I have spent a couple of days in our capital city recently, in part due to the fact I wanted to see the Baroque exhibition in the Victoria and Albert Museum (open until 19th July; 6 pounds for students, 11 pounds for normal people).
Like many exhibitions, it was quite small. Taking up just over a handfull of halls, it showed a splattering of highly selective examples of the baroque era: paintings, jewellery, furnature (which I particularly enjoyed), theatre costumes and props, religious antiquities of note, including a full size reredos (with tabernacle intact, but empty obviously) and original models of religious art including the Vatican's Holy Spirit window (on which, I didn't realise, the dove is the size of a fully grown man) and St Teresa of Avila in Ecstacy's face mould. Several of the pieces, unfortunately, focused on the French interpretation of Baroque trumpted by Louis XIV, rather than focusing on the Italian.
Also, I was very pleased to say hello to an old friend: cabinet I have seen in the sacristy of the Sistine Chapel was sat there in the first room. Or at least a copy.
Dinner sets, toilettes, wine coolers, beds, dresses (for men), Queen Anne's throne, clocks, tea tables, statuettes, ivory, Meissen: they are all there to be enjoyed. There were examples from almost every walk of life: if they had the money, of course. Even a seventeenth century Chinese Madonna and Child.
In the room dedicated to religion, there was a small section for Roman Catholicism's input to the world of art in the arena of the liturgy. A fine altar was laid out, though the altar cards were of interest: the text was writted on sheets of silver moulded to look like paper. Another altar card was studded with all sorts of fine jewels, next to various reliquaries and monstrances. All the other altar paraphanalia were there too: chalice, ciborium, thurible, boat, spoon, ewer, basin, cruets, paten, vestments, veils, burse (with tassels) and a video with a pair of white gloves demonstrating how all these things were put together. There was another video, which showed (maybe a mock up, I'm not sure) of the celebration of Holy Mass next door in the Oratory, which I thought was quite nice, and made its rounds on the internet quite a while ago.
Baroque: Oratory Latin Mass from Victoria and Albert Museum on Vimeo.
All the other videos and pieces of music in the exhibition are available to view on their website.
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