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V&A's renaissance: new galleries reveal greatest treasures
Louise Jury, Chief Arts Correspondent30 Nov 2009
The new galleries at the Victoria and Albert Museum showing a thousand years of European art and design at a cost of £32million.
The new medieval and Renaissance wing will house 1,800 objects from the fall of the Romans to 1600 and is the conclusion of a decade-long transformation of the museum which has seen 70 per cent of its galleries overhauled or refurbished.
Treasures such as Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks will go on show permanently for the first time after curators devised low-level lighting to protect them from damage.
Others, such as the Renaissance Troy tapestry, go on show for the first time in decades after restoration. The tapestry has required 4,000 hours of conservation.
More works will be seen for the first time in galleries which have been created out of old offices, stores and corridors.
Among these highlights are the Becket Casket made in Limoges, France, reputedly to hold the relics of the murdered Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Becket; and the giant wooden façade of the only City home - that of diplomat Sir Paul Pindar's House from Bishopsgate Without - to have survived the Great Fire of London.
Curator Peta Motture, who has overseen the plans over the last seven years, said it was "strange but exciting" to be finally unveiling the results.
Works of the medieval and Renaissance period are being shown as a continual narrative in their context.
In a gallery of medieval religious artworks, light filters through translucent onyx window screens resembling the windows of medieval churches.
In the Renaissance City gallery, large-scale works, once part of Florentine buildings, are shown alongside sculptures evoking a Renaissance courtyard.
Another gallery is dedicated to the art and influence of 15th-century artist Donatello, showcasing the museum's collection of Italian Renaissance sculpture - the greatest outside Italy.
Mark Jones, the V&A's director, said: "The medieval and Renaissance galleries mark the culmination of nine years of systematic renewal at the V&A.
"The new galleries present some of the world's greatest treasures in beautifully designed galleries that we hope will inspire all our visitors."
Funding for the galleries included a £9.75million grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund and private donations of more than £20million. They open on Wednesday.
For more information go to www.vam.ac.uk/medren
