One of the museums I visited while in London was the V&A Museum- I'd been there before, but it's one of my favourites, and I never get tired of going (It is after all, the self-proclaimed 'World's greatest museum of art and design'). I love the sheer variety in the collection of the V&A, the historical nature of much of it's contents, and the fact that the majority of it is what could be called 'applied art'- from jewellery to ornate armour, to giant abstracted architectural elements. On my previous visit there, I made the realisation that I have a great affinity to traditional sculpture; the human form is interesting yet challenging to draw, as are expressions and gestures, and so I have a great respect for scultpure as a medium. When drawing, you have to be concerned with accuracy and quality in merely one dimension, whereas a statue is almost like drawing something from all sides. I find that thought to be pretty amazing, when looking at examples of this physical medium. That aside, sculptures also provide great potential for drawing reference, not only due to their accuracy (though indeed sometimes exaggerated or idealised), but the carefully-considered and often dynamic poses. These factors in combination with dramatic display lighting yield pretty striking images. I hope to refer back to these for sketches and drawings at some point. Many of the statues in the galleries of the V&A were also interesting to me on a conceptual level; classical (and neoclassical) sculptures often used figures to personify traits, emotions or ideas. An example is the last featured image, of a woman representing 'Valour'- the complete statue depicts her crushing a man, embodying cowardice. ('Valour and Cowardice' -Alfred Stevens)
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