'The illustration of all art expressed in objects of utility' The formation of the Renaissance collections at the Victoria and Albert Museum

This article examines the formation of the collections of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century European works of art at the Victoria and Albert Museum. For brevity's sake, all are characterized here as 'Renaissance' objects, rather than by their century of production. During the first quarter-century of the museum's activity, Renaissance art was a powerful conditioning influence on British culture and society. This encouraged the growth of the Renaissance collections between 1852 and 1875 at a rapid rate that has never since been equalled. The museum's regularly published inventories of acquisitions include the prices paid for objects; since the purchasing power of the pound sterling altered little between 1854 and 1914, this permits an assessment of the relative value of acquisitions over this formative period. The paper closes with a resume of the continued development of the collections since the First World War.