V and A Museum

We spent a long time investigating this museum. Prince Albert created the museum for the Great Exhibition of 1851. The museum’s purpose was to “educate designers, manufacturers and the public in art and design. (https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/building-the-museum )” This museum was designed to inspire Britain’s industry. The pieces were chosen from all over the world.

I took photo’s and notes on the exhibits I found inspiring inside the museum, which are listed below:

This is a wellhead from Venice from 800-900 A.D. The mouth of the well indicated allegiance to government and faith organizations. This particular well indicated that the town followed Christ under the Byzantine empire.

According to the information next to this exhibition, this map was created to show the human history of the world, not the geographic map of the world. The map depicts Christ’s head at the top of the map, his hands to the side and feet at the bottom, and his heart is featured in the middle as Jerusalem. The map did not show Australasia as they did not know this part of the world existed. The map was made out of animal hides sewn together.

This was a copy of a window from around 1160 A.D. in Northern France. Made of Limestone, this window was used in common houses of the time. The reliefs on the window depict mythical beasts, sirens, centaurs and basilisks.

This collection of stain-glass was collected as an example of Gothic glass-work. I found this piece appealing because it was influenced by French artists and Italian Painters according to the exhibit.

This strongbox, made of Iron weighs 441 pounds, was used to store important documents of the time. It contained a hidden button that released three keyholes. One of the keyholes releases an internal bolt that opens the box.