The V&A is my favourite London museum and I had time to enjoy a brief wander around while in between exhibitions. Here are a few of the things that particularly caught my eye. We’ll start with Cleopatra Dying by Henry-Joseph-Francis, Baron de Triqueti. The scene depicted is of course Cleopatra killing herself via asp, unwilling to go on without her lover Marc Anthony.
And here is Pandora about to open the box that will release all the sorrows of the world. John Gibson sculpted this in 1856 and a few similar versions, one of which is on display at the Lady Lever Art Gallery in Liverpool where he trained. It was bought by a Mr John Penn for £200 in 1860 and eventually donated to the museum in 1922.
Keeping with the theme of women in history which it seems is what most caught my attention, this is St. Catherine of Alexandria dating from around 1520. Probably made in Germany for part of an altarpiece it depicts St Catherine who protested against the persecution of Christians under Emperor Maxentius. For this she was tortured on a wheel and then beheaded.
And finally this is a monument to Emily Georgiana, Countess of Winchelsea sculptured by Lawrence Macdonald in 1850. It ended up at the V&A along with other monuments to members of her family as the church they were originally in collapsed in the 1960s.
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