Title

'Central Door, South Kensington Museum', c1860s, (1881). Creator: Unknown.

Caption

'Central Door, South Kensington Museum', c1860s, (1881). Original bronze front entrance doors to the South Kensington Museum, (later renamed the Victoria & Albert Museum), in London. Above, in the carved stone frame, is the maxim 'Better is it to get wisdom than gold', an allusion to one of the Museum's principle aims: education. The left door shows three figures from the history of science: Humphry Davy, Isaac Newton and James Watt, and on the right are three from the arts: Bramante, Michelangelo and Titian. The doors were modelled by James Gamble and Reuben Townroe, based on designs by Godfrey Sykes. Woodcut after Godfrey Sykes. From "The South Kensington Museum", a book of engraved illustrations, with descriptions, of the works of art in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum. [Sampson Low, Marston, Searle and Rivington, London, 1881]

Date

1881

Credit line

Photo12/Heritage Images/The Print Collector

Reference

HRM19F36_442

Model release

NA

Property release

NA

License type

Rights managed

Available size

63,0Mb (3,1Mb) / 12,3in x 19,9in / 3693 x 5960 (300dpi)

Keywords

building architecture education arts doorway science sculpture bronze art book museum knowledge wisdom decorative relief door doors entrance century metalwork literature concept front door 19th century B W Victoria and Albert Museum nineteenth century The Print Collector Museum of Ornamental Art South Kensington Museum Godfrey Sykes engraving woodcut wood engraving Victoria & Albert Museum Unknown James V&A Francis Fowke Fowke Francis Humphry Davy Gamble V&A Museum Sampson Low Captain Francis Fowke The South Kensington Museum Marston Sykes Godfrey Captain Francis James Gamble Reuben Townroe Townroe Reuben Humphrey Davy Sir Hu