Gallery Visit: Visit a Cast Gallery - Part 4, Project 3

Research - Conservation - Interpretation - Entertainment

For a really interesting introduction to the Victoria and Albert Museum Cast Courts, you can visit vimeo.com/90982128

My sketch of Trajan's Column in the West Court

This assignment was really enjoyable for me as I spend at least two days a month in the Victoria and Albert Museum, often doing drawings in the Cast Courts. Until November 2014, the East Court will be closed for refurbishment, but the West Court is open and has a magnificent collection of Northern European and Spanish sculpture together with the amazing Trajan's Column. Like all exhibits in museums, the works are seen out of context, with little information given on how they would be viewed originally. Many of them would have been outside, so the impression of scale will be/was quite different when approached from a few hundred feet away as opposed to from a doorway; but the fact that one has to crane one's neck to look up at the tallest exhibits makes visitors feel very small when walking around these magnificent and inspiring spaces. Trajan's Column (opp.) is one of my favourites, soaring 38 metres upwards with a continuous frieze winding 200 metres in total to tell the story of Trajan's campaigns from 101AD-106AD against the Dracians of the Danube frontier. It was possible for Roman citizens to climb up the stairs inside the column and stand outside at the top to view the Forum below. Originally the whole sculpted surface was picked out in colour with metal accessories added, and could be viewed at various heights from the balconies of the surrounding libraries of the Forum buildings in Rome. This plaster casting is clearly monochrome and therefore doesn't offer the colourful experience of the original. The gallery is not high enough to hold the column in one piece, so it is shown as two parts, making it easier for people today to appreciate areas of detail that would be too high to see in its original position. Some of the carving in the original column has been lost to the ravages of pollution, so this cast has become a very valuable record of detail that has ceased to exist on the original. From an Art History and Conservation point of view, Trajan's Column holds enough interest to keep me busy for years to come. I find the whole concept of cast courts quite inspirational, as they take hundreds of years of history and bring them together in the moment under one roof. To visit these works in situ is now impossible in some cases and exteremely time-consuming in others (although there are several that I plan to see!).

Fontaine des Innocents, Paris (non-copyright photo)

To some extent the two parts of Trajan's column dominate the cast gallery, and dwarf the smaller pieces of sculpture and relief on the walls. I particularly like to draw the nymphs and putti that formed part of the Fontaine Des Innocents in Paris, (see photo right), carved in stone in 1547-49 by John Goujon (see below left and right).  They are hung side by side on a wall in the cast gallery, giving an impression that is quite different from seeing them in situ, where they adorn the four sides of the fountain.

  

My photo of the nymphs  

My photo of nymphs and putti. 

Own photo of St Stephen.

The cast courts give students like me an amazing opportunity to get up close to sculptures by experts from centuries ago who were at the pinnacle of their expertise, and the casting itself has been done with such skill and attention that it is often difficult to believe that the medium is different from the original. The cast (left) of St. Stephen shows  not only the detailed carving of the figure, but also the original paint colours used. My sketch of the head detail (below) allowed me to contemplate the marks made by one of the greatest sculptors of the Late Middle Ages, a contemporary of Albrecht Durer, the great Tilman Riemenshneider of Warzburg, Germany.  Set at eye level in the cast court, this sculpture is a joy on its own, but seen in the context of the other parts of the altarpiece, it is an amazing achievement. Interpreting the work of Riemenshneider in a pencil drawing gives me the opportunity to study the marks made by the chisels and rasps used in the art of woodcarving in a way that I would not fully appreciate just by looking.

Own photo of the whole altarpeice.

My sketch of head detail of St Stephen

The whole altarpiece (left) shows St Barbara and Stephen carvings on the right side.

My sketch of detail of head of St Barbara

Another of my favourite pieces to draw in the Cast Courts is this statue of the Three Graces (right), which is a copy of the original in the Louvre (below), by the famous Franch sculptor, Germain Pilon. Made in stone in 1525, I find it so graceful - and difficult to draw - that I return to it time and again. One of the slight problems with drawing in the Cast Courts is that it is not always easy to get far enough away from the subject to fit it all in to the page; and being close to these large sculptures often means an uncomfortable standing position. However, there are compensations, as it is relatively quiet compared to some of the other galleries in the V&A, and I am often left undisturbed. There is quite a different feeling seeing the original in white alabaster with the gilded urn atop the heads - it look much "finer" and more "pure" than the cast, and somehow less heavy.

The original (copyright The Louvre)

My photo of the plaster cast in V&A

But the opportunity to walk all around the work from a few inches away more than compensates. The way the Cast Courts have mixed up pieces from various countries and various centuries also gives the visitor a wonderful opportunity to compare and contrast the different styles that were being used by sculptors over several centuries - nearly 2000 years in all from Trajan's Column to the present day.

Untitled (Room 101) - Photo courtesy of The Guardian

In 2004, the Turner prize-winner Rachel Whiteread exhibited her Untitled (Room 101) cast in the Cast Courts (above), showing that there is a place for modern works in these galleries.Showing the room that inspired George Orwell's vision of the worst nightmare, rats and all.  It was cast by Whiteread before the original was demolished and gave visitors a unique chance to explore the space without the fears aroused by Orwell's vision. I hope they continue to evolve. as Adolf Borbein states in his informative article on the history of plaster casts, they "teach the eye and train our undeveloped capacity to respond to three-dimensional plastic form".

There is much evidence of casts being used by artists throughout history - Leonardo da Vinci was known to have a large collection - and drawing from casts was an essential part of art training. The first casts we know were made by the ancient Egyptians, and the first cast collections can be found in ancient Rome. But modern artists are also turning the casts themselves into artworks in their own right. In a previous post (27th December, 2013) I wrote about Antony Gormley's "6 Times" sculptures in Edinburgh, where he uses casts of his own body to interpret nature and our relationship with it as he follows the path taken by the Water of Leith.  George Segal (1944-2000) used plaster casts in several of his works, including "Woman Washing her Foot in a Sink (1964) (above left) and Juan Munoz used them extensively in his work (see Towards a Corner(1998), above right)  Perhaps one day, we shall see some of their work in the Cast Courts, which will hopefully survive and thrive well into the future.


References:

Taylor,B.(1995), "The Art of Today", Orion Publishing, London, UK
Honner, K. (2004) "Pop Art", Taschen Basic Art Series, Cologne

Borbein, Adolf H. (1997) "On the History of the Appraisal and Use of Plaster Casts of Ancient Sculpture (especially in Germany and in Berlin)" available at http://www.digitalsculpture.org/casts/borbein/ 

Videos:

vimeo.com/90982128 


Web-sites
http://www.digitalsculpture.org/casts/felice/index.html
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2003/nov/13/art2
http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/t/the-vanda-cast-collection/
http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/t/the-cast-courts/