Ashmolean Museum

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Ashmolean Museum
Ashmolean.jpg
main entrance
Ashmolean Museum is located in Oxford city centre
The present museum building within central Oxford
Established 1678 (1678)–1683
Location Beaumont Street, Oxford, England
Coordinates 51°45′19″N 1°15′36″W / 51.7554°N 1.2600°W / 51.7554; -1.2600
Type University museum of art and archaeology
Director Dr Christopher Brown
Website www.ashmolean.org

The Ashmolean Museum (in full the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology) on Beaumont Street, Oxford, England, is the world's first university museum. Its first building was built in 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities Elias Ashmole gave Oxford University in 1677. The museum reopened in 2009 after a major redevelopment. In November 2011 new galleries focusing on Egypt and Nubia were also unveiled.

Contents

History [edit]

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The collection includes that of Elias Ashmole which he had collected himself, including objects he had acquired from the gardeners, travellers and collectors John Tradescant the elder and his son of the same name. The collection 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. The museum opened on 24 May 1683, with naturalist Robert Plot as the first keeper. The first building, which became known as the Old Ashmolean, is sometimes attributed to Sir Christopher Wren or Thomas Wood.[1]

After the various specimens had been moved into new museums, the "Old Ashmolean" building on Broad Street 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 (1853–1930), amongst them the world's largest collection of astrolabes.

The present building dates from 1841-45. It was designed by Charles Cockerell[2] 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 building dates from 1845–48 and was also designed by Charles Cockerell, using the Ionic order of Greek architecture.[3] 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 an excellent 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. Charles Buller Heberden left £1,000 to the University, which was used for the Coin Room at the museum.[4]

In 2013 the museum was left a 500 piece collection of gold and silver objets d'art, including many pieces of Renaissance silverware, assembled by the antique dealer Michael Welby.[5] The bequest will be displayed in a new gallery.[5]

Theft [edit]

View of Auvers-sur-Oise by Paul Cézanne

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 Ashmolean Museum stealing 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.[6] As the thieves ignored other works in the same room and it has not been offered for sale, it is speculated that this was a case of an artwork stolen to order.[7][8]

Renovation [edit]

The interior of the Ashmolean has been extensively modernised in recent years and now includes a restaurant and large gift shop.[9]

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 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.[10] The renovated museum re-opened on 7 November 2009.[11][12]

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.[13]

The Sackler 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.[14]

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. The gallery 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. It houses the Ashmolean’s own collection, but 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.[15]

Collections [edit]

Rive des Esclavons, by J.M.W. Turner, ca. 1840

Highlights of the Ashmolean's collection include:

Keepers and Directors [edit]

Keeper From To
Robert Plot 1683 1691
Edward Lhuyd 1691 1709
David Parry 1709 1714
John Whiteside 1714 1729
George Huddesford[17] 1732 1755
William Huddesford[17] 1755 1772
John Shute Duncan 1823 1829
Philip Duncan 1829
John Henry Parker 1869
Sir Arthur Evans 1884 1908
David George Hogarth 1909 1927
Edward Thurlow Leeds 1928 1945
Sir Karl Parker 1945 1962
Robert W. Hamilton 1962 1973

Beginning in 1973, the position of Keeper was superseded by that of Director:

In popular culture [edit]

  • The Alfred Jewel was the inspiration for the Inspector Morse episode "The Wolvercote Tongue", in which the museum's interior was used as a set.[19] The Ashmolean also figures prominently in several episodes of the successor series Lewis, particularly the episode "Point of Vanishing" where the painting The Hunt in the Forest is a key plot element and the characters visit the painting at the museum and are instructed on its features by an art expert before solving the case.

See also [edit]

References [edit]

  1. ^ H. E. Salter and Mary D. Lobel (editors) Victoria County History A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 3 1954 Pages 47–49
  2. ^ Alden's Oxford Guide. Oxford: Alden & Company, 1946; p. 105
  3. ^ Alden's Oxford Guide. Oxford: Alden & Company, 1946; p. 103
  4. ^ C. M. Kraay and C. H. V. Sutherland, The Heberden Coin Room: Origin and Development, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 1972. (Revised 1989 and 2001.)
  5. ^ a b "Ashmolean museum in Oxford bequeathed £10m hoard". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 February 2013. 
  6. ^ "FBI — Cezanne". Fbi.gov. 1999-12-31. Retrieved 2012-11-17. 
  7. ^ Lyall, Sarah (3 February 2000). "Art World Nightmare: Made-to-Order Theft; Stolen Works Like Oxford's Cezanne Can Vanish for Decades". Arts (The New York Times). Retrieved 4 July 2008. "... the thief carried with him exactly what he had come for, a $4.8 million Cezanne oil on canvas, 'Auvers-sur-Oise,' which was painted between 1879 and 1882 ..." 
  8. ^ Hopkins, Nick (8 January 2000). "How art treasures are stolen to order". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 7 October 2007. 
  9. ^ "Eating and Shopping- Ashmolean Museum". Ashmolean.org. 2012-04-15. Retrieved 2012-06-20. 
  10. ^ The galleries are quirky and unpredictable, full of nooks and crannies and yet completely navigable even to the dyspraxically challenged, like me. That’s as much to do with the layout by the exhibition designers Metaphor as with the architecture.Dorment, Richard (2 November 2009). "The reopening of The Ashmolean, review". Telegraph. Archived from the original on 5 November 2009. Retrieved 2 November 2009. 
  11. ^ "Ashmolean Museum opens to public". BBC News. 7 November 2009. Archived from the original on 8 November 2009. Retrieved 8 November 2009. 
  12. ^ "Transforming: Transformed- Ashmolean Museum". Ashmolean.org. Retrieved 2012-06-20. 
  13. ^ "Transforming: Egypt- Ashmolean Museum". Ashmolean.org. 2011-11-26. Retrieved 2012-06-20. 
  14. ^ Park, Emma (9 November 2009). "Ashes to Ashmolean". Oxonian Review of Books. Retrieved 6 December 2009. 
  15. ^ asa@vajra.co.uk. "Chinese Painting Gallery, Ashmolean Museum - van Heyningen and Haward Architects". Vhh.co.uk. Retrieved 2012-11-17. 
  16. ^ Vickers, Michael, "The Wilshere Collection of Early Christian and Jewish Antiquities in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford," Miscellanea a Emilio Marin Sexagenario Dicata, Kacic, 41-43 (2009-2011), pp. 605-614, PDF. Vickers describes the whole collection, on loan to the museum from Pusey House until bought in 2007. The glass is described at 609-613
  17. ^ a b M. St John Parker, ‘Huddesford, William (bap. 1732, d. 1772)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 accessed 16 Feb 2010
  18. ^ Ashmolean Annual Report 1997-1998 Oxford University Gazette (9 December 1998)
  19. ^ "Itinerary for Inspector Morse Tour". Oxford, England. TourInADay. Retrieved 4 July 2008. "The Ashmolean Museum is home to The Alfred Jewel that inspired the Inspector Morse episode, The Wolvercote Tongue. This episode ... used the inside of the Ashmolean as a set." 

External links [edit]

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