered to a different clientele, but today, for around £10, visitors can choose from a buffet of hot British food, quiche, sandwiches, beer, wine and soft drinks. You can enjoy your meal at Choose the room they like best.
Going back to the gallery, I had saved what I thought was best for last. Around 20 British galleries (levels 1 to 3) tell the history of the country through paintings, furniture, clothing and musical instruments, from the Tudors to the Victorians. There are textiles and truly amazing beds on display, including the Great Bed of Ware, a huge four-poster bed built for an inn in 1590. Measuring about 11 feet on each side, he could probably accommodate four couples. Centuries of graffiti covers nearly every board, and its fame is worthy of mention in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night:
And finally, the museum's most stunning work, exhibited in the cathedral-like space: Raphael's famous caricatures for tapestries created to decorate the Sistine Chapel in 1515-1516. At the request of Pope Leo X, Raphael drew a design on paper, which may have been used as a guide for weavers to follow. These works, now owned by King Charles III and considered among the greatest masterpieces of Renaissance art, were created as part of a manufacturing process, so art and manufacturing are closely linked. It seems entirely appropriate that he should be lent to the V&A.
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