On Friday 30th November members of the Cambridge Society explored the development of British Art & Design at the V&A in a tour by Blue Badge Guide Caroline Piper. Our tour took us from the Renaissance design of the Tudor court to the iconic designs of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts movement at the end of the 19th century. Along the way we explored changing styles from Tudor to Jacobean, Baroque, Neo-Palladian, Rococo, Neoclassical, Regency and Victorian eclecticism. We discussed the changes in lifestyles that brought about these changes in taste, especially the influence of the 18th century Grand Tour of classical Italy and Greece, and the taste-makers from the royal court, to foreign influences to new industrialists and entrepreneurs such as Josiah Wedgwood and Thomas Chippendale.
What the V&A does so well is recreate rooms that encapsulate a style. Favourites included a dark, wood panelled hall from a 1606 country house in Bromley-by-Bow and the sparkling music room from the Duke and Duchess of Norfolk’s London townhouse with its white ceilings, huge mirrors and exuberant gold rococo decoration on almost every surface. Caroline’s personal favourite was the tiny Stawberry Room, a late 18th century example of gothic revival style inspired by Horace Walpole’s Strawberry Hill house and described by him as “a child of Strawberry. Prettier than the parent”. In this tiny closet / study it is possible to imagine you are in a mini and private King’s College Chapel, which has a similar (but original) fan vaulted ceiling.
Everyone’s taste is of course personal, but the group pretty universally disliked the 19th century sculpture of Bashaw, a Newfoundland dog treading on a snake – a wonderful example of “bad” taste!
Organised by Caroline Piper