Victoria and Albert

       On Friday we went into London to the V&A to see the Raphael cartoons for the Sistine Chapel tapestries as well as their Renaissance and Medieval collections. We spent an hour with Sally (yay!) looking at the Medieval collection and then an hour with Caroline Brook looking at the Renaissance stuff upstairs, including a wax preparatory figure by Michelangelo and one of Leonardo da Vinci's journals. I was a little tired because I stayed up too late the night before, but it was a fun day!

 The beautiful chandelier in the V&A entryway

The oldest piece in the Medieval Collection--the back of a wax writing tablet with a priestess of Jove, c. 400 

The Gloucester Candlestick, an excellent example of English metalwork and my faaavorite thing we saw! 

Bishop's crosier with a nativity and the story of saint Nicholas engraved 

Funeral monument for a knight--kinda boring compared to the other stuff 

Michelangelo's preparatory wax figure 

Little gold and enameled tabernacle for the bread of the Mass

I really enjoyed seeing the Raphael Cartoons but they were behind glass so the glare was terrible. Still these are probably the greatest masterpiece of the V&A and since many of the actual tapestries have been destroyed they are the true originals! Anyways the cartoon is ALWAYS better than the tapestry...tapestries are the worst...