African history at the V&A: objects and interpretation

Since 2016, the African Heritage Tours at the V&A have offered visitors a unique lens through which to explore the museum’s collection. Developed through the African Heritage volunteer programme, these tours highlight a trail of carefully selected objects, each chosen by volunteers for the powerful stories they tell.

I was honoured to contribute to this ongoing work by revisiting the interpretation of two sculptures: Bust of a Young Man and Bust of a Child. This was a collaborative effort, drawing on the insight and expertise of colleagues from across the museum – including thoughtful feedback from the volunteers themselves and the V&A’s Interpretation team.

Bust of a Young Man was recently moved to a more prominent location in the Europe galleries, allowing this important object to become more visible to a wider audience. This new placement also created a timely opportunity to revise the bust’s label text, ensuring that its story continues to resonate with today’s audiences.

Why is it important to update museum interpretation?

Interpretation is the way we communicate stories and ideas about our objects. It’s not just the labels you see next to objects, but also how entire galleries are organised, what themes are highlighted, and tools such as digital material, interactives or touch objects.

Interpretation shapes how we understand and connect with objects. It decides which stories are told, whose voices are heard, and what perspectives are brought to light. Museum text is never neutral, and carries with it the weight and authority of the institution itself. It is therefore important to update information as research emerges, and constantly review the words we use, as words, too, are never neutral, particularly when they intersect with Europe’s complex colonial history.

Object stories

Bust of a Young Man was made towards the end of the 1600s or the beginning of the 1700s. While we still don’t know anything about the artist behind its creation or what motivated them, new curatorial research has revealed that it was probably originally displayed in Ca’ Rezzonico, an aristocratic Venetian palace. The bust stands out from other contemporary depictions of people of African descent in Venice, and in Europe more widely, as this young man is not shown in a position of servitude or with any of the typical attributes like jewellery, shackles, or a collar; markers of enslavement that served to reinforce racial hierarches and normalise enslavement.

The small marble sculpture Bust of a Child also contains none of these attributes. It dates to the 1700s, and is believed to have been carved by the Flemish artist Joannes Claudius de Cock owing to its striking similarity to a sculpture by de Cock now in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, of a standing boy. Any straightforward attribution is complicated slightly, however, by the fact that there are at least 15 other busts in existence similar to Bust of a Child. These busts, including the V&A’s version, may have therefore been made by a different artist or artists, inspired by the de Cock figure.

Like Bust of a Young Man, then, while Bust of a Child does have a potential attribution, the context for its creation is still shrouded in mystery. The lifelike details on both busts suggest they were likely originally modelled after real people, who would have probably been enslaved. But because we don’t know who the sitters were, or even if actual models were used, we are left with unanswered questions about the stories of these individuals and the lives they may have led.

Writing interpretation

Label writing is a selective process, by nature of the strict word count required at the V&A (60 words for an object label). Deciding what to include is always a question of prioritisation, which often results in the question: what is the most compelling and relatable aspect of these objects to a visitor? For these busts, I believe that their most striking quality is that both portray such a sensitive, naturalistic likeness of an individual.

My aim when starting the process of writing these labels was to emphasise the human element, which can be an important way to encourage closer, more personal engagement with an object. However, in this context there were clear difficulties in this approach, as we don’t know who these busts are depicting and therefore their stories cannot be told.

One of the main challenges of interpreting these objects therefore was their inherent contradiction: these busts are lifelike portrayals of individuals, and yet the people they depict are unknown; they are also sensitive, intimate portraits, but cannot be separated from the broader historical and visual context of exploitation and degradation.

It was crucial for the labels to be honest about the gaps in our knowledge, as well as the possible ties these busts have to the enslavement trade. We deliberately avoided prescriptive language, recognising that these busts can hold many different meanings for different viewers. They represent a European perspective of African presence, yet remain an emotive and tangible trace of lives and experiences that have often been hidden or supressed in mainstream (art)history.

Visit Bust of a Young Man in its new location in Room 7 of the Europe Galleries, or hear our talented volunteers talk about both busts by joining the Inspiration Africa: Stories beyond the Artifacts tour.