Exhibiting the Renaissance: Moscow Kremlin Museums and Victoria & Albert Museum

Abstract

The most recent exchange of exhibitions between London's VandA and Moscow's Kremlin Museum celebrated diplomatic exchange and trade between the two nations from 1509 to 1685. Exhibition designers selected colours from Tudor and Stuart paintings and textiles. Two videos captured the spectacular Kremlin English carriage, a diplomatic gift from James I to Boris Gudonov and diplomatic processions through Restoration London. The original design for the coat of arms for the English Muscovy Company, the list of diplomatic gifts from James I to Boris Gudonov from the Moscow archives and the diagram of the choreography of the reception of the Russian ambassador Gregory Mikulin in the presence of Queen Elizabeth I from the College of Arms are illustrated here for the first time. Miriam Hanid's 2013 silver centrepiece, commissioned for display in the V&A exhibition, demonstrates that British silver is still worthy of presentation in the cause of diplomacy.