London Museum's Galleries Applauded

LONDON, Dec. 4, 2009 — -- The Victoria and Albert Museum in London wows visitors with its new wing displaying more than 1,000 years of artistic and cultural history. Visitors young and old are flocking to the museum to see the much-anticipated Medieval and Renaissance galleries, which open Wednesday.

"I'm impressed with everything from the large architectural fragments to the small pieces in the collection," said Johanna Roethe, an architectural historian in London.

Occupying the entire southwest wing of the museum, the 10 new galleries display more than 1,800 works of art. The collection is laid out with precision and illustrates chronologically the history of art and architecture from the fall of the Roman Empire to the foundation of modern Europe during the Renaissance.

Unique to the museum is the ground-floor gallery, which mimics a Renaissance city. It features large-scale works that were once part of Renaissance buildings, including the exterior of Santa Chiara Chapel, which is the only example of a Florentine Renaissance outside Italy.

One British couple said the gallery gave them a taste of Florence without having to hop on a plane.

Among the permanent collection's treasures are stained-glass panels that came directly from Sainte-Chapelle in Paris. The panels are laid in front of subdued light to demonstrate the same colorful light show individuals would have experienced in a 13th century chapel lined in stained-glass.

A tribute to the wonderful layout is that the transition among galleries is incredibly smooth; from the 13th century stained-glass room, for instance, to the next room containing a 15th century giant tapestry depicting a bear hunt, which takes up an entire wall of the gallery.

"It was certainly a major challenge to connect the time periods but it works very well," historian Roethe said as she stood admiring ceramic ceiling tiles from the 15th century. "I've been waiting several years for this. It's been so long in the making."