The Cast Court at the V&A.
Only half a day's work this week, so I'm vegging out at home again, reading and thinking vaguely about unblocking the sink (again).
The weather this weekend started out so remarkably foul that on SaturdayI poked my head out of the duvet only briefly, clocked the wind, darkness and driving rain, only surfacing much later to cancel the planned trip to Brighton on Sunday. Sunday of course was bright, clear and sunny, so we ended up going to the V&A again, to see the href="http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/sculpture/sculpture_features/cast_collection/index.html">Cast Courts.
These are two huge rooms (only one of them open at the moment) containing an astonishing collection of virtuoso plaster casts, providing accurate life-size copies of a huge and rather random range of European sculpture and architecture, including the whole of Trajan's column from Rome in two sections, Michaelangelo's David* and a carved cross from Monasterboice in Ireland. I think I've posted about this before, but it's worth mentioning again.
The closed cast court, full of oddments.
One section of Trajan's column - it's probably easier to get a good look at it here than in Rome.
That's the front porch of the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, plus a German bronze lion, some Italian bronze gates and a small pillar that I didn't note the details of.
This is a carved wooden doorway from a Norwegian church. I suspect that what we normally think of as "Celtic knotwork" is as much Viking as Celtic.
There were some rather nice animals, including this rather grumpy cousin of the Cowardly Lion.
This unfortunate creature (a panther perhaps?) being transfixed by a Crusader's sword. This is from the Temple Church in London, where the originals were very badly damaged in the war, so this is the best record we have of these tombs.
An unexpected row of hefty snails holding up a huge German tomb.
Another row of rather put-upon looking demons (I think) holding up the whole of Santiago de Compostela cathedral.
ETA I just found this nice little page on the V&A site about Guardian Beasts.
*Somewhere in the museum is the plaster fig-leaf they used to preserve David's modesty when ladies of the royal family visited (there's a photo at the V&A link).
The weather this weekend started out so remarkably foul that on SaturdayI poked my head out of the duvet only briefly, clocked the wind, darkness and driving rain, only surfacing much later to cancel the planned trip to Brighton on Sunday. Sunday of course was bright, clear and sunny, so we ended up going to the V&A again, to see the href="http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/sculpture/sculpture_features/cast_collection/index.html">Cast Courts.
These are two huge rooms (only one of them open at the moment) containing an astonishing collection of virtuoso plaster casts, providing accurate life-size copies of a huge and rather random range of European sculpture and architecture, including the whole of Trajan's column from Rome in two sections, Michaelangelo's David* and a carved cross from Monasterboice in Ireland. I think I've posted about this before, but it's worth mentioning again.
The closed cast court, full of oddments.
One section of Trajan's column - it's probably easier to get a good look at it here than in Rome.
That's the front porch of the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, plus a German bronze lion, some Italian bronze gates and a small pillar that I didn't note the details of.
This is a carved wooden doorway from a Norwegian church. I suspect that what we normally think of as "Celtic knotwork" is as much Viking as Celtic.
There were some rather nice animals, including this rather grumpy cousin of the Cowardly Lion.
This unfortunate creature (a panther perhaps?) being transfixed by a Crusader's sword. This is from the Temple Church in London, where the originals were very badly damaged in the war, so this is the best record we have of these tombs.
An unexpected row of hefty snails holding up a huge German tomb.
Another row of rather put-upon looking demons (I think) holding up the whole of Santiago de Compostela cathedral.
ETA I just found this nice little page on the V&A site about Guardian Beasts.
*Somewhere in the museum is the plaster fig-leaf they used to preserve David's modesty when ladies of the royal family visited (there's a photo at the V&A link).