Despite the concerts, the services, the choirs, the school and all the other aspects of the institution, Ely Cathedral is a relic. It is a monument to the past as much as a testament to the future. I'm sure many people involved with it would say it is the future as well as the past. Be that as it may, given that the Cathedral is something of a relic, it brings some very awkward questions to my mind when a visit to the cathedral is closely followed by a visit to one of the great London museums.


I took this picture from a gallery overlooking a section of the Victoria and Albert museum where pieces were being staged, ready for movement in or out of the museum. Wonderful images, incredible juxtapositions of ideas and things that represent them. I went back twice and must have spent a couple of hours just mesmerized by all there was to see.

In this case there are two pietas with figures from one mixed up with figures from the other. The terracotta figure on the right seems to me to belong with the Christ on the left. The obscured figure on the left seems to be ignoring the Christ in its group, addressing its attention to the Christ in the other one. Where does one start and the other begin? I don't know, and the uncertainty spills over to the Cathedral and the museum. Where does one start and the other begin? Is everyone in the Europe living in a museum lost in a futile attempt to understand which group of figures they belong to?