Fitzwilliam Museum To Host " Imperial Treasures from Vienna "

Written by Henry Trefoil Thursday, 23 February 2012 21:46

Cambridge, UK.- The Fitzwilliam Museum is proud to host the only UK showing of precious Hapsburg Imperial collection. "Splendour & Power: Imperial Treasures from Vienna" will be on view at the museum from August 16th through January 8th 2012. From this summer, visitors to the Fitzwilliam Museum can experience a stunning collection of precious decorative arts never before seen in the UK – the treasures of the Hapsburg Emperors. This unique selection of beautifully crafted jewellery, vessels and other objects made from gems, precious metals and stones comes to the Fitzwilliam Museum from the renowned ‘Kunstkammer’ collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. This is the first time that audiences in Britain will be able to view these extraordinary objects, as the collection has never before been loaned on this scale.

With its roots in the medieval family treasure of the House of Hapsburg, the collection that is today contained within the Kunstkammer was once safeguarded in the Imperial Treasury in Vienna. These objects, almost all of which are unique creations, were designed to demonstrate the incredible wealth, power and glory of the Hapsburg dynasty, and only visitors of noble birth - such as princes of neighbouring countries or diplomatic delegations - were permitted to enter the treasure trove. Now, audiences to this landmark exhibition can follow in their footsteps and experience the opulence and grandeur of this glittering collection for themselves. Dr Timothy Potts, Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum, said: “The Fitzwilliam is delighted to welcome this superb collection to Cambridge for its first and only UK showing. Widely regarded as the most important collection of its kind anywhere in the world, the Vienna Kunstkammer provides a fascinating insight into how European princely collections have evolved, from medieval troves of relics to the ‘cabinets of curiosities’ of the Renaissance and Early Baroque, eventually giving birth to the modern-day museum. “ The exhibition’s focus is upon artworks from the Late Renaissance and Mannerist period - the heyday of treasuries and ‘cabinets of curiosities’ - as well as from the 17th century Baroque period.

Many of the works on display belonged to Emperor Rudolph II - Holy Roman Emperor 1576 -1612 - and Empress Maria Theresa, the only female Hapsburg ruler and the last of the House. Giving a rare glimpse into the opulent world of the Hapsburg emperors, the exhibition will feature exquisite jewellery, from necklaces, pendants and lockets to rings and enseignes, complemented by pre-eminent examples of medieval and Renaissance jewellery, intricate portrait cameos, many of which bear the likenesses of the Hapsburgs sovereigns crafted in the style of ancient Roman imperial portraits, ornate goldwork, vessels and coffers, including a bowl featuring embedded Roman coins, and a serpentine tankard made by Ulrich I. Ment Augsburg, c. 1624/1628, a Heart-shaped pendant containing locks of hair of Empress Maria Theresa, casket of gold filigree and diamonds, stonework, carving and sculpture, with precious objects crafted from agate, jasper, rock-crystal and lapis lazuli, including a cup made from rhinoceros horn and a Chinese jade bowl. An intricate 15th century enamel model depicting the Annunication from the Fitzwilliam’s own collection which was once kept in the Imperial Treasury, will now be reunited with these other Hapsburg treasures for the first time since the 1860s.


The Fitzwilliam Museum was described by the Standing Commission on Museums & Galleries in 1968 as "one of the greatest art collections of the nation and a monument of the first importance". It owes its foundation to Richard, VII Viscount Fitzwilliam of Merrion who, in 1816, bequeathed to the University of Cambridge his works of art and library, together with funds to house them, to further "the Increase of Learning and other great Objects of that Noble Foundation". Fitzwilliam's bequest included 144 pictures, among them Dutch paintings he inherited through his maternal grandfather and the masterpieces by Titian, Veronese and Palma Vecchio he acquired at the Orléans sales in London. During a lifetime of collecting, he filled more than 500 folio albums with engravings, to form what has been described as "a vast assembly of prints by the most celebrated engravers, with a series of Rembrandt's etchings unsurpassed in England at that time". His library included 130 medieval manuscripts and a collection of autograph music by Handel, Purcell and other composers which has guaranteed the Museum a place of prominence among the music libraries of the world. In 1848 the Founder's Building, designed by George Basevi (1794-1845) and completed after his accidental death by C R Cockerell (1788-1863), opened to the public. Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the collections have grown by gift, bequest and purchase; their history is a continuous one which traces the history of collecting in this country over the last two hundred years. If the Museum owed its foundation to a Grand Tourist, it went on to benefit from the shift of taste towards the Middle Ages and the early Renaissance for which the Gothic Revival of the nineteenth century was responsible. By the same token, many of the Museum's early twentieth century benefactors may be counted among the heirs to the Arts and Crafts and Aesthetic Movements. In recent years, the Museum's traditional base of support from alumni and private collectors has been augmented by generous provision from the National Art Collections Fund and other charitable organisations and public bodies, including H M Treasury (under the provision for the allocation to Museums of works of art accepted in lieu of capital taxes). Today, the Museum pursues a vigorous acquisitions policy as one aspect of its abiding commitment to hold the nation's "treasures in trust". Few museums in the world contain on a single site collections of such variety and depth. Writing in his Foreword to the catalogue of the exhibition for Treasures from the Fitzwilliam which toured the United States in 1989-90, the then Director of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, wrote that "like the British Museum, the Fitzwilliam addresses the history of culture in terms of the visual forms it has assumed, but it does so from the highly selective point of view of the collector connoisseur. Works of art have been taken into the collection not only for the historical information they reveal, but for their beauty, excellent quality, and rarity... It is a widely held opinion that the Fitzwilliam is the finest small museum in Europe". Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk

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