One of the ways that the Fitzwilliam Museum is celebrating its 200th anniversary is by the staging of a splendid exhibition of illuminated manuscripts at the end of July – a very fitting tribute to its founder, reports.
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When Richard 7th Viscount Fitzwilliam of Merrion died on the 4 February 1816 he bequeathed his entire collection of art, his books, music and illuminated manuscripts, along with £100,000 for the founding of ‘a good substantial Museum’ to his alma mater, the University of Cambridge. So it was that the Fitzwilliam Museum came into being and Viscount Fitzwilliam’s treasured illuminated manuscripts became the basis of a collection that today is described by Dr Stella Panayotova, Keeper of Manuscripts and Printed Books at the museum, as ‘second to none’.
The finest of those manuscripts, and some later acquisitions, are the subject of COLOUR: The Art and Science of Illuminated Manuscripts, a major exhibition that plays a leading role in the year-long celebrations of the 200th anniversary of the founding of the museum.
Viscount Fitzwilliam was an exceptionally knowledgeable collector of illuminated manuscripts and the 130 that he bequeathed to the museum are outstanding examples of late medieval and Renaissance work, says Dr Panayotova, so they are the perfect subject on which to focus in this bicentenary year
‘But also, this is also about what we are doing with the manuscripts,’ she explains. ‘In the exhibition we are celebrating the research, the scholars who share their expertise across disciplines and continents, and the collaboration with the two major research projects that underpin the exhibition – the Cambridge Illuminations and MINIARE [Manuscript Illumination: NonInvasive Analysis, Research and Expertise] projects. Their pioneering analyses have helped uncover the secrets of medieval and Renaissance illuminators.’
This story is from the July/August 2016 edition of Minerva.
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This story is from the July/August 2016 edition of Minerva.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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