Editing Victoria and Albert Museum (section)

===Sculpture===
[[File:Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Nettuno e il Tritone (c 1622-1623), Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Gian Lorenzo Bernini|Bernini]]—''[[Neptune and Triton]]'']] [[File:Della Robbia V&A.jpg|thumb|The dead Christ with the Virgin, St. John and St. Mary Magdalene, painted terracotta sculpted by Andrea della Robbia or workshop in 1515.]] [[File:Samson slaying a philistine.jpg|thumb|upright|Giambologna—''[[Samson Slaying a Philistine]]'', {{circa|1562}}]]

The sculpture collection at the V&A is the most comprehensive holding of post-classical European sculpture in the world. There are approximately 22,000 objects<ref name="vam150facts-2011" /> in the collection that cover the period from about 400 AD to 1914. This covers among other periods [[Byzantine]] and [[Anglo-Saxons|Anglo Saxon]] ivory sculptures, British, French and Spanish medieval statues and carvings, the Renaissance, Baroque, Neo-Classical, Victorian and Art Nouveau periods. All uses of sculpture are represented, from tomb and memorial, to portrait, allegorical, religious, mythical, statues for gardens including fountains, as well as architectural decorations. Materials used include, marble, alabaster, stone, terracotta, wood ([[history of wood carving]]), ivory, [[gesso]], plaster, bronze, lead and ceramics.

The collection of Italian, Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque and Neoclassical sculpture (both original and in cast form) is unequalled outside of Italy. It includes [[Canova]]'s ''[[The Three Graces (Canova)|The Three Graces]]'', which the museum jointly owns with [[National Galleries of Scotland]]. Italian sculptors whose work is held by the museum include: [[Bartolomeo Bon]], [[Bartolomeo Bellano]], [[Luca della Robbia]], [[Giovanni Pisano]], Donatello, [[Agostino di Duccio]], [[Andrea Riccio]], [[Antonio Rossellino]], [[Andrea del Verrocchio]], [[Antonio Lombardo (sculptor)|Antonio Lombardo]], [[Pier Jacopo Alari Bonacolsi]], [[Andrea della Robbia]], [[Michelozzo di Bartolomeo]], Michelangelo (represented by a freehand wax model and casts of his most famous sculptures), [[Jacopo Sansovino]], [[Alessandro Algardi]], [[Antonio Calcagni]], [[Benvenuto Cellini]] ([[Medusa]]'s head dated {{circa|1547}}), [[Agostino Busti]], [[Bartolomeo Ammannati]], [[Giacomo della Porta]], [[Giambologna]] ([[Samson Slaying a Philistine]] {{circa|1562}}, his finest work outside Italy{{according to whom|date=February 2024}}), [[Bernini]] ([[Neptune and Triton]] {{circa|1622–3}}), [[Giovanni Battista Foggini]], Vincenzo Foggini (Samson and the Philistines), [[Massimiliano Soldani Benzi]], [[Antonio Corradini]], [[Andrea Brustolon]], Giovanni Battista Piranesi, [[Innocenzo Spinazzi]], Canova, [[Carlo Marochetti]] and [[Raffaelle Monti]]. 

An unusual sculpture is the ancient Roman statue of Narcissus restored by Valerio Cioli {{circa|1564}} with plaster. There are several small scale bronzes by Donatello such as ''[[The Ascension with Christ giving the Keys to St Peter]]'' and ''[[Lamentation of Christ (Donatello)|Lamentation of Christ]]'', [[Alessandro Vittoria]], [[Tiziano Aspetti]] and [[Francesco Fanelli]] in the collection. The largest work from Italy is the Chancel Chapel from Santa Chiara Florence dated 1493–1500, designed by [[Giuliano da Sangallo]] it is 11.1 metres in height by 5.4 metres square, it includes a grand sculpted tabernacle by Antonio Rossellino and coloured terracotta decoration.<ref>Williamson, Paul (ed.), ''European Sculpture at the Victoria and Albert Museum'', 1996.</ref>

[[Rodin]] is represented by more than 20 works in the museum collection, making it one of the largest collections of the sculptor's work outside France; these were given to the museum by the sculptor in 1914, as acknowledgement of Britain's support of France in the [[First World War]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/r/rodin-at-the-v-and-a/ |title=Rodin at the V&A&nbsp;– Victoria and Albert Museum |publisher=vam.ac.uk |access-date=21 August 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111106223754/http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/r/rodin-at-the-v-and-a/ |archive-date=6 November 2011}}</ref> although the statue of [[St John the Baptist]] had been purchased in 1902 by public subscription. Other French sculptors with work in the collection are [[Hubert Le Sueur]], [[François Girardon]], [[Michel Clodion]], [[Jean-Antoine Houdon]], [[Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux]] and [[Jules Dalou]].

There are also several Renaissance works by Northern European sculptors in the collection including work by: [[Veit Stoss]], [[Tilman Riemenschneider]], [[Hendrick de Keyser]], [[Hans Daucher]] and [[Peter Flötner]]. Baroque works from the same area include the work of [[Adriaen de Vries]] and [[Sébastien Slodtz]]. The Spanish sculptors with work in the collection include [[Alonso Berruguete]] and [[Luisa Roldán]] represented by her ''Virgin and Child with St Diego of Alcala'' {{circa|1695}}.

Sculptors, both British and European, who were based in Britain and whose work is in the collection include<ref>Margaret Whinney, ''Sculpture in Britain 1530–1830'', 2nd edition, 1988.</ref> [[Nicholas Stone]], [[Caius Gabriel Cibber]], Grinling Gibbons, [[John Michael Rysbrack]], [[Louis-François Roubiliac]], [[Peter Scheemakers]], Sir Henry Cheere, [[Agostino Carlini]], [[Thomas Banks (sculptor)|Thomas Banks]], [[Joseph Nollekens]], [[Joseph Wilton]], John Flaxman, [[Sir Francis Chantrey]], [[John Gibson (sculptor)|John Gibson]], [[Edward Hodges Baily]], [[Lord Leighton]], Alfred Stevens, [[Thomas Brock]], [[Alfred Gilbert]], [[George Frampton]], and Eric Gill. A sample of some of these sculptors' work is on display in the British Galleries.

With the opening of the Dorothy and [[Michael Hintze]] sculpture galleries in 2006 it was decided to extend the chronology of the works on display up to 1950; this has involved loans by other museums, including Tate Britain, so works by [[Henry Moore]] and [[Jacob Epstein]] along with other of their contemporaries are now on view. These galleries concentrate on works dated between 1600 and 1950 by British sculptors, works by continental sculptors who worked in Britain, and works bought by British patrons from the continental sculptors, such as Canova's ''Theseus and the Minotaur''. The galleries overlooking the garden are arranged by theme, tomb sculpture, portraiture, garden sculpture and mythology. There is also a section that covers late 19th-century and early 20th-century sculpture, which includes work by Rodin and other French sculptors such as Dalou who spent several years in Britain where he taught sculpture.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ward-Jackson |first=Philip |date=2014 |title=Jules Dalou's royal commissions from Queen Victoria |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/24241785 |journal=The Burlington Magazine |volume=156 |issue=1337 |pages=526–529 |jstor=24241785 |issn=0007-6287}}</ref>

Smaller-scale works are displayed in the Gilbert Bayes gallery, covering medieval especially English [[Nottingham alabaster|alabaster]] sculpture, bronzes, wooden sculptures and has demonstrations of various techniques such as bronze casting using [[lost-wax casting]].

The majority of the Medieval and Renaissance sculpture is displayed in the new Medieval and Renaissance galleries (opened December 2009).

One of the largest objects in the collection is the [[rood loft]] from [[St. John's Cathedral ('s-Hertogenbosch)]],<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/t/s-hertogenbosch-choir-screen/ | title = Image&nbsp;– V&A | publisher = vam.ac.uk | date = 14 August 2011 | access-date = 21 August 2011 }}</ref> from the Netherlands, dated 1610–1613 this is as much a work of architecture as sculpture, 10.4 metres wide, 7.8 metres high, the architectural framework is of various coloured marbles including columns, arches and balustrade, against which are statues and [[bas-relief]]s and other carvings in alabaster, the work of sculptor Conrad van Norenberch.

<gallery>
File:Donatello - The Ascension with Christ giving the Keys to St. Peter - 1428-32.jpg|[[Donatello]]—One of the finest surviving examples of Donatello's work in [[rilievo schiacciato]]
File:Andrea della Robbia, The Adoration of the Magi altarpiece (c. 1500–1510), Victoria and Albert Museum, London.jpg|[[Andrea della Robbia]]—''Adoration of the Magi''
File:WLA vanda Claude Michel Cupid and Psyche.jpg|[[Claude Michel|Claude Michel (Clodion)]]—''Cupid and Psyche'', in Terracotta
File:Antonio canova, teseo e il minotauro, 1782.JPG|[[Canova]]—''Theseus''
</gallery>