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syon-cope-is-medieval-gem-of-victoria-and-albert-museum-a-daily-pic-by-gopnik

The Daily Pic (London edition): The "Syon Cope" at the Victoria and Albert is proof of the museum's perfection.

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Courtesy the Victoria and Albert Museum
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This clerical vestment, embroidered in about 1300 in England, is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum. (Click on the image to see it in close-up.) For me, this textile is the perfect medieval object, a kind of container for all our fantasies of chivalry and knighthood and uncomplicated pomp. It is also material proof of the greatness of the V&A – one of 2,500,000 such proofs, since it’s the incredible expanse of the collection, as much as each object in it, that makes the V&A my favorite museum in the world. One floor of stunning glass; another of ceramics; a third of metalwork: The V&A is the ultimate demonstration of the scope and quality of human creativity.

For a full visual archive of past Daily Pics visit blakegopnik.com/archive.

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