Main Vestibule

Look down as well as ahead in the Main Vestibule. Boris Anrep’s mosaic floors bring figures from modern life into a decorative setting shaped by myth and allegory. The building itself becomes another surface on which the Gallery tells stories. The vestibule also holds the Manod Slate Tablet, designed by Jeremy Deller and carved by John Neilson. It commemorates the relationship with a Welsh quarry where the paintings were sheltered during the Second World War. The material connects the memorial with the place that protected the collection. Other objects remember people who shaped the institution. A portrait bust of the writer Anna Brownell Jameson recalls the work of explaining art, while the bust of Paul Getty acknowledges a major benefactor. They place writers, supporters and acts of preservation beside the collection’s painted subjects. This is a main-floor circulation space between galleries and the older entrance area. Allow time to notice its floor and memorials before choosing a room. They offer a way to understand the museum as something built and maintained by people over time.