Superlatives have been heaped on the Medieval and Renaissance Galleries since they opened in December, but how good are they?
The numbers alone are staggering: following more than six years’ work and nearly £32m, 10 galleries now house 1,800 items, which represent 1,300 years of arts and crafts from Europe and beyond.
Overall, the galleries have a strong impact and the displays are impressive. There are some flaws, but large-scale projects such as this often require compromises. However, the overriding sense of scholarship, the regard for this extensive collection and the desire to show it at its best, remained with me long after I had left.
On arriving, I was immediately drawn to the Renaissance City: 1350-1600 gallery, which meant I missed a small doorway to the right of the main entrance. If I had gone through the doorway, my journey would have commenced with the end of the Roman Empire.
Instead, I started in about 1560 and, working backwards, was greeted by Giambologna’s Samson Slaying a Philistine with an ass’s jawbone; still a fitting place to begin since it represents the dark ages being replaced by more enlightened times.
Beyond this lies a bright and beautifully arranged gallery that looks like a sunlit Italian courtyard, replete with tinkling water from a modern fountain.
It’s a busy room but retains a light and airy feel because of the array of large works carved from pale stones punctuated by occasional items in dark greens and greys – a colour scheme presumably influenced by the choir screen from the Cathedral of St John in 's-Hertogenbosch, which spans the entire room.
Visitors go through the screen to enter a fictive church, where altarpieces are exhibited high on stone bases. These bases also conceal lights that illuminate the carved scenes from below, throwing the painted and gilded figures into deep relief. It is a clever conjunction of modern technology used sensitively to echo the original effects of a candle-lit interior.
The breadth of the collection is striking in this extensive gallery, and the juxtaposition of different techniques and materials within thematic displays is convincing.
There’s a sense of original context that stops short of pastiche or theatricality, but ultimately it’s the objects that truly sing, especially those items that have benefited from conservation.
Subsequent displays follow in a similar vein and among the most effective are the recreation of a scholar’s study, a case devoted to marriage and motherhood and another that comprises an entire religious procession. These all-inclusive displays are so striking that more traditional means of presentation can seem rather pedestrian.
A case of Giambologna models looks unimaginative and Donatello’s Lamentation Over the Death of Christ languishes in a corner and the lighting of his Ascension relief could be improved.
Active viewing
Individual galleries are named after themes such as Devotion and Display: 300-1500; Noble Living: 1350-1500; Splendour and Society: 1500-1600; and a World of Goods: 1450-1600. Dates are always given but a strict chronology is avoided and even though a helpful timeline is provided, there is no sense of an artificial trajectory of development and progression.
The displays make it clear that no single place dominated creativity and instead visitors are shown how invention, ideas and influences moved between cities, countries and continents, as advances in technology were made and fashions came and went. It’s also clear that no practitioner worked in splendid isolation, whether they were Donatello or an anonymous craftsman.
Within each room, some exhibits are additionally categorised under one of four possible topics: Styles; Uses and Contexts; Makers and Markets; Continuity and Change. Selected items are denoted by gold labels with occasional longer descriptions on gold panels.
Most of the interpretation is discreet, with an emphasis on the visitor’s active viewing and unmediated engagement. Some technical terms do crop up, which might frustrate some visitors, as might the occasional use of Latin, Italian and other languages.
And some labels were hard to read, obscured by my own shadow or a spotlight flare, or were of white text on a black background.
I had most trouble in the otherwise beautiful Noble Living gallery, which is dominated by the great boar and bear hunt tapestry. Its history and symbolism is explained on an interactive screen, which, as the kind of device I normally avoid, defeated me (although a pair of elderly ladies had no trouble at all).
But modern technology has a place in today’s museums and some of it did enhance my experience and appreciation. I relished “turning the pages” of a Da Vinci notebook and it was a pleasure to listen to previously unrecorded music taken from actual exhibits.
As I sat before an altarpiece of the Apocalypse (1380), a Gregorian chant from Revelations played through the headphones and it was heaven to be transported to hell and back.
I also admired the clever lighting behind panels of stained glass, but admit it was a relief when all I had to do was open a cupboard to see a wonderful drawing of Ulm cathedral.
“Museums of high art”
Many items in these galleries are here because of the enthusiasm of John Charles Robinson, who worked at the museum from 1853 until 1867.
He tirelessly campaigned for major purchases of Renaissance items, often facing stiff opposition from colleagues. For him, they signified an exalted culture and he wanted to share the beauty which had been everywhere and turned entire cities into “museums of high art”.
Robinson would surely welcome the dazzling results with which the collection he pioneered has been re-envisaged. There is grand spectacle, though it’s often the smaller items that enthral and with so much to admire it should attract lots of repeat visits.
Stephen Feeke is the curator at the New Art Centre in Salisbury, Wiltshire
Project data
Cost £31.75m
Main funders Heritage Lottery Fund £9.75m, Paul and Jill Ruddock, Garfield Weston Foundation, Monument Trust, Simon Sainsbury, Wolfson Foundation, Edwin and Susan Davies, American Friends of the V&A, Hintze Family Charitable Foundation, Selz Foundation, Bonita Trust, Foyle Foundation
Architect and exhibition designer Muma
Lighting Arup Lighting
Lighting consultant DHA Design
Graphic design Holmes Wood
Project management Lend Lease March Consulting
Structural engineer Dewhurst Macfarlane and Partners
Main contractor Holloway White Allom
Historic building consultant Julian Harrap Architects
Cost consultant Davis Langdon
Acoustician Sound Space Design
Display cases Glasbau Hahn
