Costume drama More than 120 costumes, posters and designs for stage and screen are being added to the V&A’s theatre and performance galleries.
Left Sandie Shaw’s mini dress worn in 1967 for the UK’s first win at the Eurovision song contest
Below Henry Irving’s costume from the 1885 Lyceum Company production of Faust
Above Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1652) SelfPortrait as the Allegory of Painting c.1638-1639, © RCT, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, 2021
PALACE COUP One of the finest surviving self-portraits by Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1652), the most celebrated female painter of the 17th century, has been added to the exhibition Masterpieces from Buckingham Palace.
Items ranging from Henry Irving’s Mephistopheles costume from the 1885 staging of Faust, to Sandie Shaw’s 1967 Eurovision song contest dress, are part of a revamp ahead of the galleries’ completion in April 2022.
It joins more than 60 artworks from the Royal Collection Trust on show until next February, which are usually only on display inside the palace.
Curator, Simon Sladen, said: “The galleries are testament to the creativity, innovation and ingenuity of the performing arts and celebrate the practice, process and history of performance throughout the UK.”
Born in Rome in 1593, Gentileschi was the first woman to join the prestigious Florentine Academy. She was invited to London in the 1630s by Charles I who acquired the painting. HOUSE OF TUDOR
One of the UK’s largest and best-preserved Tudor manor houses, Gainsborough Old Hall, has returned to English Heritage having undergone significant conservation.
WHAT A CORKER An 1840s cork replica of the Colosseum has gone on show in America following highlyspecialised conservation.
Piraneseum in San Francisco appointed the German expert Dieter Cöllen, the only craftsperson still working in the antique medium of cork architectural models, to undertake the work.
Previously run by Lincolnshire County Council, the 15th-century property has one of the most impressive medieval kitchens in England, as well as a noble great hall and an imposing lodgings tower.
During its lifetime it has undergone many incarnations from hosting Henry VIII and Katherine Parr, to being a linen factory.
Left Gainsborough Old Hall in Lincolnshire, image courtesy of English Heritage
The model was crafted by the 19th-century Roman artisan Luigi Carotti who made two other examples of this model: one lost and the other in the collection of the Lindenau Museum in Altenburg, Germany.
The restored model is now housed in a custom-made closed vitrine with a constant relative humidity of 50 percent and temperature of 70 degrees.
GOOD FRIENDS The British Antique Dealers’ Association (BADA) Week takes place this month with a number of events in the pipeline.
Running alongside the seven-day celebration – from October 10-17 – BADA Friends, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary, has also revealed a series of events. Its programme includes porcelain specialist Errol Manners’ webinar on ceramic traditions, while the National Gallery’s Dr Susanna Avery-Quash is among the speakers at Collaboration and Competition: Dealers, Collectors and Curators.
A private tour of the Society of Antiquaries will take place on October 26 and, on October 27 at Kelmscott Manor, curator Dr Kathy Haslem will be hosting a webinar on the 17th-century manor house lived in by arts and crafts pioneer William Morris.
BADA was formed in 1991, the brainchild of the association’s former president, Oriental arts dealer Brian Morgan. For more details go to www.bada.org/friends/friends-events
Above The restored cork replica of the Colosseum is back on show, image courtesy of Piraneseum
Above Kelmscott Manor, William Morris, tapestry room, © Society of Antiquaries
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