Closes 5th May
Victoria & Albert Museum

This stunning exhibition explores the artistic achievements of the Mughal court from c.1560-1660 and spans the reigns of the emperors Akbar, Jahangir, and Shah Jahan, with a particular focus on the arts and craftsmanship, arts of the courts.

Objects on display include exquisite paintings and illustrated manuscripts, brilliantly coloured carpets and delicate textiles, as well as architectural pieces and vessels made of mother of pearl, rock crystal, jade, and precious metals.

Image: Pendant, c. 1610 – 20, Mughal court workshops.

Nephrite jade set with rubies and emeralds in gold © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

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- 21st April
Science Museum

This fascinating exhibition reveals how a spirit of curiosity and innovation in science became fashionable at the court of Versailles from the 1660s to 1789 and how French monarchs from Louis XIV to Louis XVI harnessed scientific knowledge as a tool of power to enhance France’s prestige.

Spectacular scientific objects and artworks include Louis XIV’s stunning planetarium and elipsarium, Louis XV’s famous stuffed Indian rhinoceros and his optical microscope by the brilliant engineer, Claude-Simeon Passemant with its gilt bronze stand by Jacques and Philippe Caffieri,

Image: L-R: Louis XV’s Rhinoceros © MNHN Pineapple in a pot, by Jean-Baptiste Oudry, 1733 © Château de Versailles,

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8 March ‒ 22 June 2025
National Gallery

This remarkable exhibition, which charts the development of painting in Siena in the fourteenth  century, has been chosen to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the National Gallery.  It focuses on the works of the four greatest artists of the period, Simone Martini, Duccio di Buoninsegna and the brothers Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti, whose work was daringly innovative and emotionally powerful.  Exceptional loans will reunite panels from Duccio’s famous Maesta and Simone Martini’s Orsini Polyptych for the first time in many centuries. Complementing these paintings will be works in a variety of media – metalwork, enamels, wood, marble and manuscript illumination – highlighting the extraordinary creativity in Siena at that time.

Image: The Angel Gabriel, about 1326-34, Simone Martini

© Collection KMSKA - Flemish Community

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22nd March - 8th September
Fashion and Textile Museum

Barbara Hulanicki’s legendary Biba store created a vision of colourful opulence and style that transformed the fashion scene in the 1960s and 70s. It began life as a small mail-order company in 1963 and developed into the famous emporium with its diverse and exotic departments housed in Derry & Toms , the splendid art deco building on Kensington High Street. The exhibition will celebrate the Biba look with archival items of clothing and materials, photographs and film.

Image:

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1st March - 30th June
Royal Academy of Arts

This exhibition celebrates the life and work of Angelica Kauffman (1741 - 1807), whose fine portraits and pioneering history paintings made her one of most famous female artists of the later eighteenth century. It explores her rise to fame in London, her role as one of the founding members of the Royal Academy and her later career in Rome where her studio became a hub for the city’s cultural life.

Image: Angelica Kauffman, Self-portrait at the Crossroads between the Arts of Music and Painting, 1794. National Trust Collections © National Trust Images/John Hammond

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