This has been a golden year for Britain’s permanent collections of art. It began with the acquisition of Titian’s greatest privately owned painting, Diana and Actaeon, by the National Galleries of Scotland and the National Gallery in London. Then, in the autumn, came the triumphant reopening of the Ashmolean in Oxford. Next Wednesday, yet another grand project will come to fruition, as the Victoria & Albert Museum’s new suite of Medieval and Renaissance Galleries is finally thrown open to the public. It is an event of tremendous significance, not just for Britain but for the world. After more than a decade of planning and preparation, and at a cost of £30 million, one of the most extraordinary collections ever brought under one roof has at last been given the treatment that it deserves.
The V & A’s holdings in this area, especially in the fields of Gothic and Renaissance sculpture, have remained one of London’s better kept secrets. For generations, many of the finest objects were kept in a series of dingy rooms on the dark periphery of the museum’s main displays. Now they occupy the ten generous, light-filled, interconnecting spaces which have been carved for them at the heart of the museum. As a result the whole experience of visiting the V & A has been transformed and enhanced.
The one flaw of the new display could be said to be its title, which stretches the term “Medieval” to such an elastic degree as to render the term virtually meaningless. This is particularly evident in the opening gallery, devoted to “Faith and Empires”, in which the visitor encounters, among other things, a mosaic head of Christ with the beardless face of Apollo, which was fashioned during the last years of the Western Roman Empire. An adjacent display case...
The V & A’s holdings in this area, especially in the fields of Gothic and Renaissance sculpture, have remained one of London’s better kept secrets. For generations, many of the finest objects were kept in a series of dingy rooms on the dark periphery of the museum’s main displays. Now they occupy the ten generous, light-filled, interconnecting spaces which have been carved for them at the heart of the museum. As a result the whole experience of visiting the V & A has been transformed and enhanced.
The one flaw of the new display could be said to be its title, which stretches the term “Medieval” to such an elastic degree as to render the term virtually meaningless. This is particularly evident in the opening gallery, devoted to “Faith and Empires”, in which the visitor encounters, among other things, a mosaic head of Christ with the beardless face of Apollo, which was fashioned during the last years of the Western Roman Empire. An adjacent display case...
