Victoria ans Albert Museum "Plaster made"

The Cast Courts of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, England, (see Victoria and Albert Museum I "Trajan's Column" for more info) comprise two large halls. Unusually for a museum, the Cast Courts house a collection not of originals, but copies. Here are to be found reproductions of some of the most famous sculptures in the world. Most of the copies were made in the 19th century and in many cases the copies have better resisted the ravages of time, 20th-century pollution and over-zealous conservation than the originals.
The full height of Trajan's Column could not possibly be accommodated and the column is divided into two roughly equal parts. The original column in Rome is some 30m high and included an internal spiral staircase which led to a platform at the top. The cast is of the huge pedestal and the entire column, but excludes the viewing platform. The original statue on the top was lost in antiquity. The pedestal is covered in illustrations of booty from the Dacian Wars and the column is covered in a detailed frieze illustrating the conquest of Dacia by the Roman emperor Trajan.

The frieze spirals around the column and is in narrative form something like a comic strip. There were in fact two wars against Dacia, the first (AD 101--102) is illustrated in the lower portion of the column, and the second (AD 105--106) in the upper portion. The dividing point on the column is marked by a personification of Victory writing on a shield and this is approximately the point at which the cast of the column is divided.
The column was cast in many small parts and these parts were reconstituted on brick chimney-like structures built especially for the purpose. Just as on the original there is a door on the cast of the pedestal that affords access to the interior, but within the cast there is nothing to be seen but the white painted interior of the brick chimney. The upper portion is similarly hollow, but there is no means of access and presumably it has not been visited since it was built.

In Rome, the frieze is extremely difficult to see. Unfortunately, viewing conditions in the museum are hardly any better. The lower section is atop a huge pedestal some 4m high. Consequently, the only part of the frieze that can be examined closely by the public is the bottom of the upper portion. The mid-level corridor does afford an alternative view albeit at a distance and only from one side. The upper-level walkway looks down on the column and does give views all round, but at a significant distance and this is not open to the public.

When the courts first opened to the public they attracted much attention although the initial press reaction was mixed. The Art Journal was particularly critical of the inclusion of Trajan's Column which had the 'effect of crowding out of sight those (casts) of more sensible proportions' — a criticism that seems justified. Today's visitor might wonder what the effect would have been if the column's frieze had been reconstructed in an unrolled manner and presented at eye level, as it is at the Museum of Roman Civilization and National Museum of Romanian History


The Courts were designed by Major General Henry Scott of the Royal Engineers and were opened to the public in July 1873. The Courts are architecturally dramatic: they are large and high, topped by a roof of glass that admits sunlight which is supplemented by electric lights

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