Victoria and Albert Museum

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The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as V & amp; A ) in London is the largest museum of art and decorative design in the world, housing a permanent collection of over 2.3 million object. Founded in 1852 and named after Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

V & amp; A is located in the Brompton district of Royal Borough Kensington and Chelsea, in an area known as "Albertopolis" because of its relationship with Prince Albert, Albert Memorial, and the major cultural institutions he relates. These include the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum and the Royal Albert Hall. The Museum is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Ministry of Culture, Media, and Sport. Like other British national museums, the entrance to the museum has been free since 2001.

V & amp; A covers 12.5 hectares (5.1Ã, ha) and 145 galleries. The collection covers 5,000 years of art, from ancient times to the present day, from European, North American, Asian and North African cultures. The possession of ceramics, glass, textiles, costumes, silver, iron, jewelry, furniture, medieval objects, sculptures, prints and graphic arts, images and photographs is one of the largest and most complete in the world.

The museum has the largest collection of post-classic statues in the world, with the ownership of Italian Renaissance goods being the largest outside Italy. The Asian Department includes art from South Asia, China, Japan, Korea, and the Islamic world. The East Asian collection is among the best in Europe, with special strengths in ceramics and metals, while the Islamic collection is one of the largest in the Western world. Overall, this is one of the largest museums in the world.

Since 2001, the museum has embarked on a major renovation program Ã, Â £ 150m, which has seen major departmental improvements, including the introduction of galleries, parks, shops, and more recent visitor facilities.

The 17th and 18th century European galleries opened on December 9, 2015. It restored the original interior of Aston Webb and hosted the 1600-1815 European collection.

Video Victoria and Albert Museum

Histori

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V & amp; A had its origins in the Great Exhibition of 1851, in which Henry Cole, the museum's first director, was involved in the planning; originally known as the Museum of Manufacturing, opening first in May 1852 at Marlborough House, but in September it was moved to Somerset House. At this stage the collection includes applied art and science. Several exhibits from the Exhibition were purchased to form the core of the collection. In February 1854 a discussion was under way to transfer the museum to the current site and it was renamed to South Kensington Museum . In 1855 the German architect Gottfried Semper, at Cole's request, produced the design for the museum, but was rejected by the Trade Council for being too expensive. This site is occupied by Brompton Park House; this extended including the first refreshment space opened in 1857, the museum being the first in the world to provide such a facility.

The official opening by Queen Victoria was on June 20, 1857. In the following year, the opening of late night was introduced, made possible by the use of gas lighting. This is to make it possible in Cole's words "to ensure practically what time is most comfortable for the working class" - this is linked to the use of a collection of both applied art and science as an educational resource to help foster a productive industry. In the early years of practical use this collection was emphasized in comparison with the "High Art" at the National Gallery and a scholarship at the British Museum. George Wallis (1811-1891), the first Keeper of Fine Art Collection, vigorously promotes the idea of ​​art education through museum collections. This led to a transfer to the School of Design museum that had been established in 1837 at Somerset House; after the transfer was referred to as the Art School or Art Training School, later became the Royal College of Art that eventually achieved full independence in 1949. From the 1860s to the 1880s scientific collections had been moved from the main museum site to the various improvised galleries in the west Exhibition Road. In 1893, the "Science Museum" effectively became available when a separate director was appointed.

Laying the foundation stone of the Aston Webb building (to the left of the main entrance) on May 17, 1899 was the last official public appearance by Queen Victoria. It was during this ceremony that a change of name from the South Kensington Museum to the Victoria and Albert Museum was announced. The address of Queen Victoria during the ceremony, as noted in the London Gazette, ends: "I believe that it will remain for centuries, a Monument of Freedom to distinguish and Source of Improvement and Progress."

The museum's exhibition to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of 1899 with the new name, "A Grand Design", first toured in North America from 1997 (Baltimore Art Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco), returned to London in 1999. To accompany and support the exhibition, the museum publishes a book, Grand Design, which is readily available for online reading. on its website.

1900-1950

The opening ceremony of the Aston Webb building by King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra took place on June 26, 1909. In 1914 the construction started from the Science Museum, marking the final split from the collection of science and art.

In 1939 at the outbreak of World War II, most of the collections were delivered to a mine in Wiltshire, to Montacute House in Somerset, or to a tunnel near the Aldwych tube station, with the larger items remaining there, bagged with sand and brick in Between 1941 and 1944 several galleries were used as a school for children evacuated from Gibraltar. The South Court becomes a cafeteria, first for the Royal Air Force and then for Bomb Damage Repair Squads.

Prior to the return of the post-war collection, the Britain Can Make It exhibition was held between September and November 1946, attracting nearly a million and a half of visitors. It was organized by the Council of Industrial Designs established by the British government in 1944 "to promote by all means practical improved design in UK industrial products". The success of this exhibition led to the planning of the British Festival (1951). By 1948 most of the collections had been returned to the museum.

Since 1950

In July 1973, as part of a youth outreach program, V & amp; A became the first museum in England to feature rock concerts. The V & A presents a concert/lecture by the progressive British folk-rock band Gryphon, who explores the medieval lines of music and medieval instrumentation and how they contributed to contemporary music 500 years later. The innovative approach to bringing young people to the museum is a hallmark of the director of Roy Strong and subsequently imitated by several other British museums.

In the 1980s, Sir Roy Strong changed the name of the museum as "The Museum of Victoria and Albert, Museum of Art and National Design". The strong successor Elizabeth Esteve-Coll oversaw a tumultuous period for the institute where the museum's curatorial department is redecorated, leading to public criticism from some of the staff. Esteve-Coll effort to create V & amp; A more accessible include a marketing campaign that criticized the top cafÃÆ' Â © emphasize collection.

In 2001, "FuturePlan" was launched, which involved redesigning all galleries and public facilities in museums that have not been renovated. This is to ensure that exhibits are better displayed, more information is available and the museum meets the modern expectations for museum facilities; it took about ten years to complete the job. A new entrance, courtyard and gallery designed by AL AL ​​Amanda Levete is scheduled to open in 2017.

The museum also runs the Children's Museum in Bethnal Green and used to run the Theater Museum at Covent Garden and Apsley House. The Theater Museum is now closed and the V & A Theater Collection is now featured in the South Kensington building.

In March 2018, it was announced that the Duchess of Cambridge would be the first royal patron of the museum.

Maps Victoria and Albert Museum

Partnership

V & amp; A has no museum or gallery outside London. Instead, he worked with a small number of partner organizations in Sheffield, Dundee, and Blackpool to provide a regional presence.

V & amp; A is in discussion with Dundee University, Abertay University, Dundee City Council and the Scottish Government with a view to opening a new gallery worth  £ 43 million in Dundee that will use the V & A though it will be funded through and operated independently. By 2015, at an estimated cost of Ã,  £ 76 million, it is the most expensive gallery project ever undertaken in Scotland. The V & amp; A Dundee will be on the city's waterfront and is intended to focus on fashion, architecture, product design, graphic arts and photography. It is scheduled to open on September 15, 2018. Dundee City Council is expected to pay most of its operating costs. V & amp; A does not contribute financially, but will provide expertise, loans, and exhibitions.

Plans for a new gallery in Blackpool are also being considered. It follows a previous plan to move the theater collection to a new Ã, Â £ 60m museum in Blackpool, which failed due to lack of funds. The V & amp; A exhibition twice a year at the Millennium Gallery in partnership with the Sheffield Museum.

The V & amp; A is one of 17 museums across Europe and the Mediterranean that participated in a project called Discover Islamic Art. Developed by a Brussels-based consortium, Museum With No Frontiers, this online "virtual museum" brings together over 1200 works of art and Islamic architecture into a single database.

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Architecture of the museum

The parts of the Victorian building have a complex history, with little addition by different architects. Founded in May 1852, it was not until 1857 that the museum moved to its present location. This London area is known as Brompton but has been renamed South Kensington. The land was occupied by Brompton Park House, which was expanded, mainly by the "Brompton Boiler", which was a very striking utilitarian iron gallery with a temporary look and then dismantled and used to build the V & A Museum of Childhood. The first established building still part of the museum was the Sheepshanks Gallery in 1857 on the east side of the garden. The architect was civil engineer Captain Francis Fowke, Royal Engineers, appointed by Cole. The next major expansion was designed by the same architect, Turner and Vernon galleries built in 1858-59 to accommodate replicating collections (later moved to the Tate Gallery) and now used as a gallery of images and galleries of each rug. The North and South Courts were later built, both opened in June 1862. They are now forming galleries for temporary exhibitions and just behind the Sheepshanks Gallery. At the far north of the site is the Wings' Secretariat; also built in 1862, this home office and board room etc. and is not open to the public.

An ambitious decorating scheme was developed for these new fields: a series of mosaic figures depicting the famous European artists of the Middle Ages and Renaissance periods. It has now been moved to another area of ​​the museum. Also started a series of frescoes by Lord Leighton: Industrial Art as Applied to War 1878-1880 and Industrial Art Applied to Peace , which began but never finished. To the east is an additional gallery, a decoration that is the work of other designers Owen Jones; this is an Oriental Court (covering India, China and Japan), completed in 1863. None of these decorations survive. Part of this gallery becomes a new gallery covering the 19th century, opened in December 2006. Fowke's last work is design for various buildings on the north and west side of the park. This includes a refreshment room, restored as the Cafà ©   © in 2006, with a silver gallery above (at the time of ceramic gallery); the upstairs has a nice lecture room, although this is rarely open to the general public. The ceramic staircase in the northwest corner of the various buildings was designed by F. W. Moody and has architectural details of shaped and colored pottery. All work in the northern range was designed and built in 1864-69. The style adopted for this part of the museum is the Renaissance of Italy; many uses are made of terracotta, brick and mosaic. The northern façade is intended as the main entrance to the museum, with its bronze doors, designed by James Gamble and Reuben Townroe, having six panels, depicting Humphry Davy (chemistry); Isaac Newton (astronomy); James Watt (mechanic); Bramante (architecture); Michelangelo (sculpture); and Titian (painting); The panels represent various museum collections. Godfrey Sykes also designed the ornaments of terracotta and mosaics in the interior of the Northern FaÃÆ'§ade commemorating the Great Exhibition, an advantage of which helped fund the museum. It is flanked by a group of terracotta sculptures by Percival Ball. The building replaces Brompton Park House, which can then be destroyed to pave the way for the south.

The interior of the three refreshment rooms is assigned to different designers. The Green Dining Room (1866-68) was the work of Philip Webb and William Morris, and featured the influence of Elizabethan. The underside of wood-paneled walls with a bunch of paintings depicting the fruit and an occasional figure, with plaster leaves printed on the main wall and plaster adornments around the decorated ceilings and stained glass windows by Edward Burne. Jones. The Center Refreshment Room (1865-77) was designed in a Renaissance style by James Gamble. The walls and even the Ionic columns in this room were covered in decorative and molded ceramic tiles, the ceiling consisting of intricate designs on enameled metal sheets and matching stained glass windows, and a marble fireplace designed and carved by Alfred Stevens and was removed from Dorchester House before the demolition the building was in 1929. The Grill Room (1876-81) was designed by Sir Edward Poynter; the underside of the walls consisted of blue and white tiles with figures and leaves flanked by wood panels, while above there was a large tile scene with pictures depicting four seasons and twelve months painted by the ladies of the Arts School based in the Museum. The windows were also stained with glass; there is a complicated cast iron grill still in place.

With the death of Captain Francis Fowke of the Royal Engineers, the next architect who worked at the museum was Colonel (then Major General) Henry Young Darracott Scott, also of Royal Engineers. He designed the north-west of the five-storey Schools park for the Naval Architects (also known as the science school), now the Henry Cole Wing, in 1867-72. Assistant Scott J. W. Wild designed an impressive staircase that raised the full height of the building. Made of Cadeby stone, 7 feet long (2.1 m) long, while the ledge and column are Portland stones. Now used to jointly store prints and architectural drawings V & amp; A (prints, drawings, paintings and photographs) and the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA Image and Archive Collection), and the Sackler Center for arts education, which opened. in 2008.

Continuing the previous building style, various designers are responsible for decorating. The terracotta decoration is the work of Godfrey Sykes, although sgraffito is used to decorate the east side of the building designed by F. W. Moody. A final ornament is a wrought iron gate made until the end of 1885 designed by Starkie Gardner. This leads to a passage through the building. Scott also designed two Cast Courts (1870-73) in the southeast of the garden (where "Brompton Boilers"); This spacious room has a ceiling as high as 70 feet (21 m) to accommodate the cast of famous building parts, including the Trajan Column (in two separate sections). The last part of the museum designed by Scott is the Art Library and what is now a sculpture gallery on the south side of the garden, built in 1877-83. The exterior mosaic panel on the parapet was designed by Reuben Townroe, who also designed plaster work in the library. Sir John Taylor designed bookshelves and chests. This is the first part of the museum that has electric lighting. This completes the northern half of the site, creating a rectangle with a park in its center, but leaving the museum without the proper façade. In 1890, the government launched a competition to design new buildings for the museum, with architect Alfred Waterhouse as one of the judges; this will give the museum a new front door that is impressive.

Edwardian Period

The main Façade, built of red brick and Portland rocks, stretches 720 feet (220 m) along Cromwell Gardens and was designed by Aston Webb after winning the competition in 1891 to expand the museum. Construction took place between 1899 and 1909. In style, this is a strange hybrid: despite the many details of the Renaissance, there is medieval influence in the workplace. The main entrance, which consists of a series of shallow arches supported by slender columns and niches with twin doors separated by dock, is in Romanesque but Classical form in detail. Likewise the tower above the main entrance has a crown of open works overcome by a statue of fame, a late Gothic architectural feature and a common feature in Scotland, but the details are Classical. The main windows into the galleries were also remade and transmitted, once again a Gothic feature; the row of windows is interspersed with statues of many British artists whose work is on display in the museum.

Prince Albert appears in the main arch above the twin entrances, and Queen Victoria is above the frame around the arch and entrance, which is carved by Alfred Drury. The Façade surrounds four levels of galleries. Other areas designed by Webb include the Front and Rotunda Hall, East and West Hall, an area occupied by Asian stores and galleries, and the Costume Gallery. The interiors use marble in the entrance hall and flank the stairs, although the original designed galleries are white with classic details and controlled prints, in stark contrast to the elaborate decoration of the Victorian gallery, although many of these ornaments have been removed. at the beginning of the 20th century.

Postwar period

The museum survived the Second World War with only minimal bomb damage. The worst loss was the Victorian stained glass in Ceramics Staircase, which exploded when a bomb fell near him; pockmarks are still visible in faÃÆ'§ade museums caused by fragments of bombs.

In the postwar years soon there is little money available in addition to important improvements. The 1950s and early 1960s saw little ways of building work; The first major work was the creation of new storage space for books in the Art Library in 1966 and 1967. It involves flooring above Aston Webb's main hall to form a pile of books, with a new medieval gallery on the ground floor (now a shop, opened on 2006). Then the underground gallery in the southwest part of the museum was redesigned, opened in 1978 to form a new gallery covering Continental art 1600-1800 (Renaissance end, Baroque via Rococo and neo-Classical). In 1974 the museum has acquired what is now the wing of Henry Cole of the Royal College of Science. To adapt the building as a gallery, all Victorian-style interior except the staircase overhauled during the renovation. To connect this with the rest of the museum, a new entrance building was built on the site of the former boiler house, the Spiral intended spot, between 1978 and 1982. The building is concrete and highly functional, the only iron ornamental gate by Christopher Hay and Douglas Coyne from Royal College of Art. It's set on a column screen wall designed by Aston Webb that forms the faÃÆ'§ade.

Recent years

Some of the redesigned galleries of the 1990s include works by India, Japan, China, iron, main glass galleries and main silver galleries, which were later upgraded in 2002 when some Victorian decorations were remade. These include two out of ten columns that have their ceramic decorations replaced and intricately painted designs restored on the ceiling. As part of a 2006 renovation, the mosaic floor in the statue gallery was restored - most of Victoria's floors were covered with linoleum after the Second World War. After the success of the British Gallery, opened in 2001, it was decided to begin the major redesign of all the galleries in the museum; this is known as "FuturePlan", and is created in consultation with Metaphor's designer and master designer. The plan is expected to take about ten years and begins in 2002. To date several galleries have been redesigned, in particular, in 2002: the main Silver Gallery, Contemporary; in 2003: Photography, main entrance, The Painting Galleries; in 2004: tunnel to subway to South Kensington pipeline, new signage throughout museum, architecture, reading room and V & amp; A and RIBA, metalware, Member Space, contemporary glass, and gallery of Gilbert Bayes statue; in 2005: miniature portraits, prints and drawings, displayed in Room 117, garden, sacred silver and stained glass; in 2006: Central Hall Store, Islamic Middle East, new cafe, and statue gallery. Some designers and architects have been involved in this work. Eva Ji? I? NÃÆ'¡ designs enhancements to the main entrance and rotunda, new stores, tunnels, and statue galleries. Gareth Hoskins is responsible for contemporary and architectural, Softroom, Middle Eastern Islam and Member Space, McInnes Usher McKnight Architects (MUMA) is responsible for the new Cafe and designing a new Medieval and Renaissance gallery that opened in 2009.

In September 2004, the museum's supervisory board chose to abandon the proposed extension, designed by Daniel Libeskind with Cecil Balmond, after failing to receive funds from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

In 2011 V & amp; A announced that a London-based practice, AL A, has won international competition to build a gallery under a new entrance at Exhibition Road. Plans for the scheme were awarded in 2012.

Garden

The central park was redesigned by Kim Wilkie and opened as John Madejski Garden on July 5, 2005. The design is a delicate blend of traditional and modern: the layout is formal; there is an elliptical water feature lined in stone with steps around the edge that can be dried to use the area for receptions, meetings or exhibition purposes. It's in front of the bronze door to the refreshment room. The main road flanked by grass leads to the statue gallery. The north, east and west sides have herb borders along the museum wall with the road ahead that continues along the southern façade. At two corners by north façade, American Sweetgum trees are grown. The southern, eastern and western edges of the lawn have a glass planter containing lemon and lemon trees in summer, replaced by bay trees in the winter.

At night both the planters and water features can be illuminated, and the surrounding façade lights up to reveal details normally in the shadows. Particularly visible is the mosaic in the northern façade loggia. In summer, cafes are set up in the southwest corner. The park is also used for temporary sculpture exhibitions; for example, a sculpture by Jeff Koons performed in 2006. It also hosts the exhibition of the museum's annual contemporary design, V & amp; A Village Fete, since 2005.

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Collection

The Victoria & amp; Museum Albert is divided into four departments Collection: 1) Asia; 2) Furniture, Textiles and Fashion; 3) Sculpture, Metal Craft, Ceramic & amp; Glass; and, 4) Word & amp; Picture. The museum curator takes care of the objects in the collection and provides access to objects that are not currently on display to the public and scholars.

The collection department is subdivided into sixteen display areas, which collect a collection number of more than 6.5 million objects, not all items displayed or stored in V & amp; A. There is a repository at Blythe House, West Kensington, as well as an annexe agency run by V & amp; A, also the Museum lends exhibits to other institutions. Here is a list of each of the collections on display and the number of objects in the collection.

The museum has 145 galleries, but considering most of the collections are only a small part of the ever displayed. Many acquisitions have been made possible only with the help of the National Art Collection Fund.

Architecture

In 2004, V & amp; A alongside the Royal Institute of British Architects opened the first permanent gallery in England that includes architectural history with displays using models, photos, elements of buildings and original drawings. With the opening of a new gallery, the RIBA Image and Archive Collection has been moved to the museum, joining the vast collection held by V & amp; With over 600,000 images, over 750,000 papers and trinkets, and over 700,000 photos from around the world, together they form the world's most comprehensive architectural source.

Not only all the major British architects of the last four hundred years are represented, but many images of European architects (mainly Italians) and Americans are held in collections. RIBA's ownership with over 330 images by Andrea Palladio is the largest in the world, the other well-represented Europeans are Jacques Gentilhatre and Antonio Visentini. The British architects are drawing, and in some cases their building models, in the collection, include: Inigo Jones, Sir Christopher Wren, Sir John Vanbrugh, Nicholas Hawksmoor, William Kent, James Gibbs, Robert Adam, Sir William Chambers, James Wyatt, Henry Holland , John Nash, Sir John Soane, Sir Charles Barry, Charles Robert Cockerell, Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, Sir George Gilbert Scott, John Loughborough Pearson, George Edmund Street, Richard Norman Shaw, Alfred Waterhouse, Sir Edwin Lutyens, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Charles Holden, Frank Hoar, Mr. Richard Rogers, Lord Norman Foster, Sir Nicholas Grimshaw, Zaha Hadid, and Alick Horsnell.

As well as period spaces, the collection includes parts of the building, for example two main stories of Sir Paul Pindar's house facade dated c1600 from Bishopsgate with intricate woodcut work and leaded windows, a rare survivor of the Great Fire of London, there is a portal brick from London's home in the British Restoration period and the fireplace of the Northumberland home gallery. European examples include a 1523-35 roof window from the Montal chateau. There are several examples of Renaissance Renaissance buildings including, portals, fireplaces, balconies, and stone buffets that once built in fountains. The main architectural gallery has a series of pillars of different buildings and different periods, eg columns of the Alhambra. Examples covering Asia are in the galleries associated with these countries, as well as models and photos in the main architectural gallery.

Asia

The V & amp. As the Art collection of Asia numbers over 160,000 objects, one of the largest is there. It has one of the most comprehensive and most important collections of Chinese art in the world, while the South Asian Art collection is the most important in the West. The scope of the museum includes goods from South and Southeast Asia, Himalayan Kingdom, China, the Far East and the Islamic world.

Islamic Art

V & amp; A holds over 19,000 items from the Islamic world, from the early Islamic period (7th century) to the beginning of the 20th century. The Jameel Islamic Arts Gallery, opened in 2006, displays 400 objects with a spotlight on the Ardabil carpet, the centerpiece of the gallery. The displays in this gallery include objects from Spain, North Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia and Afghanistan. An Islamic artwork is a crystalline 10th century crystalline stone. Many examples of the Qur'an with beautiful calligraphy coming from various periods are on display. A minbar of the 15th century from Cairo mosque with ivory forming intricate geometric patterns decorated with wood is one of the larger objects on display. Extensive examples of ceramics especially Iznik pottery, glass including 14th century lights from mosques and metal are on display. The collection of Middle Eastern and Persian rugs and carpets is one of the best in the world, many of which are part of the 1909 Salting Wasiat. Examples of work tiles from various buildings including the 1731 fireplace of Istanbul are made of intricately decorated blue and white tiles. and the turquoise tiles from outside the building from Samarkand are also displayed.

South Asia

The South and Southeast Asian Art Museum's collection is the most comprehensive and important in the West comprising nearly 60,000 objects, including about 10,000 textiles and 6000 paintings, the range of collections is huge. Gallery Jawaharlal Nehru Indian art, opened in 1991, contains art from about 500 BC to the 19th century. There is a large collection of sculptures, mainly religious ones, Hindus, Buddhists and Jains. This gallery is rich with the art of the Mughal Empire and Maratha, including a fine portrait of the emperor and other paintings and drawings, jade wine cup and golden spoon inserted with emeralds, diamonds and rubies, also from this period are part of such buildings as jaali and pillars. India is a large producer of textiles, from cotton knitted chintz, muslin cloth to rich embroidery using gold and silver threads, beads and colored beads, such as rugs from Agra and Lahore. Examples of clothing are also displayed.

In 1879-80 a collection of Indian Indian Museum of Western Indian Company was awarded to V & amp; A and the British Museum. Much of the goods were looted during the Indian Revolt of 1857 by British troops and taken from India. Some examples are 'Tipu's Tiger', an automaton and mechanical organ made in Mysore around 1795. It describes a tiger tiger or a soldier from the British East India Company. It was named after the Mysore ruler who commissioned it, Tipu Sultan.

Shah Jahan's wine glasses were items looted during the Indian Revolt of 1857 and the fall of the Mughal empire into invading British troops. Originally a Mughal property and housed in the Red Fort in Delhi. So far there has been no movement by the museum to catalog and return all goods stolen back to India.

East Asia

The Far East collection includes over 70,000 works of art from East Asian countries: China, Japan and Korea. Gallery T. T. Tsui Chinese art was opened in 1991, featuring a representative collection of V & amp. About 16,000 objects from China, from the 4th millennium BC to the present day. Although most of the artworks on the exhibition dates of the Ming and Qing dynasties, there are exquisite examples of objects dating from the Tang dynasty and previous periods. Particularly, a one-meter-long bronze Buddha head is dated c. 750 AD and one of the oldest items of 2,000 years old, jade horse heads from the cemetery, other statues including human-size grave guards. A classic example of Chinese manufacturing is featured that includes lacquer, silk, porcelain, jade and cloisonnÃÆ' Â © enamel. Two great ancestral portraits of a husband and wife painted with watercolors on the date of silk from the 18th century. There is a unique Chinese varnish table, made in imperial workshops during the reign of Emperor Xuande in the Ming dynasty. Examples of clothing are also displayed. One of the largest objects is a bed of the mid-17th century. The work of contemporary Chinese designers is also featured.

The Toshiba Japanese art gallery opened in December 1986. The majority of exhibits date from 1550 to 1900, but one of the oldest works featured is the 13th century sculpture of Amida Nyorai. Examples of classical Japanese armor from the mid-19th century, steel swords (Katana), Inr ?, Vernis including Mazarin Chest dated c1640 is one of the best surviving pieces of Kyoto, porcelain including Imari, Netsuke, woodblock prints including works from and ? Hiroshige, graphic works including printed books, as well as several paintings, scrolls and screens, textiles and clothing including kimono are some of the items on display. One of the best objects featured was a bronze burner incense from Suzuki Chokichi (koro) dated 1875, standing at an altitude of over 2.25 meters and a diameter of 1.25 meters is also one of the greatest examples made. The museum also stores several pieces of cloisonnÃÆ' Â © from the Japanese art production company, Ando CloisonnÃÆ'Â ©.

The smaller galleries include Korea, the Himalayan empire and Southeast Asia. Korean exhibits include glazed-green ceramics, silk embroidery from officers' robes and glitter boxes adorned with pearls made between 500 AD and 2000. The items of the Himalayas include an important early Nepal bronze statue, repousse and embroidered works. Tibetan art from the 14th century through the nineteenth century is represented by the 14th and 15th century religious images in wood and bronze, scroll and ritual objects. Art from Thailand, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka in gold, silver, bronze, stone, terracotta and ivory represent this rich and complex culture, featuring the 6th to 19th centuries. The purified Hindu and Buddhist sculptures reflect the influence of India; items in the exhibits include betel cutters, ivory comb and bronze latches.

Books

The museum has a National Art Library, a public library of over 750,000 books, photographs, drawings, paintings, and prints. It is one of the largest libraries in the world dedicated to studying fine arts and decorative arts. This library covers all areas and periods of museum collections with special collections that include illuminated manuscripts, rare books and letters and archives of artists.

The library consists of three large public spaces, with about a hundred individual study tables. This is the Western Room, the Central Room and the Reading Room. The living room contains 'special collection material'.

One of the great treasures in the library was Codex Forster, some of Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks. Codex consists of three manuscripts inscribed with parchment, Forster I, Forster II and Forster III, are small enough, dated between 1490 and 1505. Its contents include a large collection of sketches and references to a horseman statue commissioned by Duke of Milan Ludovico Sforza to commemorate his father , Francesco Sforza. It was inherited with over 18,000 books to the museum in 1876 by John Forster. Reverend Alexander Dyce was another philanthropist of the library, leaving 14,000 more books to the museum in 1869. Among the books he collected were early editions in Greek and Latin poets and playwright Aeschylus, Aristotle, Homer, Livy, Ovid, Pindar , Sophocles and Virgil. More recent authors include Giovanni Boccaccio, Dante, Racine, Rabelais and MoliÃÆ'¨re.

Authors whose papers are in the library are as diverse as Charles Dickens and Beatrix Potter. Illuminated manuscripts in libraries dating from the 12th to 16th centuries include: Eadwine Psalter, Canterbury; Pocketbook Jam, Reims; Missal from the Royal Saint Denis Monastery, Paris; Book of Simon Marmion Book of Hours, Bruges; 1524 The charter is illuminated by Lucas Horenbout, London; the Armagnac manuscripts of the experiments and rehabilitation of Joan of Arc, Rouen. also the Victorian period represented by William Morris.

The National Art Library (also called the Department of Words and Pictures) is in the catalog of the Victoria and Albert Museum collections used to be stored in different formats including printed exhibit catalogs, and card catalogs. A computer system called the MODES catalog system was used from the 1980s to the 1990s, but the electronic files were not available to library users. All archival material in the National Art Library uses the Encoded Archival Description (EAD). The Victoria and Albert museums have computer systems but most of the items in the collection, except those newly entered into the collection, may not appear on computer systems. There is a feature on the Victoria Museum and Albert's website called "Search Collection," but not all are listed there.

The National Art Library also includes a collection of comics and comic arts. Important parts of the collection include Krazy Kat Arkive, which consists of 4,200 comics, and Rakoff Collection, consisting of 17,000 items compiled by writer and editor Ian Rakoff.

The Word and Pictures Department at the Victoria and Albert Museum are under the same pressure that is felt in archives around the world, to digitize their collections. The large-scale digitalization project began in 2007 in the department. The project is entitled Project Plant to refer to Andy Warhol and create a factory to digitize the collection completely. The first step of the Factory Project is taking photos using a digital camera. The Word and Image Department has a collection of old photos but in black and white and in various conditions, so new photos are taken. The new photos will be accessible to researchers on the Victoria and Albert Museum website. 15,000 pictures were taken during the first year of the Factory Project, including images, watercolors, computer-generated art, photographs, posters, and woodcarvings. The second step of the Factory Project is to catalog everything. The third step of the Factory Project is to audit the collection. All items photographed and cataloged must be audited to ensure that everything listed in the collection is physically discovered during the manufacture of the Plant Project. The fourth objective of the Factory Project is conservation, which means doing some basic preventable procedures for those items in the department. There is a "Find Collection" feature on the Victoria and Albert website. The main thrust behind a large-scale digitalization project called Project Plant is to register more items in the collection in the computer database.

English Gallery

The fifteen galleries - which opened in November 2001 - contain about 4,000 items. The displays in these galleries are based on three main themes: "Style", "Who Leads the Sense" and "What's New". The covered period is 1500 to 1900, with galleries split into three main subdivisions:

• Tudor and Stuart Britain, 1500-1714, encompassing the Renaissance, Elizabethan, Jacobean, Restoration and Baroque styles
• British Georgian, 1714-1837, covering Palladianism, Rococo, Chinoiserie, Neoclassicism, District, influences of Chinese, Indian and Egyptian styles, and the early Gothic Awakening
Victorian Britain, 1837-1901, which includes the later phases of the Gothic Awakening, the influence of France, the rise of Classics and Renaissance, Aestheticism, Japanese style, the continuous influence of China, India and the Islamic world, the Arts and Crafts movement and the Scottish School.

Not only the works of British artists and craftsmen are exhibited, but also works produced by European artists purchased or commissioned by British customers, as well as imports from Asia, including porcelain, fabrics and wallpapers. Designers and artists whose work is on display in the galleries include Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Grinling Gibbons, Daniel Marot, Louis Laguerre, Antonio Verrio, Sir James Thornhill, William Kent, Robert Adam, Josiah Wedgwood, Matthew Boulton, Canova, Thomas Chippendale, Pugin, William Morris. Customers who have influenced the taste are also represented by the artwork of their collections, these include: Horace Walpole (great influence on the Gothic Awakening), William Thomas Beckford and Thomas Hope.

The gallery displays a number of complete reconstructions and a portion of the period space, of destroyed buildings, including:

• The living room of 2 Henrietta Street, London, dated 1727-28, designed by James Gibbs
• The Musical Room of The Norfolk House, St James Square, London, dated 1756, designed by Matthew Brettingham and Giovanni Battista Borra
• The wall section of the Glass Drawing Room of Northumberland House, dated 1773-75, was designed by Robert Adam

Some of the more prominent works featured in the gallery include:

• The terracotta statue of Pietro Torrigiani is colorful from Henry VII, dated 1509-11
• Henry VIII's desk, dated 1525, is made of walnut and oak, covered with leather and painted and plated with the king's emblem
• Spinet dated 1570-1580, made for Elizabeth I
• Large Bed Ware, dated 1590-1600, large carved four-poster bed with marquetry headboard
• Statue of Gianlorenzo Bernini from Thomas Baker, from the 1630s
• 17th century rug from Sheldon and Mortlake workshops
• Wood aid The Stoning of St. Stephen, dated c1670, by Grinling Gibbons
• The Macclesfield Wine Set, dated 1719-1720, was made by Anthony Nelme, the only complete device known to survive.
• Statue the size of George Frederick Handel, dated 1738, by Louis-FranÃÆ'§ois Roubiliac
• Furniture by Thomas Chippendale and Robert Adam
• The Bashaw Statue, dated 1831-34, by Matthew Cotes Wyatt
• Aesthetic and Arts & amp; Handicraft furniture by Edward William Godwin and Charles Rennie Mackintosh; and carpet and interior textiles by William Morris.

The gallery also connects designs with broader trends in British culture. For example, designs in the Tudor period were influenced by the distribution of printed books and the work of European artists and craftsmen employed in the United Kingdom. In the Stuart period, increased trade, especially with Asia, allowed wider access to luxuries such as carpets, lacquered furniture, silk and porcelain. In Georgian times there was an increasing emphasis on entertainment and recreation. For example, an increase in tea drinking led to the production of tea-making equipment such as porcelain and caddies. The European style seen on the Grand Tour also affects the tastes. As the Industrial Revolution progresses, mass production growth produces entrepreneurs such as Josiah Wedgwood, Matthew Boulton, and Eleanor Coade. In the Victorian era, new technologies and machines had a significant influence on manufacturing, and for the first time since the reform, the Anglican and Roman Catholic Churches had a major influence on art and design such as the Gothic Awakening. There is a great display at the Great Exhibition which, among other things, leads to the establishment of V & amp; A. At the end of the 19th century, the growing reaction to industrialization, led by John Ruskin, contributed to the Arts and Crafts movement.

Cast Court

One of the most dramatic parts of the museum is the Cast Court on the wing of the statue, which consists of two large rooms, two skylighted, two tall residential floors, hundreds of casts of statues, friezes and tombs. One of them is dominated by a full scale replica of Trajan's Column, cut in half to fit under the ceiling. Others include the reproduction of various architectural and architectural works of the Italian Renaissance, including a full-size replica of Michelangelo David . Replications of two previous Davids by Donatello and Verrocchio, are also included, though for the conservation reasons Verbicio replicas are featured in glass boxes.

Both courts were divided by corridors on both floors, and the partitions used to line up the upper corridors (gallery statue of Gilbert Bayes) were removed in 2004 to allow the court to be seen from above.

Ceramics and glass

It is the largest and most comprehensive collection of ceramics and glass in the world, with over 80,000 objects from around the world. Each inhabited continent is represented. Apart from the many sections of the Main Gallery on the ground floor, most of the top floor is reserved for ceramic galleries of all closed periods, which include a display box with a representative selection, but also showcased "viewable storage" of the collection reserves.

The ones represented in this collection are Meissen porcelain, from the first factory in Europe to find Chinese methods in making porcelain. Among the best examples are Vulture Meissen from 1731 and the MÃÆ'¶llendorff Dinner Service, designed in 1762 by Frederick II the Great. Ceramics from the Nationale de SÃÆ'¨vres are very wide, especially from the 18th and 19th centuries. The collection of 18th century British porcelain is the largest and best in the world. Examples of each factory are represented, the collection of Chelsea porcelain and Worcester china is excellent. All the great British factories of the 19th century were also represented. The main thrust for this collection was the Salting Bequest made in 1909, which enriched the stock of Chinese and Japanese ceramic museums. This will be part of the finest collection of East Asian pottery and porcelain in the world, including the Kakiemon device.

Many famous artisans, such as Josiah Wedgwood, William De Morgan, Bernard Leach, and Mintons & amp; Royal Doulton is represented in the collection. There are many Delftware collections produced in England and the Netherlands, which includes a flower pyramid circa 1995 with a height of more than one meter. Bernard Palissy has several examples of his work in collections including plates, jugs and candlesticks. The largest object in this collection is a series of intricate ornate ceramic furnaces from the 16th and 17th centuries, made in Germany and Switzerland. There is an unrivaled collection of Italian maiolica and lustreware from Spain. Iznik's pottery collection from Turkey is the largest in the world.

The glass collection covers 4000 years glass manufacture, and has more than 6000 items from Africa, UK, Europe, America and Asia. The earliest exhibited glasses were from Ancient Egypt and continued into Ancient Rome, Medieval, Renaissance covering areas such as Venetian glass and Bohemian glass and newer periods, including Art Nouveau glass by Louis Comfort Tiffany and ÃÆ'â € ° mile GallÃÆ' ©, the Art Style Deco is represented by some examples by Renà © à © Lalique. There are many examples of good English crystal lamps, featured in English and foreign galleries eg Venetian (linked to Giuseppe Briati) dated c1750 are in the collection. The stained glass collection may be the best in the world, covering the medieval to modern period, and includes Europe as well as England. Several examples of 16th century heraldic English glasses are shown in the British Gallery. Many famous stained glass designers are represented in collections including, from the 19th century: Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris. There are also examples of Frank Lloyd Wright's work in the collection. The 20th century designers include Harry Clarke, John Piper, Patrick Reyntiens, Veronica Whall and Brian Clarke.

The main gallery was redesigned in 1994, the glass fence in the staircase and the mezzanine is the work of Danny Lane, a gallery that includes a contemporary glass opened in 2004 and a silver and stained glass gallery in 2005. In this last stained glass gallery is featured together with silver starting in the 12th century and continuing to this day. Some of the most prominent stained glass, dated from 1243-48 are from Sainte-Chapelle, shown along with other examples in the new Middle Ages & amp; Renaissance Gallery. An important 13th-century glass of glass known as Edenhall's Luck is also featured in these galleries. Examples of English stained glass are displayed in the English Gallery. One of the most spectacular items in the collection is the chandelier by Dale Chihuly in the rotunda at the museum's main entrance.

Contemporary

This gallery is dedicated to temporary exhibitions featuring trends from the past decade and latest designs and fashions.

Print and image

Prints and images from over 750,000 items in the collection can be viewed on request in the print space, "Print and Picture Study Room"; booking an appointment is required. The image collection includes over 10,000 masterpieces of English and 2,000 old works, including works by: DÃÆ'¼rer, Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, Bernardo Buontalenti, Rembrandt, Antonio Verrio, Paul Sandby, John Russell, Angelica Kauffman, John Flaxman, Hugh Douglas Hamilton, Thomas Wilbie, John Martin, Samuel Palmer, Sir Edwin Henry Landseer, Lord Frederic Leighton, Sir Samuel Luke Fildes and Aubrey Beardsley. Modern British artists represented in the collection include: Paul Nash, Percy Wyndham Lewis, Eric Gill, Stanley Spencer, John Piper, Robert Priseman, Graham Sutherland, Lucian Freud and David Hockney.

The printed collection has over 500,000 items, including: posters, greeting cards, book plates, as well as a full collection of old Renaissance prints to date, including Rembrandt, William Hogarth, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Canaletto, Karl Friedrich Schinkel, Henri Matisse, and Sir William Nicholson.

Mode

The costume collection is the most comprehensive in the UK, which contains over 14,000 apparel plus accessories, primarily dating from 1600 to the present. Costume sketches, design notes, and other works on paper are usually held by Word and Image departments. Because the everyday clothes of the previous era generally do not survive, the collection is dominated by fashionable clothes made for special occasions. One of the first important prizes of the costumes came in 1913 when V & amp; A received a collection of Talbot Hughes which contained 1,442 costumes and items as a gift from Harrods after being exhibited at a nearby department store.

Some of the oldest items in this collection are medieval robes, especially the Opus Anglicanum. One of the most important items in this collection is the James II wedding suit from England, shown in the British Gallery.

In 1971, Cecil Beaton curated the exhibition of 1,200 high-end fashion clothing and accessories of the 20th century, including dress worn by leading social figures such as Patricia Lopez-Willshaw, Gloria Guinness and Lee Radziwill, and actresses like Audrey Hepburn and Ruth Ford. After the exhibition, Beaton donated most of the exhibits to the Museum on behalf of his former owner.

In 1999, V & A started a series of live catwalk events at the museum titled Fashion in Motion that featured items from historically important fashion collections. The first show featured Alexander McQueen in June 1999. Since then, the museum has hosted numerous designer events every year including Anna Sui, Tristan Webber, Elspeth Gibson, Chunghie Lee, Jean Paul Gaultier, Missoni, Gianfranco Ferrà © ©, Christian Lacroix, Kenzo and Kansai Yamamoto among others.

In 2002, the Museum obtained a Costiff collection of 178 Vivienne Westwood costumes. Other famous designers working in the collection include Coco Chanel, Hubert de Givenchy, Christian Dior, CristÃÆ'³bal Balenciaga, Yves Saint Laurent, Guy Laroche, Irene Galitzine, Mila SchÃÆ'¶n, Valentino Garavani, Norman Norell, Norman Hartnell, Zandra Rhodes, Hardy Amies , Mary Quant, Christian Lacroix, Jean Muir and Pierre Cardin. The museum continues to obtain examples of modern fashions to add to the collection.

V & amp; A runs a sustainable textile and apparel conservation program. For example, in 2008 Dior's 1954 Dior outfit, heavily damaged, and water-damaged called Zemire was returned to displayable conditions for the Golden Age of Couture exhibition .

Furniture

In November 2012, the Museum opened its first gallery to be exclusively dedicated to furniture. Before this date furniture has been exhibited as part of a larger period context, rather than separately to show the design and benefits of construction. Among the designers on display in the new gallery are Ron Arad, John Henry Belter, Joe Colombo, Eileen Gray, Verner Panton, Thonet, and Frank Lloyd Wright.

The collection of furniture, while covering Europe and America from the Middle Ages to the present, is largely British, between 1700 and 1900. Many of the best examples are featured in the English Gallery, including Chippendale, Adam, Morris, and Mackintosh.. One of the oldest items is the chair leg of Central Egypt dated 200-395AD.

The Furniture and Wood Collection also includes full rooms, musical instruments and clocks. Among the rooms owned by the Museum is the Boudoir of Madame de SÃÆ' Â © villy (Paris, 1781-82) by Claude Nicolas Ledoux, with panels painted by Jean Simeon Rousseau de la RottiÃÆ'¨re; and Kaufmann's Frank Lloyd Wright's Office, designed and built between 1934 and 1937 for Pittsburgh department store owners.

The collection includes William Kent, Henry Flitcroft, Matthias Lock, James Stuart, William Chambers, John Gillow, James Wyatt, Thomas Hopper, Charles Heathcote Tatham, Pugin, William Burges, Charles Voysey, Charles Robert Ashbee, Baillie Scott, Edwin Lutyens, Edward Maufe, Wells Coates and Robin's Day. The museum also hosts a national wallpaper collection, which is supervised by the Department of Prints, Drawings and Paintings.

The Soulages collection of Italian and Renaissance French objects was obtained between 1859 and 1865, and included some cassone. John Jones's collection of French 18th-century art and furnishings was delivered to the museum in 1882, then priced at £ 250,000. One of the most important parts of this collection is the commode marquetry by Jean Henri Riesener on 1780. Other pieces of furniture included in the collection include a bureau by Jean-FranÃÆ'§ois Oeben, a pair of poles with brasswork inscribed by Andrà ©  © Charles Boulle, a commode by Bernard Vanrisamburgh and a desk by Martin Carlin. Other 18th century ÃÆ'  © bÃÆ'  © nistes represented in the Museum collection include Adam Weisweiler, David Roentgen, Gilles Joubert and Pierre Langlois. In 1901, Sir George Donaldson donated several pieces of Nouveau furniture to the museum, which he earned the previous year at the Paris Exposition Universelle. It was criticized at the time, with the result that the museum stopped to collect contemporary items and did not do it again until the 1960s. In 1986 Lady Abingdon's collection of French Imperial furniture was inherited by Ny. T. R. P. Hole.

There is a beautiful set of ornamental doors, dated 1580 from Antwerp City Hall, which is associated with Hans Vredeman de Vries. One of the best pieces of continental furniture in the collection is the Rococo Augustus Rex Bureau Cabinet dated c1750 from Germany, with excellent marquetry and ormolu mounts. One of the grandest pieces of 19th-century furniture is the elaborate French Cabinet dated 1861-1867 made by M. Fourdinois, made of ebony encrusted with boxes, chalk, holly, pear, walnut, and mahogany and marble with laminated carvings gold.. Furniture designed by Ernest Gimson, Edward William Godwin, Charles Voysey, Adolf Loos and Otto Wagner is one example of the 19th century and early 20th century in this collection. Modernist works in the collection include Le Corbusier, Marcel Breuer, Charles and Ray Eames, and GiÃÆ'² Ponti.

One of the oldest hours in the collection is the 1588 astronomical clock by Francis Nowe. One of the greatest was James Markwick, the youth clock of 1725, nearly 3 feet high and tiered. Other clock makers by working in the collection include: Thomas Tompion, Benjamin Lewis Vulliamy, John Ellicott and William Carpenter.

Jewelry

The jewelry collection, which contains over 6000 items is one of the finest and most complete jewelry collections in the world and includes works from Ancient Egypt to this day, as well as jewelry designs on paper. The museum has the famous jewelry works of Cartier, Jean Schlumberger, Peter Carl Fabergà © Ã… ©, Andrew Grima, Hemmerle and Lalique. Other items in the collection include diamond gown ornaments made for Catherine the Great, a bracelet ever owned by Marie Antoinette, and Emerald Beauharnais necklaces presented by Napoleon to his adopted daughter Hortense de Beauharnais in 1806. The museum also collects modern international jewelry by designers. such as Gijs Bakker, Onno Boekhoudt, Peter Chang, Gerda Flockinger, Lucy Sarneel, Dorothea PrÃÆ'¼hl and Wendy Ramshaw, as well as traditional African and Asian jewelry. The main heritages include the Reverend Chauncy Hare Townshend collection containing 154 gems handed down in 1869, a 1951 gift from Lady Cory's 18th and 19th diamond key jewelery, and jewelry bassist Dame Joan Evans's 1977 awards of more than 800 gems dating from the Middle Ages to the early 19th century. A new jewelery gallery, funded by William and Judith Bollinger, opened on May 24, 2008. In the Victoria and Albert Museum there is also contemporary jewelry unique to James RiviÃÆ'¨re, considered the most important jewelry design of the 20th century, i> Optical Titanio Diago . This unique pendant by jewelry based in Milan James RiviÃÆ'¨re (born 1949) is an interesting and relatively early example of titanium used in jewelry. The design of the pendant, with its layered parallel lines, is influenced by Op or Optical Art, and is related to the theme explored by RiviÃÆ'¨re from the late 1960s. The 1970s saw many experiments with new materials in jewelry. Among the most colorful are refractory metal titanium, with colorful surface staining achieved by passing the electric current controlled through the metal.

Metal work

This collection of over 45,000 items includes decorative iron, both wrought and cast, bronze, silver, weapons and armor, lead, brassware and enamel (including many examples of enamel Limoges). The main iron work gallery was redesigned in 1995.

There are more than 10,000 objects made of silver or gold in the collection, the screen (about 15% of the collection) is divided into secular and sacred covering Christian (Roman Catholic, Anglican and Greek Orthodox) and Jewish liturgical ships and goods. The main silver galleries are divided into these areas: the pre-1800 British silver; British silver from 1800 to 1900; modern to contemporary silver; Silver of Europe. The collection includes the earliest English silver pieces with date marks, gold silver glass dated 1496-97. Silversmith's work represented in the collection including Paul de Lamerie and Paul Storr of Castlereagh Inkstand dated 1817-19 is one of his best works. The main iron work galleries include European forging and cast iron from the medieval period to the early 20th century. The wrought iron master Jean Tijou is represented by both examples of his work and designs on paper. One of the biggest items is the Hereford Screen, weighing nearly 8 tons, 10.5 meters high and 11 meters wide, designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott in 1862 for the chancel at Hereford Cathedral, which was removed from it in 1967. Created by Skidmore & amp; Company. The wood and cast iron structure is adorned with wrought iron, brass and copper scrubbed. Most copper and iron are painted in various colors. The arches and columns are decorated with polished quartz and mosaic panels.

One of the rarest items in the collection is the 58cm Gloucester Candlestick, dated with c1110, made of golden bronze; with twigs that are intertwined

Source of the article : Wikipedia