Ashmolean Museum And Taylorian Institute, Oxford; Panoramic Wellcome V0014258 on:  
[Wikipedia]  
[Google]  
[Amazon]
The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology () on
Beaumont Street
Beaumont Street is a street in the centre of Oxford, England.
The street was laid out from 1828 to 1837 with elegant terraced houses in the Regency style. Before that, it was the location of Beaumont Palace, now noted by a plaque near the ju ...
,
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
, England, is Britain's first public museum. Its first building was erected in 1678–1683 to house the
cabinet of curiosities that
Elias Ashmole
Elias Ashmole (; 23 May 1617 – 18 May 1692) was an English antiquary, politician, officer of arms, astrologer and student of alchemy. Ashmole supported the royalist side during the English Civil War, and at the restoration of Charles II he ...
gave to the
University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
in 1677. It is also the world's second
university museum
A university museum is a repository of collections run by a university, typically founded to aid teaching and research within the institution of higher learning. The Ashmolean Museum at the University of Oxford in England is an early example, o ...
, after the establishment of the
Kunstmuseum Basel
The Kunstmuseum Basel houses the oldest public art collection in the world and is generally considered to be the most important museum of art in Switzerland. It is listed as a heritage site of national significance.
Its lineage extends back to t ...
in 1661 by the
University of Basel
The University of Basel (Latin: ''Universitas Basiliensis'', German: ''Universität Basel'') is a university in Basel, Switzerland. Founded on 4 April 1460, it is Switzerland's oldest university and among the world's oldest surviving universit ...
.
The present building was built between 1841 and 1845. The museum reopened in 2009 after a major redevelopment, and in November 2011, new galleries focusing on
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
and
Nubia
Nubia () (Nobiin: Nobīn, ) is a region along the Nile river encompassing the area between the first cataract of the Nile (just south of Aswan in southern Egypt) and the confluence of the Blue and White Niles (in Khartoum in central Sudan), or ...
were unveiled. In May 2016, the museum also opened redisplayed galleries of 19th-century art.
History
Broad Street
The museum opened on 24 May 1683, with
naturalist Robert Plot
Robert Plot (13 December 1640 – 30 April 1696) was an English naturalist, first Professor of Chemistry at the University of Oxford, and the first keeper of the Ashmolean Museum.
Early life and education
Born in Borden, Kent to parents Robe ...
as the first keeper. The building on
Broad Street (later known as the
Old Ashmolean
The History of Science Museum in Broad Street, Oxford, Broad Street, Oxford, England, holds a leading collection of scientific instruments from Science in the Middle Ages, Middle Ages to the 19th century. The museum building is also known as the ...
) is sometimes attributed to
Sir Christopher Wren
Sir Christopher Wren PRS FRS (; – ) was one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history, as well as an anatomist, astronomer, geometer, and mathematician-physicist. He was accorded responsibility for rebuilding 52 churches ...
or Thomas Wood.
Elias Ashmole
Elias Ashmole (; 23 May 1617 – 18 May 1692) was an English antiquary, politician, officer of arms, astrologer and student of alchemy. Ashmole supported the royalist side during the English Civil War, and at the restoration of Charles II he ...
had acquired the collection from the gardeners, travellers, and collectors
John Tradescant the Elder
John Tradescant the Elder (; c. 1570s – 15–16 April 1638), father of John Tradescant the Younger, was an English naturalist, gardener, collector and traveller. On 18 June 1607 he married Elizabeth Day of Meopham in Kent, England. She had bee ...
and his son,
John Tradescant the Younger
John Tradescant the Younger (; 4 August 1608 – 22 April 1662), son of John Tradescant the Elder, was a botanist and gardener. The standard author abbreviation Trad. is applied to species he described.
Biography
Son of John Tradescant the ...
. It included antique coins, books, engravings, geological specimens, and zoological specimens—one of which was the stuffed body of the last
dodo
The dodo (''Raphus cucullatus'') is an extinct flightless bird that was endemic to the island of Mauritius, which is east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. The dodo's closest genetic relative was the also-extinct Rodrigues solitaire. The ...
ever seen in Europe; but by 1755 the stuffed dodo was so moth-eaten that it was destroyed, except for its head and one claw.
Beaumont Street
The present building dates from 1841 to 1845. It was designed as the University Galleries by
Charles Cockerell in a
classical style and stands on Beaumont Street. One wing of the building is occupied by the
Taylor Institution
The Taylor Institution (commonly known as the Taylorian) is the Oxford University library dedicated to the study of the languages of Europe. Its building also includes lecture rooms used by the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages, Univer ...
, the modern languages faculty of the university, standing on the corner of Beaumont Street and St Giles' Street. This wing of the building was also designed by Charles Cockerell, using the
Ionic order
The Ionic order is one of the three canonic orders of classical architecture, the other two being the Doric and the Corinthian. There are two lesser orders: the Tuscan (a plainer Doric), and the rich variant of Corinthian called the composite or ...
of Greek architecture.
Sir Arthur Evans
Sir Arthur John Evans (8 July 1851 – 11 July 1941) was a British archaeologist and pioneer in the study of Aegean civilization in the Bronze Age. He is most famous for unearthing the palace of Knossos on the Greek island of Crete. Based on t ...
, who was appointed keeper in 1884 and retired in 1908, is largely responsible for the current museum. Evans found that the Keeper and the Vice-Chancellor (
Prof Benjamin Jowett) had managed to lose half of the Ashmole collection and had converted the original building into the Examination Rooms.
Charles Drury Edward Fortnum
Charles Drury Edward Fortnum (1820–1899), often known as C. Drury E. Fortnum, was an English art collector and historian, known as a benefactor of the University of Oxford.
Life
Born on 2 March 1820, Fortnum was the surviving son of Charles For ...
had offered to donate his personal collection of antiques on condition that the museum was put on a sound footing.
A donation of £10,000 from Fortnum (£ as of ) enabled Evans to build an extension to the University Galleries and move the Ashmolean collection there in 1894. In 1908, the Ashmolean and the University Galleries were combined as the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology. The museum became a depository for some of the important archaeological finds from Evans' excavations in Crete.
After the various specimens had been moved into new museums, the "Old Ashmolean" building was used as office space for the ''
Oxford English Dictionary
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a com ...
''. Since 1924, the building has been established as the
Museum of the History of Science
The History of Science Museum in Broad Street, Oxford, England, holds a leading collection of scientific instruments from Middle Ages to the 19th century. The museum building is also known as the Old Ashmolean Building to distinguish it from th ...
, with exhibitions including the scientific instruments given to Oxford University by
Lewis Evans, amongst them the world's largest collection of
astrolabe
An astrolabe ( grc, ἀστρολάβος ; ar, ٱلأَسْطُرلاب ; persian, ستارهیاب ) is an ancient astronomical instrument that was a handheld model of the universe. Its various functions also make it an elaborate inclin ...
s.
Charles Buller Heberden
Charles Buller Heberden (14 December 1849 – 30 May 1921) was an English classical scholar and academic administrator. He was principal of Brasenose College, Oxford (1889–1920) and served as Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University.
Life
He was ...
left £1,000 (£ as of ) to the university in 1921, which was used for the Coin Room at the museum.
In 2012, the Ashmolean was awarded a grant of $1.1m by the
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation of New York City in the United States, simply known as Mellon Foundation, is a private foundation with five core areas of interest, and endowed with wealth accumulated by Andrew Mellon of the Mellon family of Pitts ...
to establish the
University Engagement Programme or UEP. The programme employs three teaching curators and a programme director to develop the use of the museum's collections in the teaching and research of the university.
Renovations
![Ashmolean Museum Atrium Oxford 2009](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d7/Ashmolean_Museum_Atrium_Oxford_2009.jpg)
The interior of the Ashmolean has been extensively modernised in recent years and now includes a restaurant and large gift shop.
In 2000, the Chinese Picture Gallery, designed by
van Heyningen and Haward Architects
van Heyningen and Haward is an architectural practice, founded in 1983 by Birkin Haward and Joanna van Heyningen, and now owned and managed by James McCosh and Meryl Townley. The London architects work primarily in education, and have also work ...
, opened at the entrance of the Ashmolean and is partly integrated into the structure. It was inserted into a lightwell in the Grade 1 listed building, and was designed to support future construction from its roof. Apart from the original Cockerell spaces, this gallery was the only part of the museum retained in the rebuilding. The gallery houses the Ashmolean's own collection and is also used from time to time for the display of loan exhibitions and works by contemporary Chinese artists. It is the only museum gallery in Britain devoted to Chinese paintings.
The
Sackler Library
The Sackler Library holds a large portion of the classical, art historical, and archaeological works belonging to the University of Oxford, England.
History
The Sackler Library building was completed in 2001 and opened on 24 September of tha ...
, incorporating the older library collections of the Ashmolean, opened in 2001 and has allowed an expansion of the book collection, which concentrates on classical civilization, archaeology and art history.
Between 2006 and 2009, the museum was expanded to the designs of architect
Rick Mather
Rick Mather (May 30, 1937 – April 20, 2013) was an American-born architect working in England. Born in Portland, Oregon and awarded a B.arch. at the University of Oregon in 1961, he came to London in 1963 and worked at the architectural firm L ...
and the exhibition design company
Metaphor
A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are often compared wit ...
, supported by the
Heritage Lottery Fund
The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom.
History
The fund's predecessor bodies were ...
. The $98.2 million
rebuilding resulted in five floors instead of three, with a doubling of the display space, as well as new conservation studios and an education centre. The renovated museum re-opened on 7 November 2009.
On 26 November 2011, the Ashmolean opened to the public the new galleries of
Ancient Egypt and
Nubia
Nubia () (Nobiin: Nobīn, ) is a region along the Nile river encompassing the area between the first cataract of the Nile (just south of Aswan in southern Egypt) and the confluence of the Blue and White Niles (in Khartoum in central Sudan), or ...
. This second phase of major redevelopment now allows the museum to exhibit objects that have been in storage for decades, more than doubling the number of coffins and mummies on display. The project received lead support from
Lord Sainsbury's Linbury Trust, along with the Selz Foundation, Mr Christian Levett, as well as other trusts, foundations, and individuals. Rick Mather Architects led the redesign and display of the four previous Egypt galleries and the extension to the restored Ruskin Gallery, previously occupied by the museum shop.
In May 2016, the museum opened new galleries dedicated to the display of its collection of
Victorian art.
This development allowed for the return to the Ashmolean of the
Great Bookcase
The Great Bookcase is a large piece of painted furniture designed by the English architect and designer William Burges.Dakers 1999, p. 175. The bookcase is high and wide. It has been described as "the most important example of Victorian painte ...
, designed by
William Burges
William Burges (; 2 December 1827 – 20 April 1881) was an English architect and designer. Among the greatest of the Victorian art-architects, he sought in his work to escape from both nineteenth-century industrialisation and the Neoc ...
, and described as "the most important example of Victorian painted furniture ever made.".
Collections
![Taichi arch 8124242](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/58/Taichi_arch_8124242.JPG)
The main museum contains huge collections of
archaeological
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
specimens and fine art. It has one of the best collections of
Pre-Raphaelite
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (later known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, James ...
paintings,
majolica
In different periods of time and in different countries, the term ''majolica'' has been used for two distinct types of pottery.
Firstly, from the mid-15th century onwards, was ''maiolica'', a type of pottery reaching Italy from Spain, Majorca a ...
pottery, and English silver. The archaeology department includes the bequest of
Arthur Evans
Sir Arthur John Evans (8 July 1851 – 11 July 1941) was a British archaeologist and pioneer in the study of Aegean civilization in the Bronze Age. He is most famous for unearthing the palace of Knossos on the Greek island of Crete. Based on t ...
and so has an excellent collection of
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
and
Minoan
The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age Aegean civilization on the island of Crete and other Aegean Islands, whose earliest beginnings were from 3500BC, with the complex urban civilization beginning around 2000BC, and then declining from 1450B ...
pottery. The department also has an extensive collection of antiquities from
Ancient Egypt and the
Sudan
Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...
, and the museum hosts the
Griffith Institute
The Griffith Institute is an Egyptological institution based in the Griffith Wing of the Sackler Library and is part of the Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford, England. It was founded for the advancement of Egyptology and Ancient Nea ...
for the advancement of
Egyptology
Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , '' -logia''; ar, علم المصريات) is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religious ...
.
Highlights of the Ashmolean's collection include:
* Drawings by
Michelangelo
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (; 6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), known as Michelangelo (), was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was insp ...
,
Raphael
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. List of works by Raphael, His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of ...
and
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, Drawing, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially res ...
* Paintings by
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...
,
Giambattista Pittoni,
Paolo Uccello
Paolo Uccello ( , ; 1397 – 10 December 1475), born Paolo di Dono, was an Italians, Italian (Florentine) Florentine painting, painter and mathematician who was notable for his pioneering work on visual Perspective (graphical), perspective in art. ...
,
Anthony van Dyck
Sir Anthony van Dyck (, many variant spellings; 22 March 1599 – 9 December 1641) was a Brabantian Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England after success in the Southern Netherlands and Italy.
The seventh c ...
,
Peter Paul Rubens
Sir Peter Paul Rubens (; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat from the Duchy of Brabant in the Southern Netherlands (modern-day Belgium). He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque traditio ...
,
Paul Cézanne
Paul Cézanne ( , , ; ; 19 January 1839 – 22 October 1906) was a French artist and Post-Impressionism, Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th-century conception of artistic endeavour to a ...
,
John Constable
John Constable (; 11 June 1776 – 31 March 1837) was an English landscape painter in the Romanticism, Romantic tradition. Born in Suffolk, he is known principally for revolutionising the genre of landscape painting with his pictures of Dedha ...
,
Titian
Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italians, Italian (Republic of Venice, Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school (art), ...
,
Claude Lorrain
Claude Lorrain (; born Claude Gellée , called ''le Lorrain'' in French; traditionally just Claude in English; c. 1600 – 23 November 1682) was a French painter, draughtsman and etcher of the Baroque era. He spent most of his life in It ...
,
Samuel Palmer
Samuel Palmer Hon.RE (Hon. Fellow of the Society of Painter-Etchers) (27 January 180524 May 1881) was a British landscape painter, etcher and printmaker. He was also a prolific writer. Palmer was a key figure in Romanticism in Britain and p ...
,
John Singer Sargent
John Singer Sargent (; January 12, 1856 – April 14, 1925) was an American expatriate artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian-era luxury. He created roughly 900 oil paintings and more ...
,
Piero di Cosimo
Piero di Cosimo (2 January 1462 – 12 April 1522), also known as Piero di Lorenzo, was an Italian painter of the Renaissance.
He is most famous for the mythological and allegorical subjects he painted in the late Quattrocento; he is said to ...
,
William Holman Hunt
William Holman Hunt (2 April 1827 – 7 September 1910) was an English painter and one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. His paintings were notable for their great attention to detail, vivid colour, and elaborate symbolism. ...
, and
Edward Burne-Jones
Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1st Baronet, (; 28 August, 183317 June, 1898) was a British painter and designer associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood which included Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Millais, Ford Madox Brown and Holman Hun ...
* The
Alfred Jewel
* Watercolours and paintings by
J. M. W. Turner
* The
Messiah Stradivarius
The ''Messiah - Salabue Stradivarius'' of 1716 is a violin made by the Italian luthier Antonio Stradivari of Cremona. It is considered to be the only Stradivarius in existence in ''as new'' state. It is in the collection of the Ashmolean Museum i ...
, a violin made by
Antonio Stradivari
Antonio Stradivari (, also , ; – 18 December 1737) was an Italian luthier and a craftsman of string instruments such as violins, cellos, guitars, violas and harps. The Latinized form of his surname, ''Stradivarius'', as well as the colloq ...
* The
Daisy Linda Ward bequest in 1939 of 96 still life paintings, including works by
Clara Peeters
Clara Peeters (active 1607–1621) was a Flemish still-life painter from Antwerp who worked in both the Spanish Netherlands and Dutch Republic.
Peeters is the best-known female Flemish artist of this era and one of the few women artists work ...
,
Adriaen Coorte, and
Rachel Ruysch
Rachel Ruysch (3 June 1664 – 12 October 1750) was a Dutch still-life painter from the Northern Netherlands. She specialized in flowers, inventing her own style and achieving international fame in her lifetime. Due to a long and successful care ...
* The Pissarro Family Archive, donated in the 1950s to the Ashmolean, consisting of paintings, prints, drawings, books, and letters by
Camille Pissarro
Jacob Abraham Camille Pissarro ( , ; 10 July 1830 – 13 November 1903) was a Danish-French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, St Thomas (now in the US Virgin Islands, but t ...
,
Lucien Pissarro
Lucien Pissarro (20 February 1863 – 10 July 1944) was a landscape painter, printmaker, wood engraver and designer and printer of fine books. His landscape paintings employ techniques of Impressionism and Neo-Impressionism, but he also exhib ...
,
Orovida Camille Pissarro, and other members of the Pissarro family
* Arab ceremonial dress owned by
Lawrence of Arabia
Thomas Edward Lawrence (16 August 1888 – 19 May 1935) was a British archaeologist, army officer, diplomat, and writer who became renowned for his role in the Arab Revolt (1916–1918) and the Sinai and Palestine Campaign (1915–191 ...
* A death mask of
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three Ki ...
* The
Crondall hoard
The Crondall Hoard is a hoard of coins and other articles that was found in the village of Crondall in the English county of Hampshire. The hoard was discovered in 1828 and is believed to date to the seventh century. It was the largest hoard of A ...
, a rare set of
Anglo-Saxon
The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...
gold coins discovered in 1828
* A substantial number of
Oxyrhynchus Papyri
The Oxyrhynchus Papyri are a group of manuscripts discovered during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by papyrologists Bernard Pyne Grenfell and Arthur Surridge Hunt at an ancient rubbish dump near Oxyrhynchus in Egypt (, mo ...
, including
Old
Old or OLD may refer to:
Places
*Old, Baranya, Hungary
*Old, Northamptonshire, England
*Old Street station, a railway and tube station in London (station code OLD)
*OLD, IATA code for Old Town Municipal Airport and Seaplane Base, Old Town, Mai ...
and
New Testament
The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...
biblical manuscripts
A biblical manuscript is any handwritten copy of a portion of the text of the Bible. Biblical manuscripts vary in size from tiny scrolls containing individual verses of the Jewish scriptures (see ''Tefillin'') to huge polyglot codices (multi-lin ...
* Over 30 pieces of Late Roman
gold glass
Gold glass or gold sandwich glass is a luxury form of glass where a decorative design in gold leaf is fused between two layers of glass. First found in Hellenistic Greece, it is especially characteristic of the Roman glass of the Late Empire ...
roundels from the
Catacombs of Rome
The Catacombs of Rome ( it, Catacombe di Roma) are ancient catacombs, underground burial places in and around Rome, of which there are at least forty, some rediscovered only in recent decades. Though most famous for Christian burials, either i ...
, the 3rd largest collection after the Vatican and British Museum.
* A collection of
Posie ring
Posie rings (sometimes spelled posy, posey or poesy rings) are gold finger rings with a short inscription on their surface. They were popular during the 15th through the 17th centuries in both England and France as lovers' gifts. The language use ...
s.
* An extensive collection of antiquities from
Prehistoric Egypt
Prehistoric Egypt and Predynastic Egypt span the period from the earliest human settlement to the beginning of the Early Dynastic Period around 3100 BC, starting with the first Pharaoh, Narmer for some Egyptologists, Hor-Aha for others, with th ...
and the succeeding
Early Dynastic Period of Egypt
The Early Dynastic Period or Archaic Period, also known as the Thinite Period (from Thinis, the supposed hometown of its rulers), is the era of ancient Egypt that immediately follows the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt in . It is generall ...
* The
Parian Marble
Parian marble is a fine-grained semi translucent pure-white and entirely flawless marble quarried during the classical era on the Greek island of Paros in the Aegean Sea.
It was highly prized by ancient Greeks for making sculptures. Some of the ...
, the earliest extant example of a Greek chronological table
* The
Metrological Relief, showing
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...
measurements
* The ceremonial cloak of
Chief Powhatan
Powhatan ( c. 1547 – c. 1618), whose proper name was Wahunsenacawh (alternately spelled Wahunsenacah, Wahunsunacock or Wahunsonacock), was the leader of the Powhatan, an alliance of Algonquian-speaking Native Americans living in Tsenacommaca ...
* The
lantern
A lantern is an often portable source of lighting, typically featuring a protective enclosure for the light sourcehistorically usually a candle or a wick in oil, and often a battery-powered light in modern timesto make it easier to carry and h ...
that
Gunpowder Plot
The Gunpowder Plot of 1605, in earlier centuries often called the Gunpowder Treason Plot or the Jesuit Treason, was a failed assassination attempt against King James I by a group of provincial English Catholics led by Robert Catesby who sought ...
conspirator
Guy Fawkes
Guy Fawkes (; 13 April 1570 – 31 January 1606), also known as Guido Fawkes while fighting for the Spanish, was a member of a group of provincial English Catholics involved in the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605. He was born and educated ...
carried in 1605
* The
Minoan
The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age Aegean civilization on the island of Crete and other Aegean Islands, whose earliest beginnings were from 3500BC, with the complex urban civilization beginning around 2000BC, and then declining from 1450B ...
collection of
Arthur Evans
Sir Arthur John Evans (8 July 1851 – 11 July 1941) was a British archaeologist and pioneer in the study of Aegean civilization in the Bronze Age. He is most famous for unearthing the palace of Knossos on the Greek island of Crete. Based on t ...
, the biggest outside
Crete
Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, and ...
* The
Narmer Macehead
The Narmer macehead is an ancient Egyptian decorative stone mace head. It was found in the “main deposit” in the temple area of the ancient Egyptian city of Nekhen ( Hierakonpolis) by James Quibell in 1898. It is dated to the Early Dynastic ...
and
Scorpion Macehead
The Scorpion macehead (also known as the ''Major Scorpion macehead'') is a decorated ancient Egyptian mace (bludgeon), macehead found by United Kingdom, British archeologists James E. Quibell and Frederick W. Green (Egyptologist), Frederick W. Gr ...
* The
Kish tablet
The Kish tablet is a limestone tablet found at the site of the ancient Sumerian city of Kish in modern-day Tell al-Uhaymir, Babil Governorate, Iraq. A plaster-cast of the artifact is today in the collection of the Ashmolean Museum. The origina ...
*The
Sumerian Kings List
* The
Abingdon Sword
The Abingdon Sword is a late Anglo-Saxon iron sword and hilt believed to be from the late 9th or early 10th century; only the first few inches of the blade remain attached to the hilt.
The sword was found in 1874 at Bog Mill (possibly Buggs M ...
, an Anglo-Saxon sword found at
Abingdon south of Oxford
* The Dalboki hoard of Thracian artefacts, central Bulgaria
* The Scythian antiquities from Nymphaeum, Crimea
Recent major bequests and acquisitions include:
* In 2017 the museum acquired a group portrait by
William Dobson
William Dobson (4 March 1611 (baptised); 28 October 1646 (buried)) was a portraitist and one of the first significant English painters, praised by his contemporary John Aubrey as "''the most excellent painter that England has yet bred''". He ...
painted in Oxford around 1645, during the
English Civil War
The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...
. The group in the painting are
Prince Rupert
Prince Rupert of the Rhine, Duke of Cumberland, (17 December 1619 (O.S.) / 27 December (N.S.) – 29 November 1682 (O.S.)) was an English army officer, admiral, scientist and colonial governor. He first came to prominence as a Royalist cavalr ...
,
Colonel William Legge (Governor of Oxford) and
Colonel John Russell (commander of the prince's elite Blue Coats). The painting was acquired for the nation through the
Acceptance in Lieu scheme, administered by
Arts Council England
Arts Council England is an arm's length non-departmental public body of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is also a registered charity. It was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council of Great Britain was divided into three s ...
.
* In 2017 the museum acquired a
Viking
Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden),
who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...
hoard that was discovered near
Watlington in South
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...
in 2015. It is the first large Viking hoard discovered in Oxfordshire, which once lay on the border of
Wessex
la, Regnum Occidentalium Saxonum
, conventional_long_name = Kingdom of the West Saxons
, common_name = Wessex
, image_map = Southern British Isles 9th century.svg
, map_caption = S ...
and
Mercia
la, Merciorum regnum
, conventional_long_name=Kingdom of Mercia
, common_name=Mercia
, status=Kingdom
, status_text=Independent kingdom (527–879)Client state of Wessex ()
, life_span=527–918
, era=Heptarchy
, event_start=
, date_start=
, ye ...
. The hoard contains over 200
Anglo-Saxon
The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...
coins, including many examples of previously rare coins of
Alfred the Great
Alfred the Great (alt. Ælfred 848/849 – 26 October 899) was King of the West Saxons from 871 to 886, and King of the Anglo-Saxons from 886 until his death in 899. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf and his first wife Osburh, who bot ...
, King of Wessex (871–899) and his less well-known contemporary,
King Ceolwulf II of Mercia (874–879).
* In 2015 the Ashmolean raised the money needed to acquire a major painting by
J. M. W. Turner. With lead support from the
Heritage Lottery Fund
The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom.
History
The fund's predecessor bodies were ...
, a grant from the
Art Fund
Art Fund (formerly the National Art Collections Fund) is an independent membership-based British charity, which raises funds to aid the acquisition of artworks for the nation. It gives grants and acts as a channel for many gifts and bequests, as ...
, and a public appeal, the fundraising target was met to secure Turner's only full-size townscape in oils: ''The High Street, Oxford'' (1810). The painting was accepted by the nation through the
Acceptance in Lieu scheme.
* In October 2014 the Ashmolean acquired a painting by
John Constable
John Constable (; 11 June 1776 – 31 March 1837) was an English landscape painter in the Romanticism, Romantic tradition. Born in Suffolk, he is known principally for revolutionising the genre of landscape painting with his pictures of Dedha ...
titled ''Willy Lott's House from the Stour'' (The Valley Farm). The painting was accepted by the nation through the
Acceptance in Lieu scheme. The farm building depicted in the painting is also seen from a different angle in ''
The Hay Wain
''The Hay Wain'' – originally titled ''Landscape: Noon'' – is a painting by John Constable, completed in 1821, which depicts a rural scene on the River Stour between the English counties of Suffolk and Essex. It hangs in the National Galler ...
'', painted 1821 and now at the
National Gallery
The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director o ...
.
* In October 2014 the Ashmolean acquired a collection of historic
English embroideries which was given to the museum by collectors Micheál and Elizabeth Feller. The gift comprises 61 pieces which span the whole of the seventeenth century.
* In late 2013, art historian and collector
Michael Sullivan bequeathed his collection of more than 400 works of art to the museum. The collection, which includes paintings by Chinese masters
Qi Baishi
Qi Baishi (1 January 1864 – 16 September 1957) was a Chinese painter, noted for the whimsical, often playful style of his works. Born to a peasant family from Xiangtan, Hunan, Qi taught himself to paint, sparked by the Manual of the Musta ...
,
Zhang Daqian
Chang Dai-chien or Zhang Daqian (; 10 May 1899 – 2 April 1983) was one of the best-known and most prodigious Chinese artists of the twentieth century. Originally known as a '' guohua'' (traditionalist) painter, by the 1960s he was also renowned ...
, and
Wu Guanzhong
Wu Guanzhong (; 29 August 1919 – 25 June 2010) was a contemporary Chinese painter widely recognized as a founder of modern Chinese painting. He is considered to be one of the greatest contemporary Chinese painters. Wu's artworks display both ...
, was considered one of the world's most significant collections of modern Chinese art. The museum has a gallery dedicated to Sullivan and his wife Khoan.
* In 2013 the museum was given the sculpture ''Taichi Arch'' by Taiwanese artist
Ju Ming
use both this parameter and , birth_date to display the person's date of birth, date of death, and age at death) -->
, death_place =
, death_cause =
, body_discovered =
, resting_place =
, resting_place_coordinates ...
, which was installed on the museum's main forecourt. It was given to the museum by the Juming Culture and Education Foundation in memory of art historian and collector
Michael Sullivan.
* In 2012 the museum was left a 500-piece collection of gold and silver
objets d'art
In art history, the French term Objet d’art describes an ornamental work of art, and the term Objets d’art describes a range of works of art, usually small and three-dimensional, made of high-quality materials, and a finely-rendered finish th ...
, including many pieces of Renaissance silverware, assembled by the antique dealer Michael Welby.
* In 2012 the museum acquired
Édouard Manet
Édouard Manet (, ; ; 23 January 1832 – 30 April 1883) was a French modernist painter. He was one of the first 19th-century artists to paint modern life, as well as a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism.
Born ...
's ''Portrait of Mademoiselle Claus'', painted in 1868, after a public campaign to raise £7.83million while a temporary export bar was placed on it by the
RCEWA The campaign received £5.9m from the
Heritage Lottery Fund
The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom.
History
The fund's predecessor bodies were ...
, and a grant of £850,000 from
The Art Fund
Art Fund (formerly the National Art Collections Fund) is an independent membership-based British charitable organization, charity, which raises funds to aid the acquisition of artworks for the nation. It gives grants and acts as a channel for man ...
.
Collections gallery
File:BrightonPierrotsWalterSickert.jpg, ''The Brighton Pierrots'', 1915, by Walter Sickert
Walter Richard Sickert (31 May 1860 – 22 January 1942) was a German-born British painter and printmaker who was a member of the Camden Town Group of Post-Impressionist artists in early 20th-century London. He was an important influence on d ...
File:Alfred Jewel Ashmolean 2014.JPG, The Alfred Jewel
File:Edward Burne-Jones, ‘Music’, 1877. Oil on canvas.jpg, ''Music'', 1877, by Edward Burne-Jones
Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1st Baronet, (; 28 August, 183317 June, 1898) was a British painter and designer associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood which included Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Millais, Ford Madox Brown and Holman Hun ...
File:Ceremonial Palette from Hierakonpolis-2.jpg, The "Two Dog Palette" from Hierakonpolis
Nekhen ( egy, nḫn, ); in grc, Ἱεράκων πόλις Hierakonpolis ( either: City of the Hawk, or City of the Falcon, a reference to Horus or ''Hierakōn polis'' "Hawk City" in arz, الكوم الأحمر, el-Kōm el-Aḥmar, lit=the ...
File:Messiah Stradivarius.jpg, The Messiah Stradivarius
The ''Messiah - Salabue Stradivarius'' of 1716 is a violin made by the Italian luthier Antonio Stradivari of Cremona. It is considered to be the only Stradivarius in existence in ''as new'' state. It is in the collection of the Ashmolean Museum i ...
violin
File:Edouard Manet - Portrait of Mademoiselle Claus.jpg, ''Portrait of Mademoiselle Claus'', by Édouard Manet
Édouard Manet (, ; ; 23 January 1832 – 30 April 1883) was a French modernist painter. He was one of the first 19th-century artists to paint modern life, as well as a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism.
Born ...
File:Narmer Macehead.png, The Narmer Macehead
The Narmer macehead is an ancient Egyptian decorative stone mace head. It was found in the “main deposit” in the temple area of the ancient Egyptian city of Nekhen ( Hierakonpolis) by James Quibell in 1898. It is dated to the Early Dynastic ...
File:Raffaello, studio per la trasfigurazione 02.jpg, ''Studies of the Heads of two Apostles and of their Hands'', by Raphael
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. List of works by Raphael, His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of ...
File:Paolo Uccello - The Hunt in the Forest - WGA23239.jpg, ''The Hunt in the Forest
''The Hunt in the Forest'' (also known as ''The Hunt by Night'' or simply ''The Hunt'') is a painting by the Italian artist Paolo Uccello, made around 1470. It is perhaps the best-known painting in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, England.
The pa ...
'' by Paolo Uccello
Paolo Uccello ( , ; 1397 – 10 December 1475), born Paolo di Dono, was an Italians, Italian (Florentine) Florentine painting, painter and mathematician who was notable for his pioneering work on visual Perspective (graphical), perspective in art. ...
File:Sobek Oxford.jpg, Statue of Sobek
Sobek (also called Sebek or Sobki, cop, Ⲥⲟⲩⲕ, Souk) was an ancient Egyptian deity with a complex and elastic history and nature. He is associated with the Nile crocodile or the West African crocodile and is represented either in its f ...
, the crocodile god, from the pyramid temple of Amenemhat III
:''See Amenemhat, for other individuals with this name.''
Amenemhat III ( Ancient Egyptian: ''Ỉmn-m-hꜣt'' meaning 'Amun is at the forefront'), also known as Amenemhet III, was a pharaoh of ancient Egypt and the sixth king of the Twelfth Dy ...
File:Leighton, Frederic - Acme and Septimius - c. 1868.jpg, ''Acme and Septimius'', c. 1868, by Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton
Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton, (3 December 1830 – 25 January 1896), known as Sir Frederic Leighton between 1878 and 1896, was a British painter, draughtsman, and sculptor. His works depicted historical, biblical, and classical subjec ...
File:The Sumerian King List, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.jpg, The Sumerian Kings List, dating to approximately 1800 BC
File:0 Gemma Tiberiana - Rubens - Ashmolean Museum - WA1989.74.JPG, The ''Apotheosis of Germanicus'', a copy after an antique Cameo painted in 1626 by Peter Paul Rubens
Sir Peter Paul Rubens (; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat from the Duchy of Brabant in the Southern Netherlands (modern-day Belgium). He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque traditio ...
File:Oliver Cromwell death mask- Ashmolean Museum.jpg, A death mask of Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three Ki ...
File:Millais - Die Rückkehr der Taube zur Arche Noah.jpg, ''The Return of the Dove to the Ark
''The Return of the Dove to the Ark'' is a painting by Sir John Everett Millais, completed in 1851. It is in the Thomas Combe collection at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.
The painting portrays a scene from the Bible. Two of Wives aboard Noah's ...
'', 1851, by Sir John Everett Millais
Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Baronet, ( , ; 8 June 1829 – 13 August 1896) was an English painter and illustrator who was one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. He was a child prodigy who, aged eleven, became the youngest ...
File:Tragic mask dating to the 1st century BC or 1st century AD, Ashmolean Museum (8400677139).jpg, A Greek tragic mask dating to the 1st century BC or 1st century AD.
File:Jeanne Holding a Fan, c.1874, by Camille Pissarro. Oil on canvas, The Ashmolean Museum,.jpg, ''Jeanne Holding a Fan'', an oil on canvas painting by Camille Pissarro
Jacob Abraham Camille Pissarro ( , ; 10 July 1830 – 13 November 1903) was a Danish-French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, St Thomas (now in the US Virgin Islands, but t ...
, c.1874
File:Heilige Familie mit dem Johannesknaben (Ashmolean Museum).jpg, ''The Holy Family with St John the Baptist'', brush and brown wash on panel by Michelangelo
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (; 6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), known as Michelangelo (), was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was insp ...
File:Tombstone, the doctor Claudius Agathemerus and his wife Myrtale, from Rome, about AD 100, Ashmolean Museum (8401778336).jpg, Tombstone, the doctor Claudius Agathemerus and his wife Myrtale, from Rome, about AD 100
File:Millais Ruskin.jpg, ''Portrait of John Ruskin
John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English writer, philosopher, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and politi ...
'' by John Everett Millais
Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Baronet, ( , ; 8 June 1829 – 13 August 1896) was an English painter and illustrator who was one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. He was a child prodigy who, aged eleven, became the youngest ...
File:Powhatan's mantle, lithography 1888.jpg, The Mantle of Chief Powhatan
Powhatan ( c. 1547 – c. 1618), whose proper name was Wahunsenacawh (alternately spelled Wahunsenacah, Wahunsunacock or Wahunsonacock), was the leader of the Powhatan, an alliance of Algonquian-speaking Native Americans living in Tsenacommaca ...
, dating to the 17th century
File:Abingdon Sword 2014.JPG, The Abingdon Sword
The Abingdon Sword is a late Anglo-Saxon iron sword and hilt believed to be from the late 9th or early 10th century; only the first few inches of the blade remain attached to the hilt.
The sword was found in 1874 at Bog Mill (possibly Buggs M ...
, dating from the late 9th or early 10th century
File:Paolo uccello, annunciazione, ashmolean.jpg, ''The Annunciation'', attributed to Paolo Uccello
Paolo Uccello ( , ; 1397 – 10 December 1475), born Paolo di Dono, was an Italians, Italian (Florentine) Florentine painting, painter and mathematician who was notable for his pioneering work on visual Perspective (graphical), perspective in art. ...
File:Van Gogh - Das Restaurant de la Sirène in Asnières.jpeg, ''Restaurant de la Sirène, Asnières'', by Vincent van Gogh
Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionism, Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2 ...
File:Pierre-Auguste Renoir 029.jpg, ''A Garden in Montmartre'' by Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (; 25 February 1841 – 3 December 1919) was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "R ...
File:Young Englishwoman, costume study by Hans Holbein the Younger.jpg, ''Young Englishwoman'', a costume study by Hans Holbein the Younger
Hans Holbein the Younger ( , ; german: Hans Holbein der Jüngere; – between 7 October and 29 November 1543) was a Germans, German-Swiss people, Swiss painter and printmaker who worked in a Northern Renaissance style, and is considered o ...
File:Samuel Palmer - Self-Portrait - WGA16951.jpg, A ''self-portrait'' by Samuel Palmer
Samuel Palmer Hon.RE (Hon. Fellow of the Society of Painter-Etchers) (27 January 180524 May 1881) was a British landscape painter, etcher and printmaker. He was also a prolific writer. Palmer was a key figure in Romanticism in Britain and p ...
File:Domitianus II obverse ashmolean (edited).JPG, A coin of Domitianus II
File:Ashmolean Museum (8401780654).jpg, Egyptian Mummy Portrait
File:Pinturicchio Virgen con niño Ashmolean Museum.jpg, ''The Virgin and Child'', by Bernardino Pintoricchio
File:Cycladic figurine female, 2800–2300 BC, AshmoleanM, AE 178, 142426.jpg, Early Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...
Cycladic art
The ancient Cycladic culture flourished in the islands of the Aegean Sea from c. 3300 to 1100 BCE. Along with the Minoan civilization and Mycenaean Greece, the Cycladic people are counted among the three major Aegean cultures. Cycladic art therefo ...
figurine, 2800–2300 BC.
File:Tableta con trillo.png, The Kish tablet
The Kish tablet is a limestone tablet found at the site of the ancient Sumerian city of Kish in modern-day Tell al-Uhaymir, Babil Governorate, Iraq. A plaster-cast of the artifact is today in the collection of the Ashmolean Museum. The origina ...
File:Guyfawkeslantern.jpg, Guy Fawkes
Guy Fawkes (; 13 April 1570 – 31 January 1606), also known as Guido Fawkes while fighting for the Spanish, was a member of a group of provincial English Catholics involved in the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605. He was born and educated ...
' Lantern, London, England c. 1605 Iron and horn
Arundel Marbles
Image:So-called Cicero excavated by the Earl of Arundel in Rome between 1613 and 1614 MH.jpg, So-called Cicero excavated by the Earl of Arundel in Rome between 1613 and 1614
Image:Closeup of So-called Cicero excavated by the Earl of Arundel in Rome between 1613 and 1614 MH.jpg, So-called Cicero excavated by the Earl of Arundel in Rome between 1613 and 1614
Image:Man wearing a toga excavated in Rome 1613-1614 and later given the name "Caius Marius" MH.jpg, Man wearing a toga excavated in Rome 1613-1614 and later given the name "Caius Marius"
Image:First century CE togate torso bearing a 17th century CE head dubbed Caius Marius by the Earl of Arundel excavated in 1613-1614 CE MH.jpg, First century CE togate torso bearing a 17th century CE head dubbed Caius Marius by the Earl of Arundel excavated in 1613-1614 CE
Image:Statue of a woman with hairstyle dating to the later Roman Republican or Augustan period but body dating to 200-100 BCE MH.jpg, Statue of a woman with hairstyle dating to the later Roman Republican or Augustan period but body dating to 200-100 BCE
Image:Closeup of Statue of a woman with hairstyle dating to the later Roman Republican or Augustan period but body dating to 200-100 BCE MH.jpg, Closeup of Statue of a woman with hairstyle dating to the later Roman Republican or Augustan period but body dating to 200-100 BCE
Image:The Oxford Bust or "Sappho" with head and torso coming from different statues and probably put together by a sculptor in the 1600s MH.jpg, The Oxford Bust or "Sappho" with head and torso coming from different statues and probably put together by a sculptor in the 1600s
Image:The Oxford Bust or "Sappho" with head and torso coming from different statues and probably put together by a sculptor in the 1600s View 2 MH.jpg, The Oxford Bust or "Sappho" with head and torso coming from different statues and probably put together by a sculptor in the 1600s View 2
Image:Portrait of a young man with hairstyle, facial features and long neck pointing to portraits made in the early 100s CE MH.jpg, Portrait of a young man with hairstyle, facial features and long neck pointing to portraits made in the early 100s CE
Image:Sphinx commissioned by the Earl of Arundel to partner a Roman Sphinx, 17th century CE MH.jpg, Sphinx commissioned by the Earl of Arundel to partner a Roman Sphinx, 17th century CE
Image:Sphinx, Roman, 50-200 CE Arundel Marble MH.jpg, Sphinx, Roman, 50-200 CE.
Image:Roman statue of Eros, 100-200 CE Arundel Marble MH.jpg, Roman statue of Eros, 100-200 CE depicting Eros sleeping, his torch turned down, a symbol of death used in many Roman memorials.
Image:Closeup of Roman statue of Eros, 100-200 CE Arundel Marble MH.jpg, Closeup of Roman statue of Eros, 100-200 CE depicting Eros sleeping, his torch turned down, a symbol of death used in many Roman memorials.
Image:Fragment of a marble sarcophagus depicting two drunken boys from a Bacchic revel, made in Athens 140-150 CE MH.jpg, Fragment of a marble sarcophagus depicting two drunken boys from a Bacchic revel, made in Athens 140-150 CE
Broadway Museum and Art Gallery
In 2013 a museum was opened in the 17th-century "Tudor House" at
Broadway, Worcestershire
Broadway is a large village and civil parish in the Cotswolds, England, with a population of 2,540 at the 2011 census. It is in the far southeast of Worcestershire, close to the Gloucestershire border, midway between Evesham and Moreton-in-Marsh ...
, in the Cotswolds, in partnership with the Ashmolean Museum. In 2017 the museum became known as the Broadway Museum and Art Gallery. The collection includes paintings and furniture from the founding collections of the Ashmolean Museum, given by Elias Ashmole to the University of Oxford in 1683, and local exhibits expand upon elements of the timeline of the village.
Major exhibitions
Upcoming planned exhibitions include:
* ''Labyrinth: Knossos, Myth and Reality'': This exhibition opens at the Ashmolean in February 2023.
* ''Pre-Raphaelites: Drawings & Watercolours'': This exhibition, initially shown for a 5 weeks in 2021, was re-mounted in 2022 for a longer run, opening in July. It is drawn from the Ashmolean's own collection of
Pre-Raphaelite
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (later known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, James ...
drawings and watercolours.
Major exhibitions in recent years include:
* ''Pissarro: Father of Impressionism'': Open from February until June 2022, this exhibition included artworks drawn from the Ashmolean's collections as well as international loans, spanning
Camille Pissarro
Jacob Abraham Camille Pissarro ( , ; 10 July 1830 – 13 November 1903) was a Danish-French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, St Thomas (now in the US Virgin Islands, but t ...
's entire career.
* ''Tokyo: Art and Photography'': Open from July 2021 until January 2022, this exhibition included artworks from the Ashmolean's collection as well as loans from Japan and new commissions by contemporary artists. It included woodblock prints by
Hokusai
, known simply as Hokusai, was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist of the Edo period, active as a painter and printmaker. He is best known for the woodblock printing in Japan, woodblock print series ''Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji'', which includes the ...
and
Hiroshige
Utagawa Hiroshige (, also ; ja, 歌川 広重 ), born Andō Tokutarō (; 1797 – 12 October 1858), was a Japanese ''ukiyo-e'' artist, considered the last great master of that tradition.
Hiroshige is best known for his horizontal-format l ...
, photography of
Moriyama Daido and
Ninagawa Mika.
*''Pre-Raphaelites: Drawings & Watercolours'': Open in May and June 2021, this exhibition was drawn from the Ashmolean's own collection of
Pre-Raphaelite
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (later known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, James ...
drawings and watercolours. The exhibition was curated by British art historian
Christiana Payne.
*''Young Rembrandt'': Open from August until November 2020, this exhibition was delayed due to the
Covid-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
, and featured more than 120 of
Rembrandt
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (, ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), usually simply known as Rembrandt, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker and draughtsman. An innovative and prolific master in three media, he is generally consid ...
's paintings, drawings and prints from international and private collections. It focused on the first decade of Rembrandt's work, from 1624–34, and included his early paintings
Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem,
Self-portrait in a Gorget,
Rembrandt Laughing
''Rembrandt Laughing'' is a oil on copper painting by the Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn. It is an elaborate study of a laughing face, a tronie, and, since it represents the painter himself, one of over 40 self-portraits by Rembrandt, proba ...
,
Judas Repentant, Returning the Pieces of Silver, Portrait of
Jacques de Gheyn III, and
History Painting
History painting is a genre in painting defined by its subject matter rather than any artistic style or specific period. History paintings depict a moment in a narrative story, most often (but not exclusively) Greek and Roman mythology and Bible ...
. The exhibition was the subject of a
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
television documentary, in its 2020 Museums in Quarantine series.
* ''Last Supper in Pompeii'': Open from July 2019 until January 2020, this exhibition explored what the people of the ancient Roman city of
Pompeii
Pompeii (, ) was an ancient city located in what is now the ''comune'' of Pompei near Naples in the Campania region of Italy. Pompeii, along with Herculaneum and many villas in the surrounding area (e.g. at Boscoreale, Stabiae), was buried ...
loved to eat and drink. Many of the objects, on loan from
Naples Museum
The National Archaeological Museum of Naples ( it, Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, italic=no, sometimes abbreviated to MANN) is an important Italian archaeological museum, particularly for ancient Roman remains. Its collection includes wo ...
and
Pompeii
Pompeii (, ) was an ancient city located in what is now the ''comune'' of Pompei near Naples in the Campania region of Italy. Pompeii, along with Herculaneum and many villas in the surrounding area (e.g. at Boscoreale, Stabiae), was buried ...
, had never before left Italy.
*''Jeff Koons at the Ashmolean'': Open from February until June 2019, this exhibition featured 17 major works by the American artist
Jeff Koons
Jeffrey Lynn Koons (; born January 21, 1955) is an American artist recognized for his work dealing with popular culture and his sculptures depicting everyday objects, including balloon animals produced in stainless steel with mirror- finish su ...
, 14 of which had never been on display in the UK before. They included some of his most well-known series such as Equilibrium,
Banality, Antiquity and his recent Gazing Ball paintings and sculptures. In the galleries of the museum, where the collections range from prehistory to the present, Jeff Koons's work was ‘in conversation’ with the history of art and ideas which has been his focus over the past four decades. The exhibition was curated by Koons and
Norman Rosenthal
Sir Norman Rosenthal (born 8 November 1944) is a British independent curator and art historian. From 1970 to 1974 he was Exhibitions Officer at Brighton Museum & Art Gallery, Brighton Museum and Art Gallery. In 1974 he became a curator at the ...
.
*''Spellbound: Magic, Ritual & Witchcraft'': Open from August 2018 until January 2019, this exhibition explored the history of magic over eight centuries. On display were 180 objects from 12th-century Europe to newly commissioned contemporary artworks.
* ''America's Cool Modernism: O'Keeffe to Hopper'': Open from March until July 2018 this major exhibition of works by American artists in the early 20th-century included over 80 paintings, photographs and prints, and the first American avant-garde film,
Manhatta
''Manhatta'' (1921) is a short documentary film directed by painter Charles Sheeler and photographer Paul Strand.
Production background
''Manhatta'' documents the look of early 20th-century Manhattan. With the city as subject, the film consist ...
. Many of the paintings had never before travelled outside the USA.
* ''Imagining the Divine: Art and the Rise of World Religions'': Open from October 2017 until February 2018 this exhibition explored Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism, and was the first to look at the art of these five world religions as they spread across continents in the first millennium AD.
* ''Raphael: The Drawings'': Open from June 2017 until September 2017 this exhibition brought together over a hundred works by
Raphael
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. List of works by Raphael, His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of ...
from international collections and aimed to transform public understanding of Raphael through a focus on the immediacy and expressiveness of his drawing.
* ''Degas to Picasso: Creating Modernism in France'': Open from February 2017 until May 2017, and featuring works by
Matisse
Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known prima ...
,
Manet
A wireless ad hoc network (WANET) or mobile ad hoc network (MANET) is a decentralized type of wireless network. The network is ad hoc because it does not rely on a pre-existing infrastructure, such as routers in wired networks or access points ...
,
Chagall
Marc Chagall; russian: link=no, Марк Заха́рович Шага́л ; be, Марк Захаравіч Шагал . (born Moishe Shagal; 28 March 1985) was a Russian-French artist. An early modernism, modernist, he was associated with se ...
,
Braque
Georges Braque ( , ; 13 May 1882 – 31 August 1963) was a major 20th-century List of French artists, French painter, Collage, collagist, Drawing, draughtsman, printmaker and sculpture, sculptor. His most notable contributions were in his all ...
,
Delacroix Delacroix is a French surname that derives from ''de la Croix'' ("of the Cross").
It may refer to:
People
* Caroline Delacroix (1883–1945), French-Romanian mistress of Leopold II of Belgium
* Charles-François Delacroix (1741–1805), ...
,
Renoir
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (; 25 February 1841 – 3 December 1919) was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "Re ...
,
Metzinger,
Degas
Edgar Degas (, ; born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, ; 19 July 183427 September 1917) was a French Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings.
Degas also produced bronze sculptures, prints and drawings. Degas is espec ...
,
Léger and
Picasso
Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...
, this exhibition told the story of the rise of Modernism through works from a private collection that had never been seen in Britain before.
* ''Power and Protection: Islamic Art and the Supernatural'': Open from October 2016 until January 2017, this was the first major exhibition to explore the supernatural in the art of the Islamic world. The exhibition included objects and works of art from the 12th to the 20th century, from Morocco to China, which have been used as sources of guidance and protection in the dramatic events of human history. These include dream-books, talismanic charts and amulets.
* ''Storms, War and Shipwrecks: Treasures from the Sicilian Seas'': Open from June until September 2016, this exhibition explored the roots of
Sicily
(man) it, Siciliana (woman)
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title =
, population_blank1 =
, demographics_type1 = Ethnicity
, demographics1_footnotes =
, demographi ...
's multi-cultural heritage through the discoveries made by underwater archaeologists – from chance finds to excavated shipwrecks. The exhibition will also featured what has been described as a "flat pack"
Byzantine
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
church interior, intended for assembly at its destination, with marble items raised from a wreck off the southeast coast of Sicily in the 1960s by archaeologist Gerhard Kapitan.
* ''Andy Warhol: Works from the Hall Collection'': Open from February until May 2016, this exhibition featured over a hundred works, by
Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationsh ...
, from the Hall Collection (USA), plus loans of films from
The Andy Warhol Museum
The Andy Warhol Museum is located on the North Shore of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is the largest museum in North America dedicated to a single artist. The museum holds an extensive permanent collection of art and archive ...
, Pittsburgh. Curated by
Sir Norman Rosenthal, the exhibition spanned Warhol's entire output, from iconic pieces of the 1960s Pop pioneer to the experimental works of his last decade.
*''Elizabeth Price: A RESTORATION'': Open from March until May 2016, this two-screen video installation by British artist
Elizabeth Price was a newly commissioned work in response to the collections and archives of the Ashmolean and
Pitt Rivers museums, in partnership with the
Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art
The Ruskin School of Art, known as the Ruskin, is an art school at the University of Oxford, England. It is part of Oxford's Humanities Division.
History
The Ruskin grew out the Oxford School of Art, which was founded in 1865 and later became ...
, and funded by the 2013
Contemporary Art Society
The Contemporary Art Society (CAS) is an independent charity that champions the collecting of outstanding contemporary art and craft for UK museum collections. Since its founding in 1910 the organisation has donated over 10,000 works to museums ...
Award. The main focus was the records of
Arthur Evans
Sir Arthur John Evans (8 July 1851 – 11 July 1941) was a British archaeologist and pioneer in the study of Aegean civilization in the Bronze Age. He is most famous for unearthing the palace of Knossos on the Greek island of Crete. Based on t ...
’s excavation of the Cretan city of
Knossos
Knossos (also Cnossos, both pronounced ; grc, Κνωσός, Knōsós, ; Linear B: ''Ko-no-so'') is the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete and has been called Europe's oldest city.
Settled as early as the Neolithic period, the na ...
.
* ''Drawing in Venice: Titian to Canaletto'': Open from October 2015 until January 2016, this exhibition featured a hundred drawings from The
Uffizi
The Uffizi Gallery (; it, Galleria degli Uffizi, italic=no, ) is a prominent art museum located adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence in the region of Tuscany, Italy. One of the most important Italian museums ...
Gallery in Florence, the Ashmolean, and
Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church ( la, Ædes Christi, the temple or house, '' ædēs'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, the college is uniqu ...
. It was based on new research tracing continuities in Venetian drawing over three centuries, from around 1500 down to the foundation of the first academy of art in Venice in 1750. The exhibition also featured 20 works on paper and canvas by contemporary artist
Jenny Saville
Jennifer Anne Saville (born 7 May 1970) is a contemporary British painter and an original member of the Young British Artists.Royal Academy of ArtsJenny Saville RA , Artist , Royal Academy of Arts accessdate: 29 August 2014 Saville works and ...
, produced in response to the Venetian drawings in the exhibition.
* ''Great British Drawings'': An exhibition open from March until August 2015 showing more than one hundred British drawings and watercolours from the Ashmolean's collection, spanning three hundred years.
* ''An Elegant Society: Adam Buck, artist in the age of Jane Austen'': Open from July until October 2015 this exhibition explored the work of
Adam Buck
Adam Buck (1759–1833) was an Irish neo-classical portraitist and miniature painter and engraver (as was his brother Frederick) principally active in London.
Life
Buck was born in Castle Street, Cork. Becoming an accomplished miniaturis ...
, Irish
Regency era
The Regency era of British history officially spanned the years 1811 to 1820, though the term is commonly applied to the longer period between and 1837. George III of the United Kingdom, King George III succumbed to mental illness in late 18 ...
portrait and miniature painter.
* ''Love Bites: Caricatures by James Gillray'': An exhibition in 2015 to mark the 200th anniversary of the death of British caricaturist
James Gillray
James Gillray (13 August 1756Gillray, James and Draper Hill (1966). ''Fashionable contrasts''. Phaidon. p. 8.Baptism register for Fetter Lane (Moravian) confirms birth as 13 August 1756, baptism 17 August 1756 1June 1815) was a British caricatur ...
(1757–1815). The
caricatures
A caricature is a rendered image showing the features of its subject in a simplified or exaggerated way through sketching, pencil strokes, or other artistic drawings (compare to: cartoon). Caricatures can be either insulting or complimentary, a ...
on display were from the collection of
New College, Oxford
New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1379 by William of Wykeham in conjunction with Winchester College as its feeder school, New College is one of the oldest colleges at th ...
.
* ''William Blake: Apprentice and Master'': Open from December 2014 until March 2015, this exhibition celebrated the work of
William Blake
William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic Age. ...
.
* ''Discovering Tutankhamun'': a special exhibition, open from July until November 2014, explored
Howard Carter
Howard Carter (9 May 18742 March 1939) was a British archaeologist and Egyptologist who discovered the intact tomb of the 18th Dynasty Pharaoh Tutankhamun in November 1922, the best-preserved pharaonic tomb ever found in the Valley of the K ...
’s excavation of the tomb of
Tutankhamun
Tutankhamun (, egy, twt-ꜥnḫ-jmn), Egyptological pronunciation Tutankhamen () (), sometimes referred to as King Tut, was an Egyptian pharaoh who was the last of his royal family to rule during the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty (ruled ...
in 1922. Original records, drawings and photographs from the
Griffith Institute
The Griffith Institute is an Egyptological institution based in the Griffith Wing of the Sackler Library and is part of the Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford, England. It was founded for the advancement of Egyptology and Ancient Nea ...
were on display.
* ''The Eye of the Needle: English Embroideries from the Feller Collection'': a special exhibition, open from August until October 2014, of 17th-century embroideries from the ''Feller Collection'', together with examples from the Ashmolean’s own holdings.
* ''Cézanne and the Modern'': a special exhibition, open from March to June 2014, displaying
Impressionist
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...
and
Post-Impressionist
Post-Impressionism (also spelled Postimpressionism) was a predominantly French art movement that developed roughly between 1886 and 1905, from the last Impressionist exhibition to the birth of Fauvism. Post-Impressionism emerged as a reaction ag ...
paintings and sketches from the
Henry and Rose Pearlman Collection
Henry Pearlman (1895–1974) was a Brooklyn-born, self-made businessman, and collector of impressionist and post-impressionist art. Over three postwar decades, he assembled a "deeply personal" and much revered collection centered on thirty-three ...
* ''Francis Bacon / Henry Moore: Flesh and Bone'': a special exhibition, open from September 2013 until July 2014, displaying paintings by
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (; 22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626), also known as Lord Verulam, was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England. Bacon led the advancement of both ...
and sculptures and drawings by
Henry Moore
Henry Spencer Moore (30 July 1898 – 31 August 1986) was an English artist. He is best known for his semi- abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art. As well as sculpture, Moore produced ...
.
* ''Stradivarius'': a special exhibition, open from June until August 2013, exploring the life and work of
Antonio Stradivari
Antonio Stradivari (, also , ; – 18 December 1737) was an Italian luthier and a craftsman of string instruments such as violins, cellos, guitars, violas and harps. The Latinized form of his surname, ''Stradivarius'', as well as the colloq ...
. It was the first time twenty-one of his instruments, from guitar to cello to violin, were on display together in the UK.
* ''Master Drawings'': a special exhibition, open from May until August 2013, displaying a selection of the Ashmolean's on western art collection. The exhibition surveyed drawings of all types by some of the biggest names in art history, including Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael, as well as Gwen John, David Hockney and Antony Gormley.
* ''Xu Bing: Landscape Landscript'': a special exhibition of the work of
Xu Bing
Xu Bing (; born 1955) is a Chinese artist who served as vice-president of the Central Academy of Fine Arts. He is known for his printmaking skills and installation art, as well as his creative artistic use of language, words, and text and how t ...
, open from February until May 2013. It was the Ashmolean's first major exhibition of contemporary art.
Keepers and Directors
Beginning in 1973, the position of Keeper was superseded by that of Director:
Notable people
Current keepers
*
Christopher Howgego, Keeper of the Heberden Coin Room
* Mallica Kumbera Landrus, Keeper of Eastern Art
* Paul Roberts, Sackler Keeper of Antiquities
*
Catherine Whistler
Catherine Whistler is an Irish art historian and curator, specialising in Italian Renaissance and Baroque art. She is Keeper of Western Art at the Ashmolean Museum, a supernumerary fellow of St John's College, Oxford, and Professor of the History ...
, Keeper of Western Art
Former staff
*
Michael Metcalf, former Keeper of the Heberden Coin Room
*
Joan Crowfoot Payne
Joan Crowfoot Payne (16 January 1912 – 4 October 2002) was a British archaeologist specialising in the study of lithics (stone tools and chipped stone) from the Ancient Near East and worked as Cataloguer of the Ancient Egyptian collection at ...
, archaeologist and Cataloguer of the Egyptian and Nubian collectors (1957–1979)
*
Jon Whiteley
Jon James Lamont Whiteley (19 February 1945 – 16 May 2020) was a Scottish child film actor and in adult life a distinguished art historian.
Life and career
The Monymusk-born Whiteley appeared in five films during his brief acting career, ...
, former Assistant Keeper of Western Art
*
Susan Sherratt
Susan Sherratt (born 26 September 1949) is Reader in Mediterranean Archaeology at the University of Sheffield. Her research focuses on the archaeology of the Bronze and Early Iron Ages of the Bronze Age Aegean, Aegean, Cyprus and the eastern Medi ...
, former Assistant Curator and Honorary Research Assistant to the Arthur Evans Archive
*
Andrew Sherratt
Andrew George Sherratt (8 May 1946 – 24 February 2006) was an English archaeologist, one of the most influential of his generation. He was best known for his theory of the secondary products revolution.
Early life and education
Sherratt was ...
, former Assistant Keeper of Antiquities in the Ashmolean Museum
In popular culture
Comics
* The 21st book in the Belgian comics series ''
Blake and Mortimer
''Blake and Mortimer'' is a Belgian comics series created by the writer and comics artist Edgar P. Jacobs. It was one of the first series to appear in the Franco-Belgian comics magazine ''Tintin'' in 1946, and was subsequently published in book ...
'', titled ''
The Oath of the Five Lords
''The Oath of the Five Lords'' is the twenty-first Blake and Mortimer book in the series.
The story was written by Yves Sente.
The book was drawn by André Juillard and was released on the 16 November 2012.
Plot
In 1919, Colonel Thomas Edward La ...
'', centres around a series of burglaries at the Ashmolean and their connection to
T. E. Lawrence
Thomas Edward Lawrence (16 August 1888 – 19 May 1935) was a British archaeologist, army officer, diplomat, and writer who became renowned for his role in the Arab Revolt (1916–1918) and the Sinai and Palestine Campaign (1915–1918 ...
.
Television
*The
Alfred Jewel was the inspiration for the
''Inspector Morse'' episode "The
Wolvercote
Wolvercote is a village that is part of the City of Oxford, England. It is about northwest of the city centre, on the northern edge of Wolvercote Common, which is itself north of Port Meadow and adjoins the River Thames.
History
The Domesday B ...
Tongue" (1988), in which the museum's interior was used as a set.
* The Ashmolean also figures prominently in several episodes of the successor series ''
Lewis
Lewis may refer to:
Names
* Lewis (given name), including a list of people with the given name
* Lewis (surname), including a list of people with the surname
Music
* Lewis (musician), Canadian singer
* "Lewis (Mistreated)", a song by Radiohead ...
'', particularly the episode "Point of Vanishing" where the painting ''
The Hunt in the Forest
''The Hunt in the Forest'' (also known as ''The Hunt by Night'' or simply ''The Hunt'') is a painting by the Italian artist Paolo Uccello, made around 1470. It is perhaps the best-known painting in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, England.
The pa ...
'' (ca. 1470) is a key plot element; the characters visit the painting at the museum and are instructed on its features by an art expert before solving the case.
Theft
![View of Auvers-sur-Oise Paul Cezanne](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/32/View_of_Auvers-sur-Oise_Paul_Cezanne.png)
On 31 December 1999, during the fireworks that accompanied the celebration of the
millennium
A millennium (plural millennia or millenniums) is a period of one thousand years, sometimes called a kiloannum (ka), or kiloyear (ky). Normally, the word is used specifically for periods of a thousand years that begin at the starting point (ini ...
, thieves used scaffolding on an adjoining building to climb onto the roof of the museum and stole
Cézanne’s landscape painting ''
View of Auvers-sur-Oise
''View of Auvers-sur-Oise'' is the common English name for a Paul Cézanne painting known by various French names, usually ''Paysage d'Auvers-sur-Oise'', or in the artist's ''catalogue raisonné'', ''Groupe de maisons, paysage d'île de France''. ...
''. Valued at £3 million, the painting has been described as an important work illustrating the transition from early to mature Cézanne painting. As the thieves ignored other works in the same room, and the stolen Cézanne has not been offered for sale, it is speculated that this was a case of an artwork stolen to order. The Cezanne has not been recovered and is one of the FBI's Top Ten Art Crimes.
See also
*
Museums of the University of Oxford
*
Museum of Oxford
The Museum of Oxford (MOX) is a history museum in Oxford, England, covering the history of the City and its people. The museum includes both permanent and temporary displays featuring artefacts relating to Oxford's history from prehistoric time ...
*
Oxford University Museum of Natural History
The Oxford University Museum of Natural History, sometimes known simply as the Oxford University Museum or OUMNH, is a museum displaying many of the University of Oxford's natural history specimens, located on Parks Road in Oxford, England. It a ...
*
Bate Collection of Musical Instruments
The Bate Collection of Musical Instruments is a collection of historic musical instruments, mainly for Western classical music, from the Middle Ages onwards. It is housed in Oxford University's Faculty of Music near Christ Church on St. Aldat ...
*
Christ Church Picture Gallery
Christ Church Picture Gallery is an art gallery located inside Christ Church, a college of the University of Oxford in Oxford, England. The gallery holds an important collection of about 300 Old Master paintings and nearly 2,000 drawings.
The ...
* Donation by
Sultan bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud
Sultan bin Abdulaziz Al Saud (c. 5 January 1928 – 22 October 2011) (Arabic: سلطان بن عبدالعزيز آل سعود ''Sulṭān ibn ʿAbdulʿazīz Āl Suʿūd''), called ''Sultan the Good'' (Arabic: سلطان الخير ''Sulṭa ...
References
External links
*
Sackler LibraryVirtual Tour of the Ashmolean Museum, photography from 2003pictures, description and history
*
{{Authority control
Collections of classical sculpture
Museums of the University of Oxford
Art museums and galleries in Oxford
Cultural infrastructure completed in 1845
1683 establishments in England
Grade I listed buildings in Oxford
History of the University of Oxford
Grade I listed museum buildings
Museums established in 1683
Museums of ancient Rome in the United Kingdom
Museums of ancient Greece in the United Kingdom
Asian art museums in the United Kingdom
Museums of Ancient Near East in the United Kingdom
Plaster cast collections
Musical instrument museums in England
University museums