Silver for Holy Days: The Newly Opened 'Sacred Silver' Gallery at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, Contains an Impressive Array of Jewish Art from the Middle Ages to the Present Day. As Louise Hofman Explains, These Splendid Objects Demonstrate the Creative Ways Jewish Communities have Assimilated Local Styles and Fashions.
Apollo 2006, March, 163, 529
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Publisher Description
A new permanent gallery of religious art, focusing on sacred silver and stained glass from the medieval period to the present, opened at the Victoria and Albert Museum at the end of last year. The display (Fig. 1) consists of approximately 600 objects from the national collection of European stained glass and from the museum's significant collection of British and European sacred silver, much of it on loan from parish churches. Funded through the generosity of the Whiteley Trust, the new displays are enhanced by commissions of contemporary work and loans from private lenders. The gallery includes a select number of Jewish ceremonial objects, shown in three thematic displays, 'Jewish Worship', 'The Torah and its Ornaments' and 'Contemporary Judaica', designed to foster a richer understanding of the significance and original context of the objects and the way they were used. Ceremonial objects made of metal are important in the Jewish tradition and are used for worship in the home as well as in the synagogue. There is little published research on this material outside specialised collections, such as that of the Jewish Museum, London, and the V&A's Judaica collection is not well known. The new displays are an opportunity to celebrate it, and to highlight new commissions.