![]() Front façade of the museum | |
Location in Oxford | |
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Established | 1683 |
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Location | Beaumont Street, Oxford, England |
Coordinates | 51°45′19″N 1°15′36″W / 51.7554°N 1.2600°W |
Type | University Museum of Art and Archaeology |
Visitors | 930,669 (2019)[1] |
Director | Alexander Sturgis |
Website | www |
The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology (/æʃˈmoʊliən, ˌæʃməˈliːən/)[2] on Beaumont Street, Oxford, England, is Britain's first public museum.[3] Its first building was erected in 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole gave to the University of Oxford in 1677. It is also the world's second university museum, after the establishment of the Kunstmuseum Basel in 1661 by the University of Basel.[4]
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 and Nubia were unveiled. In May 2016, the museum also opened redisplayed galleries of 19th-century art.
The museum opened on 24 May 1683,[5] with naturalist Robert Plot as the first keeper. The building on Broad Street (later known as the Old Ashmolean) is sometimes attributed to Sir Christopher Wren or Thomas Wood.[6] Elias Ashmole had acquired the collection from the gardeners, travellers, and collectors John Tradescant the Elder and his son, John Tradescant the Younger. It included antique coins, books, engravings, geological specimens, and zoological specimens—one of which was the stuffed body of the last dodo 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.[7]
The present building dates from 1841 to 1845. It was designed as the University Galleries by Charles Cockerell[8] in a classical style and stands on Beaumont Street. One wing of the building is occupied by the Taylor Institution, 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 of Greek architecture.[9]
Sir Arthur Evans, who was appointed keeper in 1884 and retired in 1908, is largely responsible for the current museum.[10] Evans found that the keeper and the vice-chancellor (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 had offered to donate his personal collection of antiques on condition that the museum was put on a sound footing.[11] A donation of £10,000 from Fortnum (£1.21 million as of 2023) 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.[12] The museum became a depository for some of the important archaeological finds from Evans' excavations in Crete.[citation needed]
After the various specimens had been moved into new museums, the "Old Ashmolean" building was used as office space for the Oxford English Dictionary. Since 1924, the building has been established as the Museum of the History of Science, with exhibitions including the scientific instruments given to Oxford University by Lewis Evans, amongst them the world's largest collection of astrolabes.[13]
Charles Buller Heberden left £1,000 (£47,000 as of 2023) to the university in 1921, which was used for the Coin Room at the museum.[14]
In 2012, the Ashmolean was awarded a grant of $1.1m by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation 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.[15]
The interior of the Ashmolean has been extensively modernised in recent years and now includes a restaurant and large gift shop.[16]
In 2000, the Chinese Picture Gallery, designed by van Heyningen and Haward Architects, 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.[17]
The Bodleian Art, Archaeology and Ancient World Library, 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.[18]
Between 2006 and 2009, the museum was expanded to the designs of architect Rick Mather and the exhibition design company Metaphor, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund. The $98.2 million[19] 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.[20] The renovated museum re-opened on 7 November 2009.[21][22]
On 26 November 2011, the Ashmolean opened to the public the new galleries of Ancient Egypt and Nubia. 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.[23]
In May 2016, the museum opened new galleries dedicated to the display of its collection of Victorian art.[24] This development allowed for the return to the Ashmolean of the Great Bookcase, designed by William Burges, and described as "the most important example of Victorian painted furniture ever made."[24]
The main museum contains huge collections of archaeological specimens and fine art. It has one of the best collections of Pre-Raphaelite paintings, majolica pottery, and English silver. The archaeology department includes the bequest of Arthur Evans and so has a collection of Greek and Minoan pottery. The department also has an extensive collection of antiquities from Ancient Egypt and the Sudan, and the museum hosts the Griffith Institute for the advancement of Egyptology.
Highlights of the Ashmolean's collection include:
Recent major bequests and acquisitions include:
The Brighton Pierrots, 1915, by Walter Sickert
The Alfred Jewel
Music, 1877, by Edward Burne-Jones
The "Two Dog Palette" from Hierakonpolis
The Messiah Stradivarius violin
Portrait of Mademoiselle Claus, by Édouard Manet
The Narmer Macehead
Studies of the Heads of two Apostles and of their Hands, by Raphael
Statue of Sobek, the crocodile god, from the pyramid temple of Amenemhat III
Acme and Septimius, c. 1868, by Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton
The Sumerian Kings List, dating to approximately 1800 BC
The Apotheosis of Germanicus, a copy after an antique Cameo painted in 1626 by Peter Paul Rubens
A death mask of Oliver Cromwell
The Return of the Dove to the Ark, 1851, by Sir John Everett Millais
A Greek tragic mask dating to the 1st century BC or 1st century AD.
Jeanne Holding a Fan, an oil on canvas painting by Camille Pissarro, c. 1874
The Holy Family with St John the Baptist, brush and brown wash on panel by Michelangelo
Tombstone, the doctor Claudius Agathemerus and his wife Myrtale, from Rome, about AD 100
Portrait of John Ruskin by John Everett Millais
The Mantle of Chief Powhatan, dating to the 17th century
The Abingdon Sword, dating from the late 9th or early 10th century
The Annunciation, attributed to Paolo Uccello
Restaurant de la Sirène, Asnières, by Vincent van Gogh
A Garden in Montmartre by Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Young Englishwoman, a costume study by Hans Holbein the Younger
A self-portrait by Samuel Palmer
A coin of Domitianus II
Egyptian Mummy Portrait
The Virgin and Child, by Bernardino Pintoricchio
Early Bronze Age Cycladic art figurine, 2800–2300 BC.
The Kish tablet cast
Guy Fawkes' Lantern, London, England c. 1605 Iron and horn
So-called Cicero excavated by the Earl of Arundel in Rome between 1613 and 1614
So-called Cicero excavated by the Earl of Arundel in Rome between 1613 and 1614
Man wearing a toga excavated in Rome 1613–1614 and later given the name "Caius Marius"
First century CE togate torso bearing a 17th century CE head dubbed Caius Marius by the Earl of Arundel excavated in 1613–1614 CE
Statue of a woman with hairstyle dating to the later Roman Republican or Augustan period but body dating to 200–100 BCE
Closeup of Statue of a woman with hairstyle dating to the later Roman Republican or Augustan period but body dating to 200–100 BCE
The Oxford Bust or "Sappho" with head and torso coming from different statues and probably put together by a sculptor in the 1600s
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
Portrait of a young man with hairstyle, facial features and long neck pointing to portraits made in the early 100s CE
Sphinx commissioned by the Earl of Arundel to partner a Roman Sphinx, 17th century CE
Sphinx, Roman, 50–200 CE.
Roman statue of Eros, 100–200 CE depicting Eros sleeping, his torch turned down, a symbol of death used in many Roman memorials.
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.
Fragment of a marble sarcophagus depicting two drunken boys from a Bacchic revel, made in Athens 140–150 CE
In 2013 a museum was opened in the 17th-century "Tudor House" at Broadway, Worcestershire, 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.[44]
Upcoming planned exhibitions include:
Major exhibitions in recent years include:
Name | From | To |
---|---|---|
Robert Plot | 1683 | 1690 |
Edward Lhuyd | 1690 | 1709 |
David Parry | 1709 | 1714 |
John Whiteside | 1714 | 1729 |
George Shepheard | 1730 | 1731 |
Joseph Andrews | 1731 | 1732 |
George Huddesford[84] | 1732 | 1755 |
William Huddesford[84] | 1755 | 1772 |
William Sheffield | 1772 | 1795 |
William Lloyd | 1796 | 1815 |
Thomas Dunbar | 1815 | 1822 |
John Shute Duncan | 1823 | 1829 |
Philip Bury Duncan | 1829 | 1854 |
John Phillips | 1854 | 1870 |
John Henry Parker | 1870 | 1884 |
Sir Arthur Evans | 1884 | 1908 |
David George Hogarth | 1909 | 1927 |
Edward Thurlow Leeds | 1928 | 1945 |
Sir Karl Parker | 1945 | 1962 |
Robert W. Hamilton | 1962 | 1972 |
Beginning in 1973, the position of Keeper was superseded by that of Director:
Name | From | To |
---|---|---|
Sir David Piper | 1973 | 1985 |
Professor Sir Christopher White | 1985 | 1997 |
Roger Moorey | 1997 | 1998 |
Christopher Brown | 1998[85] | 2014[19] |
Alexander Sturgis | 2014 |
See also: Category: People associated with the Ashmolean Museum |
On 31 December 1999, during the fireworks that accompanied the celebration of the millennium, 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. Valued at £3 million, the painting has been described as an important work illustrating the transition from early to mature Cézanne painting.[87] 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.[88][89] The Cezanne has not been recovered and is one of the FBI's Top Ten Art Crimes.[90]