New Galleries open at V&A
The V&A’s long-awaited new Medieval and Renaissance Galleries opened on 2 December and prove to have been well worth the wait
There have been building works at the V&A for so long, with exhibits disappearing from public view only to re-appear in random corridors months later, that we’ve almost forgotten that it’s home to one of the most fantastic collections of Renaissance and Medieval art outside Italy. And now, at last, we can see this collection in all its glory, lovingly and intelligently displayed in a series of 10 spanking new galleries designed by architect MUMA.
The galleries are broadly chronological, but each one has an individual theme making it much more than just a rigid historical journey from the late Roman period to the Renaissance. So along the way there are spaces focusing on themes such as Noble Living 1350-1500 (a highlight here being the reconstruction of Cosimo de’ Medici’s study complete with the Luca della Robbia terracotta roundels), the Renaissance City and Devotion and Display (1300-1500). There’s also a whole gallery showcasing the museum’s outstanding collection of sculptures by Donatello and a surprising final gallery entitled Living with the Past 300-1600. Altogether the ten galleries showcase over 1800 objects, most of which are stand-alone pieces in their own right – the Becket Casket, Leonardo’s notebooks, the Gloucester Candlestick, Michelangelo’s Slave, the Devonshire Hunting tapestries to name just a few…
www.vam.ac.uk
