The Victoria and Albert is the third of the three large museums in South Kensington. The V&A's popularity pales a bit compared to its next-door neighbours Science and Natural History and so you can walk in without a reservation. A beautiful museum, I felt at times that it could use a little less on display. Here is an interactive map of the museum.
The Cast Courts
You are walking into the 19th century. Opened in 1873, the Cast Courts show copies of architecture and artworks from around the world. These historic galleries offer a glimpse of the Victorian museum.
The Courts are the strongest expression of this Museum's founding mission as a place of art education. The Museum's collection provided examples to inspire artists, designers and artisans to supply better designs to Britain's factories. Spectacular displays would also shape 'public taste' to help consumers become more discerning in their choices. Copies including plaster casts, electrotypes and photographs were central to this mission, and complemented the Museum's collections of original works. Together they offered a 19th-century encyclopaedia of international decorative styles.
Today the Cast Courts take us back in time. For Victorians, they were the height of modernity. In a period when travel was difficult, the Courts brought art and architecture from around the globe together under one roof, making the world feel smaller and more connected in a way that can be compared to the dawn of the internet. A modern fascination with replication, particularly via digital media, has rekindled the relevance of these collections for visitors now.
The Cast Courts
You are walking into the 19th century. Opened in 1873, the Cast Courts show copies of architecture and artworks from around the world. These historic galleries offer a glimpse of the Victorian museum.
The Courts are the strongest expression of this Museum's founding mission as a place of art education. The Museum's collection provided examples to inspire artists, designers and artisans to supply better designs to Britain's factories. Spectacular displays would also shape 'public taste' to help consumers become more discerning in their choices. Copies including plaster casts, electrotypes and photographs were central to this mission, and complemented the Museum's collections of original works. Together they offered a 19th-century encyclopaedia of international decorative styles.
Today the Cast Courts take us back in time. For Victorians, they were the height of modernity. In a period when travel was difficult, the Courts brought art and architecture from around the globe together under one roof, making the world feel smaller and more connected in a way that can be compared to the dawn of the internet. A modern fascination with replication, particularly via digital media, has rekindled the relevance of these collections for visitors now.
The Cast Courts
You are walking into the 19th century. Opened in 1873, the Cast Courts show copies of architecture and artworks from around the world. These historic galleries offer a glimpse of the Victorian museum.
The Courts are the strongest expression of this Museum's founding mission as a place of art education. The Museum's collection provided examples to inspire artists, designers and artisans to supply better designs to Britain's factories. Spectacular displays would also shape 'public taste' to help consumers become more discerning in their choices. Copies including plaster casts, electrotypes and photographs were central to this mission, and complemented the Museum's collections of original works. Together they offered a 19th-century encyclopaedia of international decorative styles.
Today the Cast Courts take us back in time. For Victorians, they were the height of modernity. In a period when travel was difficult, the Courts brought art and architecture from around the globe together under one roof, making the world feel smaller and more connected in a way that can be compared to the dawn of the internet. A modern fascination with replication, particularly via digital media, has rekindled the relevance of these collections for visitors now.
CAST OF
Perhaps Apollodorus of Damascus
Trajan's Column
AD 106-113
The Cast Courts are dominated by this massive reproduction of Trajan's Column in two parts. The Roman Emperor Trajan commissioned the original monumental structure to commemorate his conquest of Dacia, now Romania. The column took seven years to complete and has stood in Rome ever since, surviving for nearly 2000 years.
In the early 186os, Napoleon III ordered a mould to be made of the column. A metal copy, or electrotype, was made in pieces from this mould, and then sets of plaster cast copies were produced from the electrotype. In 1864, the South Kensington Museum (now the V&A) bought one of these sets.
CAST OF
Perhaps Apollodorus of Damascus
Trajan's Column
AD 106-113
The Cast Courts are dominated by this massive reproduction of Trajan's Column in two parts. The Roman Emperor Trajan commissioned the original monumental structure to commemorate his conquest of Dacia, now Romania. The column took seven years to complete and has stood in Rome ever since, surviving for nearly 2000 years.
In the early 186os, Napoleon III ordered a mould to be made of the column. A metal copy, or electrotype, was made in pieces from this mould, and then sets of plaster cast copies were produced from the electrotype. In 1864, the South Kensington Museum (now the V&A) bought one of these sets.
CAST OF
Perhaps Apollodorus of Damascus
Trajan's Column
AD 106-113
The Cast Courts are dominated by this massive reproduction of Trajan's Column in two parts. The Roman Emperor Trajan commissioned the original monumental structure to commemorate his conquest of Dacia, now Romania. The column took seven years to complete and has stood in Rome ever since, surviving for nearly 2000 years.
In the early 186os, Napoleon III ordered a mould to be made of the column. A metal copy, or electrotype, was made in pieces from this mould, and then sets of plaster cast copies were produced from the electrotype. In 1864, the South Kensington Museum (now the V&A) bought one of these sets.
Measuring 35 metres high, the column copy was too tall to be constructed at full height within the Museum building at the time. So in 1873, the Museum built the Architectural Courts to house its growing collection of monumental copies. These are the galleries in which you are standing today. The height of the courts was determined by Trajan's Column, but even then they could only be built high enough to display the column in two sections, assembled around inner brick chimneys.
Cast about 1864
Original was carved marble
Painted plaster
Probably Rome, Italy
Measuring 35 metres high, the column copy was too tall to be constructed at full height within the Museum building at the time. So in 1873, the Museum built the Architectural Courts to house its growing collection of monumental copies. These are the galleries in which you are standing today. The height of the courts was determined by Trajan's Column, but even then they could only be built high enough to display the column in two sections, assembled around inner brick chimneys.
Cast about 1864
Original was carved marble
Painted plaster
Probably Rome, Italy
Measuring 35 metres high, the column copy was too tall to be constructed at full height within the Museum building at the time. So in 1873, the Museum built the Architectural Courts to house its growing collection of monumental copies. These are the galleries in which you are standing today. The height of the courts was determined by Trajan's Column, but even then they could only be built high enough to display the column in two sections, assembled around inner brick chimneys.
Cast about 1864
Original was carved marble
Painted plaster
Probably Rome, Italy
Unknown photographer
York Railway Station, 1877
Featuring thirteen platforms, York railway station was the largest in the world at the time of its opening in 1877. The low-angle perspective of this picture communicates the station's sheer scale and heightens the grandeur of the iron roof. The building was described as a 'monument to extravagance', and its construction epitomises the vast expansion of the British railway systems in the 19th century.
Unknown photographer
York Railway Station, 1877
Featuring thirteen platforms, York railway station was the largest in the world at the time of its opening in 1877. The low-angle perspective of this picture communicates the station's sheer scale and heightens the grandeur of the iron roof. The building was described as a 'monument to extravagance', and its construction epitomises the vast expansion of the British railway systems in the 19th century.
Unknown photographer
York Railway Station, 1877
Featuring thirteen platforms, York railway station was the largest in the world at the time of its opening in 1877. The low-angle perspective of this picture communicates the station's sheer scale and heightens the grandeur of the iron roof. The building was described as a 'monument to extravagance', and its construction epitomises the vast expansion of the British railway systems in the 19th century.
Early 3D photography involved looking into an eye piece, each of which displays a slightly offset shot. Here is a look through one eye of an early 3D photo.
Early 3D photography involved looking into an eye piece, each of which displays a slightly offset shot. Here is a look through one eye of an early 3D photo.
Early 3D photography involved looking into an eye piece, each of which displays a slightly offset shot. Here is a look through one eye of an early 3D photo.
Joana Choumali (born 1974)
Sans Titre 5, 14, 22 and 23, from the series Ça va aller ('It will be ok') 2019
These photographs were taken three weeks after the terrorist attacks in Grand-Bassam, Côte d'Ivoire in March 2016. Choumali wandered the streets of the empty town, capturing her surroundings with her iPhone. She then printed the photographs and embroidered them to process her pain. For Choumali, 'the town's energy was different, as if life was painfully running in melancholic slow motion. Adding embroidery was an act of channelling hope and resilience'. Energy bursts out of the pictures, each colourful thread imbuing them with a new sense of optimism.
Joana Choumali (born 1974)
Sans Titre 5, 14, 22 and 23, from the series Ça va aller ('It will be ok') 2019
These photographs were taken three weeks after the terrorist attacks in Grand-Bassam, Côte d'Ivoire in March 2016. Choumali wandered the streets of the empty town, capturing her surroundings with her iPhone. She then printed the photographs and embroidered them to process her pain. For Choumali, 'the town's energy was different, as if life was painfully running in melancholic slow motion. Adding embroidery was an act of channelling hope and resilience'. Energy bursts out of the pictures, each colourful thread imbuing them with a new sense of optimism.
Joana Choumali (born 1974)
Sans Titre 5, 14, 22 and 23, from the series Ça va aller ('It will be ok') 2019
These photographs were taken three weeks after the terrorist attacks in Grand-Bassam, Côte d'Ivoire in March 2016. Choumali wandered the streets of the empty town, capturing her surroundings with her iPhone. She then printed the photographs and embroidered them to process her pain. For Choumali, 'the town's energy was different, as if life was painfully running in melancholic slow motion. Adding embroidery was an act of channelling hope and resilience'. Energy bursts out of the pictures, each colourful thread imbuing them with a new sense of optimism.
