DoneThat
The Victoria & Albert Museum (5), South Kensington, London
The Cast Court features, as its name implies, 'casts' of various objects and comes as quite a surprise because of the size of some of the exhibits. These faithful copies were mainly taken from works of art or architectural details throughout Europe during the nineteenth century, when the collecting of such casts was at its most popular.
Trajan's Column commemorates the successful campaigns of the Roman Emperor against the Dacians of the Danube frontier in AD 101-2 and 105-6. It stood at the focal point of the Emperor's Forum in Rome. The gallery, at 83 feet high, is not high enough to display the column in one piece so it is shown in two sections. When complete it is approximately 140 feet high and 14 feet in diameter.
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The Simon Sainsbury Gallery displays the Medieval and Renaissance past in the form of fragments of the past remaining in the towns, cities and rural landscapes of Europe.
The picture shows an oak spiral staircase dating from 1522-30 originally in a town house in Morlaix, Brittany.
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In the Asian Galleries is Sultan Tipu's Tiger; an automaton of a tiger eating a european. Concealed in the bodywork is a mechanical pipe-organ with several parts, all operated simultaneously by a crank-handle on the tiger's shoulder.
Inside the automoton are bellows. Turning the handle pumps the bellows and the air-flow simulates the growls of the tiger and cries of the victim. The cries are varied by the approach of the hand towards the mouth and away, as the left arm is raised and lowered.
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The Ardabil Carpet was made in the late 1530s in Persia (Iran) for a shrine in Ardabil and would have taken a team of skilled weavers several years to complete.
This carpet is lit for ten minutes on each hour and half hour in order to reduce fading and thus preserve the colours. It measures approximately 17.6 feet wide and 34.5 feet long.
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