Fitzwilliam Museum

Coordinates: 52°12′01″N 0°07′10″E / 52.200278°N 0.119444°E / 52.200278; 0.119444
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Fitzwilliam Museum
The primary entrance to the Fitzwilliam Museum
Fitzwilliam Museum is located in Central Cambridge
Fitzwilliam Museum
Location in Cambridge
Map
Interactive fullscreen map
Established1816, by Richard FitzWilliam, 7th Viscount FitzWilliam
LocationCambridge, England
Coordinates52°12′01″N 0°07′10″E / 52.200278°N 0.119444°E / 52.200278; 0.119444
TypeUniversity Museum of fine art and antiquities
Collection sizeapprox. 600,000
Visitors349,484 (2019)[1]
DirectorLuke Syson[2]
Websitewww.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk
University of Cambridge Museums
Saint Geminianus, from a pentaptych by Simone Martini (c. 1284–1344)

The Fitzwilliam Museum is the art and antiquities

bas-relief from Nimrud.[5] Admission to the public is always free.[6]

The museum is a partner in the University of Cambridge Museums consortium, one of 16 Major Partner Museum services funded by Arts Council England to lead the development of the museums sector.[7]

Foundation and buildings

View of one of the museum's entrance halls

The museum was founded in 1816 with the legacy of the library and art collection of

Perse School building in Free School Lane. It was moved in 1842 to the Old Schools in central Cambridge, which housed the Cambridge University Library
.

The "Founder's Building" was built during the period 1837–1843 to the designs of George Basevi, completed by C. R. Cockerell. The decorative carving, pediment and four lions were by William Grinsell Nicholl. The foundation stone of the new building was laid by Gilbert Ainslie in 1837. The museum opened in 1848. The Palladian Entrance Hall, by Edward Middleton Barry, was completed in 1875. A further large bequest was made to the university in 1912 by Charles Brinsley Marlay, including £80,000 and 84 paintings from his private collection. A two-storey extension to the south-east, paid for partly by the Courtauld family, was added in 1931, greatly expanding the space of the museum and allowing research teams to work on site.[8]

The museum buildings and, separately, the boundary along the street frontage, are Grade I listed.[9]

Collection

Marble bust of Antinous, lover of the Emperor Hadrian

The museum has five departments: Antiquities; Applied Arts; Coins and Medals; Rare Manuscripts and Printed Books; and Paintings, Drawings and Prints. Together these cover antiquities from

Eleusis known as the Saint Demetra.[11]

Copy K of William Blake's The Ancient of Days, 1794

Music manuscripts

There is also the largest collection of 16th-century

virginal manuscript music written by some of the most notable composers of the time, such as William Byrd, Doctor John Bull, Orlando Gibbons and Thomas Tallis
.

Egyptian collection

The Egyptian Galleries at the Fitzwilliam Museum reopened in 2006 after a two-year, £1.5 million programme of refurbishment, conservation and research. The redevelopment also allowed for the public display of more antiquities which had previously been confined to the Fitzwilliam's underground storage facility. The Egyptian Galleries are among the museum's most popular exhibits. They feature an immersive public display which allows families and young visitors to understand the context and landscape of ancient Egyptian through participatory exhibitions. Today, the Fitzwilliam's Egyptian Galleries contain some of the best displays on Egyptian antiquities outside the British Museum.[citation needed]

Paintings

The museum has a wide collection of paintings and sketches, including works by

Sir Sydney Cockerell
, who was serving as director of the museum at the time, acquired a further eight Turner watercolours and some of his writings.

The museum's collection of

Pre-Raphaelite paintings includes a version of Ford Madox Brown's 1855 The Last of England, voted eighth-greatest painting in Britain in 2005's Radio 4 poll, the Greatest Painting in Britain Vote
.

Many items in the museum are on loan from colleges of the

Cezanne's Still Life With Apples which he bought in 1918.[13]

Anglo-American
Dutch School
English School
Life mask of William Blake; plaster cast by James De Ville
(September 1823)
Flemish School
French School
German School
Italian School

Michelangelo bronzes

In 2015, the museum displayed the

Paul Joannides connected the statues to a drawing in the Musée Fabre by an apprentice of Michelangelo depicting the same subject in the same pose.[14][15][16][17][18]

Incidents

On 25 January 2006, a visitor tripped and shattered three massive

criminal damage were dropped.[20] Scholars and restoration experts from the Fitzwilliam Museum were able to reconstruct the damaged porcelain vases and largely restore them to their former splendour. The vases have been put back on display and are now protected by security glass.[21]

On 13 April 2012, 18 pieces of Chinese jade were stolen by a gang nicknamed the Rathkeale Rovers.[22][23] The burglars were eventually caught and sentenced to a combined 18 years in jail,[23] but several of the most valuable pieces were not recovered and are speculated to have been sold to China.[24][25] Estimates of the lost artifacts' value range up to £57 million, making the heist one of the most significant by value in UK history.[26]

Friends of the Fitzwilliam Museum

External videos
video icon Celebrating 200 years of the Fitzwilliam Museum, 1:18, Fitzwilliam Museum[27]

Founded in 1909, the Friends of the Fitzwilliam Museum[28] is the oldest society in Britain specifically dedicated to the long-term support and development of a museum. The Friends of the Fitzwilliam Museum have raised funds to acquire major artworks and provide for the expansion and refurbishment of the museum site. The current priorities of the Friends of the Fitzwilliam Museum include acquisition of major contemporary works and development of a significant endowment to secure the museum for posterity.

Princess Alexandra of Kent is president of the Fitzwilliam Museum Development Trust.

Directors

Large Reclining Figure
, 1984 (based on a smaller model of 1938), outside the museum in 2004

The following have been directors of the museum:[29]

Curators and keepers

  • Winifred Lamb, Honorary Keeper of Greek and Roman Antiquities, 1920–1958

See also

References

  1. ^ "ALVA - Association of Leading Visitor Attractions". www.alva.org.uk. Retrieved 28 October 2020.
  2. ^ Bailey, Martin (17 October 2018). "The Met's Luke Syson to head Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge". The Art Newspaper.
  3. ^ a b c Kennedy, Maev (4 February 2016). "Fitzwilliam museum in Cambridge celebrates its 200th birthday". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 February 2019.
  4. ^ "Review 'Fitzwilliam Museum': The best museum outside London?". www.silvertraveladvisor.com. Archived from the original on 31 July 2020. Retrieved 19 July 2019.
  5. ^ The Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge (19 July 2012). "Collections Explorer – Object Detail (ANE.44.1927, id:8)". webapps.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 7 February 2019. Retrieved 19 July 2019.
  6. ^ "Visit Us | The Fitzwilliam Museum". www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk. Retrieved 19 July 2019.
  7. ^ "The Fitzwilliam Museum". www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk. Retrieved 21 April 2018.
  8. ^ The University of Cambridge — The Fitzwilliam Museum, British History Online, UK.
  9. ^ Historic England. "Fitzwilliam Museum and boundary wall, plinths and gates to the north-east (Grade I) (1126276)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 6 February 2019.
  10. ^ A Persepolis Relief in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, Richard Nicholls and Michael Roaf, Iran, Vol. 15, (1977), pp. 146–152, Published by: British Institute of Persian Studies
  11. ^ "Caryatid". fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk. University of Cambridge. Retrieved 8 January 2024.
  12. ^ "Fitzwilliam Museum collections". University of Cambridge. 2010. Retrieved 4 September 2010.
  13. ^ "The curious tale of the economist and the Cezanne in the hedge". 3 May 2014. Retrieved 7 February 2019.
  14. ^ "The Fitzwilliam Museum : Home". Fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 5 September 2015. Retrieved 29 August 2015.
  15. ^ Mark Brown (30 January 2015). "Michelangelo's bronze panther-riders revealed after 'Renaissance whodunnit' | Art and design". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 August 2015.
  16. ^ "Michelangelo: The story of the bronze riders". The Economist. 2 February 2015. Retrieved 29 August 2015.
  17. ^ "Nude, drunk and riding on panthers: Michelangelo's lost masterpiece discovered | Public Radio International". Pri.org. 3 February 2015. Retrieved 29 August 2015.
  18. ^ "Bronze sculptures 'may be by Michelangelo' – BBC News". BBC News. 2 February 2015. Retrieved 29 August 2015.
  19. ^ "Kangxi Chinese vases conservation". Fitzwilliam Museum. Archived from the original on 31 July 2020. Retrieved 20 October 2018.
  20. ^ "No charge for smashed vase man". BBC News. 20 June 2006. Retrieved 6 February 2019.
  21. ^ "The Fitzwilliam Museum : Chinese Vases Home". Fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk. 25 January 2006. Archived from the original on 28 March 2014. Retrieved 15 July 2014.
  22. ^ "Fitzwilliam Museum theft: Chinese jade art 'worth millions'". BBC News. 18 April 2012.
  23. ^
    ISSN 0261-3077
    . Retrieved 12 June 2024.
  24. ^ "Seven men jailed over series of museum raids". The Guardian. 4 April 2016. Retrieved 7 February 2019.
  25. ^ "Fitz Robbers get 18 years | The Tab Cambridge". Cambridgetab.co.uk. Archived from the original on 3 October 2012. Retrieved 15 July 2014.
  26. ^ "Museum raids gang: How police caught £57m heist masterminds". BBC News. Retrieved 12 June 2024.
  27. ^ "The Fitzwilliam Museum is 200 today". University of Cambridge, Research. February 2016. Retrieved 1 March 2016.
  28. ^ "Friends of the Fitzwilliam Museum". Fitzwilliam Museum. Retrieved 7 February 2019.
  29. ^ "Our Directors". UK: Fitzwilliam Museum. Retrieved 1 November 2024.
  30. ^ de Hamel, Christoper (Summer 2006). "Cockerell as Museum Director". The Book Collector. 55 (2): 201–223.
  31. ^ "New Director Appointed for Cambridge University's Fitzwilliam Museum". UK: University of Cambridge. 1 June 2007. Archived from the original on 6 June 2011. Retrieved 6 June 2011.
  32. ^ "Mr Tim Knox will succeed Timothy Potts as Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum when he takes up the post in April". UK: University of Cambridge. 20 February 2013. Retrieved 1 November 2024.
  33. ^ "Western art finds a champion at the Fitzwilliam Museum". The Times. 19 October 2018. Retrieved 8 February 2019.
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