Fake views? What we can learn from the V&A’s Cast Courts

The V&A’s restoration of its masterly collection of replicas of great European works of art - from Trajan’s Column to Michelangelo’s David - is a timely reminder of the Victorians’ cultural Europhilia

The full-scale replica of Trajan’s Column that stands in two halves in the V&A’s Cast Courts has always been a gobsmacking object to come across indoors. Now its interior is about to reveal a steampunk secret. As part of the restoration of the Cast Courts, which reopen this weekend, a door has been opened at the base of this monument. What can be in there? The darkness reveals … a chimney. It turns out that with typically Victorian practicality the creators of the Cast Courts built two solid brick cylinders like industrial chimney stacks to support the two halves of this ancient – and modern – wonder.

Why did they do it? Why did the Victorians not only create this stupendous replica of one of Rome’s most sublime monuments but fill two vast rooms in South Kensington with full-size casts of everything from the ceremonial doors of Santiago de Compostela’s cathedral to Michelangelo’s David? The answer is all around you as you meditate inside Trajan’s Column. The Cast Courts are relics of a cultural Europhilia that’s clearly not shared by modern Britain. These loving educational artworks bear witness to a passion to know, to see, and most of all to understand the cultural heritage of Europe: to bring the continent’s artistic jewels to these rainy shores.

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