My Favorite Western Sculptures from the Victoria & Albert Museum

Founded in 1852, the Victoria & Albert Museum stands today as the world’s largest museum of decorative arts and design. My original goal was to select my favorite pieces and share them as a photo album, but this proved to be a foolish undertaking for a very simple reason. There are 4.5 million objects distributed over 145 galleries, which cover an area of 51,000 square meters and span 5,000 years of history. In the future, I still intend to post a walkthrough tour of the museum, but for the time being, I have selected 19 of my favorite European sculptures from the Renaissance to Modernity and shared the pictures I took with my cell phone, followed by my commentary and analysis.

I personally believe that art is much more than a mindless pursuit of aesthetic beauty. It is also an existential quest for a deeper understanding of the human condition. Bearing this in mind, I created a mini art gallery where the photograph of each piece is accompanied by added commentary, helping one to better appreciate the historic, religious and artistic underpinnings of each sculpture. Pieces requiring a more in depth analysis will be addressed separately due to space constraints.