Fitzwilliam Museum
The Fitzwilliam Museum is the art and antiques museum at Cambridge University in England , United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It was founded in 1816 by the legacy of Richard Fitzwilliam , who bequeathed his entire book and art collection to the museum. Fitzwilliam's legacy also included £ 100,000 for the creation of a "considerable museum magazine".
The "Founder's Building" was designed by George Basevi , completed by Charles Cockerell and opened in 1848. The entrance hall was designed by Edward Middleton Barry and completed in 1875. The museum has around 300,000 visitors a year. Entry is free.
The Egyptian galleries in 2006 reopened after two years of restoration, conservation and research.
Tim Knox's successor as director has been Luke Syson since 2019 .
collection
The museum consists of five departments: antiques , applied arts , coins and medals , manuscripts and printed books, and paintings , drawings and prints .
Antiques
Ancient Egypt , Sudan , Ancient Greece and Roman Empire , Roman and Roman Egyptian art, Western Arab displays and a new gallery of Cypriot art .
applied Arts
English and European pottery and glasses, furniture, clocks, fans, armor, Chinese, Japanese and Korean arts and carpets.
Coins and medals
The collection includes more than 190,000 individual items. This includes coins from all parts of the world from the beginning of coinage to the present day. There are also historical and artistic medals , which are supplemented by military and civilian awards. The collection also includes a large number of gems and cameos .
The collection is not exhibited separately. Instead, the individual pieces are assigned to the different departments and presented in the appropriate cultural and artistic context. They are therefore scattered throughout the museum. For example, the medieval and modern Islamic coins can be seen in the “Near East Gallery”, the coins and medals from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance in the Rothschild Gallery .
The museum has made part of the collection accessible in online exhibitions.
Manuscripts and printed books
The collection also includes illuminated, literary and musical manuscripts and rare books. A musical manuscript, for example, is the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book . This is an extensive handwritten collection of pieces for the virginal. It contains 297 pieces, almost all of which are of English origin. The collection was created between 1610 and 1625. The writer of the manuscript was probably Francis Tregian.
Paintings, drawings and prints
Masterpieces by Simone Martini , Domenico Veneziano , Tizian , Veronese , Rubens , Van Dyck , van Goyen , Frans Hals , Canaletto , Gainsborough , Monet , Degas , Renoir , Cézanne and Picasso , and a collection of 20th century art.
Many items in the museum are on loan from the university colleges, such as an important group of Impressionist paintings owned by King's College , including Cézanne's The Abduction .
Friends of the Fitzwilliam
The Friends of the Fitzwilliam, founded in 1909 to support the museum, are the oldest society of their kind in Great Britain .
Damage to property 2006
In January 2006, a visitor severely damaged three valuable Qing Dynasty vases when he fell down a flight of stairs. The vases have been on display on this site since 1948 and are estimated to be worth several hundred thousand pounds sterling. In April 2006, he was arrested for property damage. The vases could be restored and have been protected by safety glass ever since.
Web links
- Official site (English)
- Information from Cambridge University (English)
swell
- ↑ 24 hour museum: Ancient Egypt Galleries Open At Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge from May 25, 2006 [1]
- ↑ Alex Spencer: Luke Syson: new director of the Fitzwilliam on 'jaw-dropping' museum revamp Cambridge Independent, October 14, 2019, accessed October 29, 2019
- ↑ Fitzwilliam Museum - Coins and Medals Department: Online Exhibitions Archive Link ( Memento of the original from February 11, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ BBC News: Historic vases smashed in stumble January 30, 2006 [2]
- ↑ BBC News: Smashed antique vase man arrested April 5, 2006 [3]
Coordinates: 52 ° 12 ′ 1 ″ N , 0 ° 7 ′ 10 ″ E