There's something to look forward to in Buckingham Palace this summer, aside from the various drama and rumors surrounding the British Royal family. The experience is rich in knowledge and history, and probably some luck it happened to see a glimpse of some royals like Meghan Markle.
The highlights of this year's annual summer opening of Buckingham Palace will be the art collection that would defy time and age. Aside from it, the usual tour of the State Rooms and its halls would make one feel like a royal for one day.
Marking Queen Victoria's 200th-anniversary birth this year, the exhibition will surely center on how the once-powerful royal changed the way her citizens would see the palace. Queen Victoria's transformation of the palace during her reign started when she decided it her official residence.
From there, events brightened up the function rooms of Buckingham Palace and the iconic Palace balcony paved the way for audiences to see Her Majesty and the rest of the British Royal Family. The royal pieces of Queen Victoria as it provides a memorial of her reign has been traveling around the world, and this would be the first time it would all be together for everyone to see in one specific place.
On Wednesday, Queen Elizabeth II accompanied by his son Prince Andrew of York enjoyed the privilege of being the first to see the exhibition, of course. The Palace is expected to open for the public on July 20, Saturday until September 29, while tickets are made available every 15 minutes.
Tourists can unravel century-old mysteries from the Royal Collection wherein various paintings from Rembrandt, Rubens, Poussin, Canaletto, and other legendary artists will be on display, while sculptures by Canova and Chantrey, rare furniture and Sevres porcelain can be seen. Leonardo Da Vinci's A Life in Drawing marks his 500th year since his death and has been added up unto the Queen's Gallery exhibition in an estimated 200 pieces of this Renaissance master's drawings.
While there are unique and some absurd pieces added into the Royal Collection viewers would still feel in awe on how these royals can still manage to keep them despite their busy schedule. Among them are just too unusual like a casket filled with the baby teeth of Queen Victoria's nine children and casts she had made of their arms and legs.
But one thing that caught Queen Elizabeth II attention was the eight life-size dancers depicting the style of dancing on that period. The highlight of the exhibition was made possible by the special effects firm Practical Magic in LA as it shows a 3D illusion of how a Victorian Ball looks like.
Visitors can see an imaginary ballroom while Queen Victoria and husband Prince Albert would be projected on the walls and ceiling, recreating the original color scheme featuring vivid reds, blues, and greens. It took five minutes for the Queen who seemed to be "engrossed" of watching the virtual dancers performing a quadrille in the sound of La Traviata playing along. Practical Magic used a technique popular in Victorian theatres known as Pepper's Ghost, where an image is projected onto a tilted piece of glass giving the illusion of a someone being in a room when they are not
While the Queen first noticed how the scene was "busy" as the dances start, she cannot help but "feel engrossed" with it and just as she is about to leave, Her Majesty commented "Thank God, we don't have to do that anymore," and added on even more as she left the ballroom by saying "it's deceptive."
