At the Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Virtually explore the V&A Museum with Smarthistory as your guide

Some background

videos + essays

Link to the V&A Museum's website

Marwan <em>tiraz</em>
Marwan tiraz

The fragments of the Marwan tiraz once formed a large and impressive cloth that emphasized the import and status of its wearer.

William Morris, The Green Dining Room
William Morris, The Green Dining Room

The Green Dining Room's harmonious color-scheme, craftsmanship, and medieval vibe shows Morris’s design style at its finest.

Européenerie on a Chinese Table Screen
Européenerie on a Chinese Table Screen

Why does this Qing-dynasty porcelain mimic ivory?

Horst P. Horst, <em>Mainbocher Corset, Paris</em>
Horst P. Horst, Mainbocher Corset, Paris

Horst's Mainbocher Corset photograph journeyed across oceans and time to transform Vogue into a concept and a verb.

Conservation: The Nasrid plasterwork collection at the V&A
Conservation: The Nasrid plasterwork collection at the V&A

A conservator at the V&A discusses new discoveries that have uncovered new information on their materials, techniques, history and provenance

Conservation: Cast of the Pórtico de la Gloria
Conservation: Cast of the Pórtico de la Gloria

In 1866, the Victoria & Albert Museum commissioned an Italian plaster maker to journey to Spain to make a copy of a monument of Romanesque art. See how the museum takes care of it more than 150 years later.

Conservation: Indian jama
Conservation: Indian jama

Follow V&A's conservation team as they carefully clean and repair a magnificent 19th century jama – a style of garment worn by men in India for centuries.

The Symmachi Panel
The Symmachi Panel

Holding on to pagan traditions in the early Christian era

Giovanni Pisano, Pisa Pulpit
Giovanni Pisano, Pisa Pulpit

Some distortions are deliberate. This pulpit has its critics, but it coheres in real life—just not in photos.

Illustration from the <em>Akbarnama</em>
Illustration from the Akbarnama

Under Akbar the Great, the Mughal style of painting blended Indian, Persian, and Western artistic traditions.

Tipu’s Tiger
Tipu’s Tiger

Made for a sultan, this unusual automaton emblematizes the fierce hostility between British and Indian rulers.

Illustration from the <em>Akbarnama</em>
Illustration from the Akbarnama

Under Akbar the Great, the Mughal style of painting blended Indian, Persian, and Western artistic traditions.