...the VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM was my first stop in london. the museum is incredible--that's probably the understatement of the century. i had a blast walking around it. e v e r y time i turned a corner i came across a work that i have either studied or written a paper on. i'll give you a little taste of some of the wonderful works i saw below. just being in the building alone was such a treat. for the most part, all the buildings in england are symmetrical, well-designed (i guess that goes with symmetrical), and beautiful--it's such a relief not to have to look at ugly buildings. my outlook on life and faith in humanity has elevated to such a high standard...haha. it took the longest time (about two and a half weeks) to get used to the flow of traffic here. "..look left, no no look right first, now left, oh wait better look at my right again, okay, look left again just to be safe, then right...omg, just run across the street!...no! wait---pedestrians DO NOT have the right-of-way here..." conclusion: it's the safest decision to just wait for the light. anyways, i'm going off on a tangent...back to the V&A museum...
...this is the first room i walked into @ the V&A--the sculpture gallery! wowowow. the windows on the left provide the lovely view of the courtyard.
...here is an image of the lovely building in/facing the courtyard.
CHIHULY in the V&A!!! i felt (only a little bit) like i was @ home!
I wrote a paper on this statue, theseus and the minotaur c. 1781-3 by antonio canova. i felt like a little kid in a candy shop in the sculpture gallery at the V&A. seriously. there are so many statues that are just incredible. i happened to just walk by this work the first time. i think i was so distracted looking out the window @ the buildings in the courtyard (scroll back up to the image above^^^) yeah i know, i was just surrounded by beautiful things, which was just overloading my senses! so you can imagine how i just passed by this statue... the details were just incredible. photos and descriptions in books or on the web never mentioned the fine details of the arm-pit hair or other minuet details....
i also wrote a paper on the monument depicted on this little snuff container. Etienne Maurice Falconet's monument to Peter the Great of Russia.
...and of course i studied auguste rodin's st. john the baptist c. 1879-80, in my modern sculpture class. the surface area on his work just begs you to touch it, so i couldn't resist... i actually touch one. shhh.
...and another rodin:
i'm probably going to have a mobile like this in my house, of course mine will be the smaller version...
another gallery...
after the V&A i walked around london and just took in all the landmarks, like HARRODS.
a lovely cathedral @ night
until next time,
xoxo
gossip girl
Wow! Did you go in Harrod's!?!?
ReplyDeleteSnuff is such an overlooked aspect of past eras. Snuff container collections, as well as, snuff etiquette was epic!
Harrods!! I went there when I was in London (the summer after 9th grade) and bought a pair of argyle blue socks :) I had to (sadly) throw them out a couple of years ago... The heel was worn through... And they were probably 7 or 8 years old!! :-P Love the blog!!
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