{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O155930"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O155930/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2010EE6118/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2010EE6118/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2010EE6118","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O155930/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O155930","accessionNumber":"SKM.16","objectType":"Oil painting","titles":[{"title":"Freehand Drawing: Giotto's Round O","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"","physicalDescription":"Eight figures (men and youths) in 'medieval' costume. Some wearing ruffs. Giotto at the centre showing depiction of an 'O' to pope on the left.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Redgrave, Richard (CB, RA, ARA)","id":"A8777"},"association":{"text":"painter","id":"x36959"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"oil paint","id":"AAT15050"},{"text":"canvas","id":"AAT14078"}],"techniques":[{"text":"oil painting","id":"AAT178684"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Oil on canvas","categories":[{"text":"Paintings","id":"THES48917"},{"text":"History of the V&A","id":"THES252692"},{"text":"Fabric of the Building","id":"THES287227"}],"styles":[{"text":"British School","id":"x30967"},{"text":"Victorian","id":"AAT21232"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2010EE6118"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"100","id":"THES49934"},"free":"","case":"Lunette","shelf":"3","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"oil paintings","id":"AAT33799"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"London","id":"x28980"},"association":{"text":"painted","id":"x30138"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1874","earliest":"1869-01-01","latest":"1878-12-31"},"association":{"text":"painted","id":"x30138"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Conserved with the support of The Pilgrim Trust, with additional thanks to The Worshipful Company of Grocers","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"143.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"measured from highest point of lunette","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"263.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"<i>Freehand Drawing: Giotto's Round 'O'</i> was commissioned to decorate one of eighteen lunette-shaped recesses in the upper portion of rooms 100 and 101 (at that time the National Competition Gallery). The lunettes were removed just before the Second World War and placed in store.\n\nHistorical significance: The National Competition Gallery (now rooms 100 and 101) in the East Ranges of the Museum was completed in 1864-65. At that time it was formed of two parallel top-lit rooms; these were used for the marking and display of work by art students in Department of Science and Art-run schools across the country. Richard Redgrave, who was placed in charge of the decoration of the gallery in 1863, proposed to commission paintings for the eighteen lunettes along the upper sections of the walls. The project, managed jointly by Redgrave and Henry Cole, continued for thirteen years; several lunettes were completed and in position by 1868, although work was not completed fully until 1876.\r\n\r\nBroadly speaking, there were two stages in the production of the lunettes. Most of those created towards the beginning of the period were decorative, allegorical paintings carried out by art students from designs by Godfrey Sykes, Frank Moody, Alfred Morgan and Redgrave. A second stage was initiated in November of 1867 by William Frederick Yeames who contacted Cole and suggested that he should be commissioned for the project. Initial plans to commission other artists of the stature of Leighton, Watts and Poynter were scaled down, and the core of those chosen were historical genre painters from the loose association of artists known as the St John's Wood Clique: Yeames himself, G.D. Leslie, Henry Stacy Marks and D.W. Wynfield. Cole held a meeting with the artists to establish a theme for the lunettes, and, appropriately for a gallery in which students' work was displayed and judged, it was decided that the paintings should represent the practices of drawing, painting and sculpture in a programmatic representation of Redgrave's curriculum for art schools, the National Course of Art Instruction. The resulting subjects treated by the compositional canvases included life drawing, modelling from the life, study of anatomy, landscape painting, flower painting and still life drawing. \r\n\r\nThe various artistic activities represented in the paintings are set within relevant historical contexts; each takes place within the period and place considered to have fostered its inception or its apogee. So drawing the skeletal structure of the body is set in Renaissance Florence; still-life drawing is given a 17th-century Flemish setting; and landscape sketching takes place in 19th-century England. \r\n\r\n<i>Freehand Drawing: Giotto's Round 'O',</i>designed by Richard Redgrave (1804-1888), illustrates the story from Vasari's <i>Lives of the Artists</i>which relates how Pope Benedict XI was anxious to employ Giotto, the most famous Florentine artist. Giotto was asked by the Pope's messenger to make a sample drawing which would be taken to the Pope for his consideration. The artist responded by simply drawing a perfect circle freehand on a piece of paper. \r\n\r\nIn addition to being a painter, Redgrave was one of the most distinguished administrators of the Victorian era. He was the first Keeper of the paintings collection at the South Kensington Museum and between 1857 and 1880 was Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures. Along with Cole he was a driving force in the reform of art education. Redgrave held several positions in the Government School of Design, including headmaster, art superintendent and inspector-general for art.\r\n\r\nThis was the last lunette to have been painted. The theme of freehand drawing was apparently given in 1868 to Philip Hermogenes Calderon (1833-98), one of the founder members of the St John's Wood Clique. However, for some reason he did not take part, and eventually Redgrave stepped in with a design. The painting itself was probably undertaken by art students, but in this case they are not identified.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Decorative lunette painting, commissioned for the National Competition Gallery (now Rooms 100 and 101). Richard Redgrave (designed by), Freehand Drawing: Giotto's Round 'O', ca.1874. Lunette 3 for gallery 100, east wall (commencing from south end)","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"John Physick, <i>The Victoria and Albert Museum: the History of its Building</i>, London 1982, pp. 83-87."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"<i>Catalogue of British Oil Paintings 1820-1860</i>, Ronald Parkinson, Victoria and Albert Museum, London: HMSO, 1990, pp 249"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Jim Dimond, Susan Owens and Sophie Reddington, 'The conservation of twenty paintings for the V&A's National Competition Gallery', <u>The Picture Restorer</u>, no. 38, Spring 2011, pp. 14-16."}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[{"text":"di Bondone, Giotto","id":"N776"}],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"pope","id":"AAT25773"},{"text":"ruffs","id":"AAT210072"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["SKM.16"],"accessionNumberNum":"16","accessionNumberPrefix":"SKM","accessionYear":null,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-04-09","recordCreationDate":"2008-06-12","availableToBook":false}}