This Report covers the period August 2004 to July 2005, a year to which the visit in June of Her Majesty, the Queen, accompanied by the Chancellor of the University, provided a fitting climax. After attending a reception for Gates Scholars in Gallery III, Queen Elizabeth toured the galleries, observed our education staff in action, graciously received members of the Syndicate, Trust, and staff, and inspected the Courtyard building.
Following the re-opening of the Museum in July 2004 visitor figures climbed to 278,077. Happily, reactions to the new building were overwhelmingly favourable, from staff and other regular users to first-time visitors from home and overseas. John Miller + Partners' highly successful design attracted nothing but praise in the architectural, professional, and general press, and it was both commended by the Civic Trust and received an award from the RIBA. In the winter months, the Museum returned to the headlines with its campaign to raise some £1.7m to save the Macclesfield Psalter from export. The successful outcome of that effort was guaranteed by the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund and the National Art Collections Fund, which campaigned nationally on our behalf. To satisfy public interest, and to thank all of the individuals who contributed to the appeal, we displayed the psalter in the Rothschild Gallery for a period of two weeks in February, when nearly 6,000 people queued to catch a first glimpse of it. Five months later, no fewer than 60 of its leaves were exhibited in the Shiba Gallery as one, starred item in The Cambridge Illuminations, an exhibition of 215 illuminated manuscripts representing ten centuries of book production in the medieval west, which was shown simultaneously at the Museum and in the University Library. This unparalleled display drawn from the holdings of the University and fifteen of the Colleges, attracted some 80,000 visitors to the Museum before it closed in December 2005.
Following the resignation of Sebastian Watt as the General Manager of Fitzwilliam Museum Enterprises, the Company appointed Thibault Catrice as Managing Director. He took office on 1 October. Helen Strudwick, formerly a Research Assistant, became the Outreach Officer for the Egyptian Galleries project on the same date. Ray Kimberley retired after working for the University for 36 years, the last thirteen of them as our Principal Assistant. Michael Humphrey ran a close second, with 25 years' service as a Gallery Attendant before his retirement in September. In November Susan Ramsay was appointed to the new post of Visitor Services Manager. In April we welcomed Saira Law as a trainee appointed for two years under a scheme funded by the Museums, Libraries, and Archives Council (MLA). While we were sorry to lose our Development Officer, Sharon Maurice, to the Royal Academy of Arts, we were consoled by the appointment in May of Sue Rhodes, from the University's Corporate Liaison Office, as her successor.
We offer our congratulations to Mark Blackburn on his appointment as Reader in Numismatics and Monetary History in the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic, and on his election to a Fellowship at Gonville and Caius College. Similarly, we congratulate Jane Munro on becoming a Chevalier de l'Ordre national du Mérite (France).
In common with other departments of the University, the Museum prepared a five-year Strategic Plan, 2004-09. This was a particularly important exercise, given the transitional funding arrangements which were in place following the Courtyard Development and the changing national landscape of museums funding upon which we are to a certain extent dependent. In the course of the year the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) announced a third and final round of Special Funding for university museums and galleries, to cover the years 2006-09. At the same time they made it clear that the Higher Education Funding Council (HEFCE) had indicated its intention to discontinue the scheme thereafter. As one of its major beneficiaries, we are naturally concerned about this policy decision by HEFCE which is likely to deprive us of ring-fenced funding within the higher education grant to the University, to the tune of more than £1m per annum.
Both income and expenditure rose dramatically during 2004-05, in part as a result of one-off capital expenditures such as acquisitions and building projects. Once allowances have been made for these, however, the rise in recurrent expenditure reflects both the increased level of activity in the Museum since its re-opening and the growing costs it incurred. Of those, staff costs, which rose by £575,000 (29%), constitute the largest single item. Staff numbers increased from 108 in July 2003 to 138 two years later and from August 2004 the employer's contribution to the assistant staff pension scheme rose from 1% to 16.5% of salary. While we are anxious to contain staff costs in future, we are conscious that the Fitzwilliam's function as a public museum sets it apart from the academic departments of the University and their typical terms and conditions of employment. We trust that this difference will be taken into account in future negotiations over pay and grading.
Overall the financial position of the Museum improved during the year, as forecast. It was helped considerably by the government's decision to allow university museums which open to the public free of charge to reclaim VAT; this amounted to £75,000 plus a further £112,000 for museum building projects managed by the Estate Management and Building Service. Finally, capital from the Mellon Funds supported the completion of the Courtyard Development and income from the same source contributed to core costs including salaries and running costs. As a result of these additional income streams and the donations listed below, we were able to avoid ending the year in deficit.
We acknowledge with gratitude the financial support we have received from a wide range of sources, including the Museums, Libraries, and Archives Council (MLA) for our participation in Renaissance in the Regions and for Designation Challenge Funding, the Art Fund and the Heritage Lottery Fund for acquisitions, and Cambridge City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council for community engagement. We are no less grateful for the contributions made by the Isaac Newton Trust, the Underwood Trust and the Fitzwilliam Museum Trust, Trinity College, Cambridge, the Friends of the Fitzwilliam Museum, and all of those visitors who made voluntary contributions via the collecting boxes.
The Department of Antiquities acknowledges the support of the Costakis and Leto Severis Foundation and the Worshipful Company of Grocers. Thanks to the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Garfield Weston Foundation, and the DCMS/Wolfson Museums and Galleries Improvement Fund, work began on the renovation of the Egyptian Galleries. The Department of Coins and Medals continued to benefit from the generosity of the Honorary Keeper, Professor Philip Grierson, the former Keeper, Professor Buttrey, Christopher Jeeps, and the ESG Robinson Charitable Trust. The Department of Manuscripts and Printed Books received a grant from the Seven Pillars of Wisdom Trust towards a publication on the Macclesfield Psalter and two donations from Melvin Seiden on behalf of International Partners of New York towards the cost of The Cambridge Illuminations exhibition, given in honour of Professor James Marrow and Dr Christopher de Hamel, both contributors to its catalogue. The exhibition was also supported by the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, and Mr Sam Fogg. The conference associated with it was made possible by grants from the British Academy and the Association for Manuscripts and Archives in Research Collections. Finally the Department acknowledges the continued generosity of the Honorary Keeper, Professor Marrow and his wife Emily Rose Marrow.
The activities of the Education Service were sustained throughout the year by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, the National Endowment for Science, Technology, and the Arts, the Charlotte Bonham-Carter Charitable Trust, the R. K. Charitable Trust, the East of England Museums, Libraries, and Archives Council, and Toshiba (Europe) Ltd, in addition to those national and regional bodies whose important contributions to the Museum as a whole we have acknowledged above.
Although the acquisition of the Macclesfield Psalter captured the headlines, the Museum was able to add many hundreds of items to the collections by bequest, gift, and purchase. From the Danielle and Howard Harrison Bequest we received two paintings by contemporary artists, Love Song: Homage to Titian, a witty paraphrase of Venus, Cupid and the Lutanist, by John Bellany (b.1942), and Untitled/Three men in moonlight by Peter Howson (b.1958), together with two pastels by the same artist and two more, The Dead Gladiator by Anthony Pilbro (b.1954) and Untitled by Hugh Byars (b.1957). We were also pleased to receive from the estate of the late Mrs Norah Yates Seary more than thirty engravings by or after works by European artists of the 16th - 19th centuries.
Ever since they were founded in 1909, the Friends of the Fitzwilliam Museum have supported acquisitions by placing their annual subscriptions in a dedicated purchase fund at the Director's disposal. They endorsed his decision to allocate a substantial contribution towards the purchase of the Macclesfield Psalter in addition to all of the other gifts they made (as the purchases from their fund become). In October they presented a bone china plate, Aesthetic Sabotage by Robert Dawson (b.1953) and a colour print, The Yugao Chapter from the Tale of Genji by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839-92). In November they gave a silver penny of the Cambridge mint from the reign of Henry I and in January a watercolour of Mistley Key, Essex by David Gentleman (b.1930). Finally, in May they presented a Portrait sketch in oils by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901), a globular vessel, carved and turned in maple wood by the American craftsman, John Jordan (b.1950), and a copy of Ten Poems from Hafez by Jila Peacock, no. 7 from a limited edition of 50 copies screen-printed at Glasgow Print Studio.
In the course of the year Nicholas and Judith Goodison added further gifts to those they have made in the past through the National Art Collections Fund, including a Marriage Chest which Sir Nicholas commissioned for the Museum from Wales and Wales, with the prize awarded to him in 2004 by La Conféderation Internationale des Négociants en Oeuvres d'Art for his lifetime achievement in the arts. Our Honorary Keeper of Furniture also presented a curved bench with a trough in blackened oak by Jim Partridge (b.1953) and a pair of elmwood chairs by Matthew Burt (b.1951). Reflecting their wide-ranging taste as well as interest in contemporary crafts, the Goodisons also gave a porcelain bowl by Emmanuel Cooper (b.1938), Short Measure, earthenware, by Richard Slee (b.1946), and a Tall Cylinder Vessel of white-glazed stoneware by Rupert Spira (b.1960).
To Antiquities, Mr Austin Gresham gave a faience Third Intermediate Period ushabti figure and a string of faience beads formerly belonging to Mrs Gardner-Smith, and Mr Marcus F. H. English presented three fragments of Islamic glass bracelets found in the desert east of Cairo, together with two fragments of Early Dynastic alabaster vessels, a fragment of worked alabaster from Saqqara, and three neolithic flints.
For the Department of Applied Arts we were pleased to accept five examples of oriental textiles from Mrs Christine Shawdon. Gifts of ceramics included a hard-paste porcelain Jug made in Germany in the early twentieth century showing a view of the Fitzwilliam Museum, presented by Mrs Judith Rich, and a Japanese porcelain Stand by Jun Takegoshi (b.1948) given by David Scrase. Mr Peter H. M. Lai gave a hard-paste porcelain Stem Cup, and Henry Rothschild, the former proprietor of Primavera, presented a Bowl by Helen Pincombe (1918-2004), a Spade-shaped Form in stoneware by Hans Coper (1920-81), and a Hollow Form in stoneware by Gordon Baldwin (b.1932). We also record our gratitude to John Winter for the Allegorical Figure of Prosperity after a wax model by Giovanni Baratta made in hard-paste porcelain at the Ginori factory, Doccia, c.1750, which he gave in memory of his mother, Theodora Winter, née Barlow.
Among the gifts of Coins and Medals, we single out for special mention the collection of eighty-three Anglo-Saxon, Merovingian, and Frisian silver pennies, late 7th/early 8th centuries, all single finds from a site near Royston, Herts, given by Colin Stewart, and a cut halfpenny produced at the Canterbury mint, during the reign of King John, given by Peter Woods. Mr Philip Charles Watson presented a collection of 78 medals by A. G. Wyon, plus 28 medals by other members of the Wyon family, together with models and drawings and two prize medals, 119 items in all, from the estate of his wife, the late Mrs Venetia M. Watson, who was the daughter of A. G. Wyon. Paul and Benthe Withers gave a silver cut halfpenny, a unique coin of the Cambridge mint from the reign of Henry I, in memory of Miss Elizabeth J. E. Pirie, and Dr G. A. Singer presented a Burgundian gros of Philip the Good (1419-67). Professor George Henderson, former Syndic, and Dr Isabel Henderson presented a group of cameos and intaglios, two Islamic coins, three prize medals, a letter from M. R. James to C. H. St John Hornby, and the correspondence and research materials of the late Dr Michael Camille. Robert Tye gave thirteen Muslim coins of India. Thanks to Cambridge in America we received as a gift from the collection of Henri Delger 32 Roman denarii, mainly of Commodus, all unpublished or rare types. Finally we record our thanks to the following donors of coins, medals, and tokens: Dr Mark Blackburn, Mrs Fiona Blackburn, Mrs Molly Blackburn-Kindersley, Professor T. V. Buttrey, Dr William R. Day Jr, Dr Basil Haigh, Dr Ann Johnston, Dr Michael Matzke, Dr Cécile Morrison, Ms Jane Munro, Dr Marcus Phillips and Miss Susan Tyler Smith, Dr Adrian Popescu, Howard and Frances Simmons.
For the Department of Manuscripts and Printed Books James E. and Elizabeth J. Ferrell of Kansas City gave to Cambridge in America 35 cuttings from Guillaume de Deguileville's Pilgrimage of the Human Soul which was illuminated by Henri d'Orquevaulx in Metz, c.1430. Colin Henderson, a retired gallery attendant, generously offered as a gift his copy of The Sayings of the Seven Sages of Greece printed by the Officina Bodoni in Verona, 1976, and David Scrase presented a copy of The Ultimate Mountain by Ralph Salisbury, Knight Library Press, University of Oregon, 2003. We also record thanks to Mrs Eva Rogers for the two volumes of transcriptions of Keith Grant's journals made by her husband, together with his research files and correspondence with the artist, and to Dr D. McKitterick and Professor James Marrow for deluxe facsimiles of medieval manuscripts.
For the Department of Paintings, Drawings, and Prints we received as a gift from Mrs Charlotte Gere a Sheet of studies by the Pseudo-Pacchia, Siena c. 1530, and from Israel Goldman an impression of Jan Wierix's engraving after Dürer's Knight, Death and the Devil, 1564. Through Cambridge in America, Dr Michael Jaye presented a drawing by Edouard Bertin (1797-1871) of Sorrento: landscape with monks in memory of Mrs Angela Crookenden. Finally we are pleased to record our thanks to two artists: Hughie O'Donoghue (b.1953) for a series of trial proofs and prints, together with the complete set of thirteen aluminium and copper plates for his Postcard from Milan, 2003, and Jane Joseph (b.1946) for an impression of her etching Wall and River, 1989.
We have already acknowledged the support we received from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the National Art Collections Fund in our efforts to secure the Macclesfield Psalter. The generosity of the Art Fund was undiminished by the major part it played in that campaign and the Fitzwilliam Museum was among the beneficiaries of the purchase en bloc of the Cassel collection of silver; our choice fell upon a handsome Ginger Jar and Cover made in 1674-5 in London by Jacob Bodendeich. The Art Fund also assisted with the purchase of John Robert Cozens' (1752-97) spectacular wash drawing of The Chasm at Delphi which was bought privately from the Goyder family, while the V&A/MLA Purchase Grant Fund enabled us to buy a second watercolour, Samuel Palmer's (1805-81) view of Tintern Abbey near the Chepstow Road looking towards Monmouth from the same source. The Purchase Grant Fund also supported our acquisitions of The Mystic Marriage of St Catherine of Alexandria, painted in grisaille by Donato Creti (1671-1749), and Goya's etching Sera la Mismo, c.1810, numbered '25', a working proof before it became plate 21 of Los Desastres de la Guerra, to which the Art Fund also contributed. Thanks are due, too, to the Purchase Grant Fund for enabling us to purchase an extremely rare silver round halfpenny of the reign of Henry III, issued in 1222, and for adding to the support of the Headley Trust to allow the Museum to acquire the Brantham Hoard of 90 Anglo-Saxon pennies of Edward the Elder found in Suffolk and declared Treasure at an inquest held on 13 February 2004.
With the re-opening of the Museum, the Education Department swung into action with a full programme of activities, many of which were in active preparation during the period of closure. The exhibition of Lasting Impressions: Collecting French Impressionism for Cambridge served as the focus for a wide variety of talks and courses. The ever-popular series of lunchtime gallery talks by members of the curatorial staff and others, Art in Context, resumed in October, as did the Art Speak series of informal conversations in front of individual works of art. The new education rooms also enabled us to widen the scope of our offerings, to include life classes, demonstrations of print-making techniques (in conjunction with the exhibition of Lucian Freud's etchings), and in-depth study days among which the Spotlight on the Armana Period was one of the most popular. With the help of a group of volunteers recruited from the Friends of the Fitzwilliam, the Antiquities Department organized a highly successful series of objects-based table-talks in the galleries called Meet the Antiquities.
Fears that schools might not return to the Museum after its period of closure proved to be happily unfounded. A new Schools Information leaflet and the information posted on our website have helped to publicize our offerings, and we are pleased especially to note the increase in the numbers of secondary schools visiting the Museum. DIY packs provide teachers who wish to teach their own pupils in the galleries with plans and fact sheets which cover all of the most popular areas and subjects in the Museum. The Education Department also worked closely with partners in the Eastern Region Hub to produce an education development plan for school age pupils and contributed to it two initiatives, Wordscapes and Transformers. The first of these is designed to stimulate creative writing based on objects, ranging from crystals and fossils in the Sedgwick Museum to contemporary art at the Fitzwilliam. Transformers is a two-year project designed to explore science and technology within a spiritual or social context. It has been developed in partnership with four education officers from the Farmland Museum, Roots of Norfolk, and the Museum of East Anglian life, and two science lecturers from the University's Faculty of Education, where it has been adopted as a research project.
While developing this wide range of museum-based activities, the Education Department did not neglect its important extramural provisions. Art and Wellbeing comprises a number of different collaborations with the health sector, ranging from visits to the cancer wards at Addenbrooke's Hospital (and museum sessions with the nursing staff who work there) to special programmes on and off-site for the Alzheimer's Society and the Cambridge Clubhouse, a day centre which provides support for people who have encountered mental problems. Finally we continued to work with Kettle's Yard and English Churches Housing to arrange museum days for people who are homeless.
In her report for the calendar year 2004, Frances Sword, Head of Education, wrote that as our work for social inclusion has developed 'there has been a noticeable change in the culture of the museum.' We endorse that view and join her in thanking all those involved in implementing these important activities.
In our last Report we were able to draw attention to the opening of Lasting Impressions: Collecting French Impressionism for Cambridge, organized by Jane Munro, Senior Assistant Keeper in the Department of Paintings, Drawings, and Prints, which inaugurated the new Mellon Gallery for temporary exhibitions. It was accompanied by a new Museum Handbook on the subject and attracted more than 53,000 visitors before it closed on 26 September. Less than a month later, we were pleased to open Lucian Freud Etchings 1946-2004, curated as a touring exhibition for the Marlborough Galleries by Craig Hartley, also a Senior Assistant Keeper in the Department of Paintings, Drawings, and Prints. When that closed at the end of December, preparations began for The Cambridge Illuminations which occupied both the Mellon and the Adeane Galleries and opened on 26 July. A fuller account of that spectacular display belongs to next year's Report.
Apart from the exhibitions in the Mellon Gallery, Museum staff arranged no fewer than eleven other exhibitions and special displays. In the Octagon the Department of Coins and Medals put on The Normans: Three Centuries of Achievement 911-1204. Sally-Ann Ashton organized and wrote the catalogue for Roman Egyptomania in which she identified a Roman copy of a statue of a Ptolemaic queen as coming in all likelihood from Hadrian's Villa, and as a complete contrast that exhibition was followed by a selection of large watercolours from David Remfry's series of Dancers, introduced by Edward Lucie-Smith. The selections of works on paper from the collection displayed in the Shiba Gallery were equally varied; Other Men's Flowers featured recent acquisitions of contemporary prints. Augustus John was timed to coincide with the exhibition devoted to both Augustus and Gwen John at the National Museum of Wales and the Tate Gallery. The exhibition devoted to the Japanese printmaker Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839-92) featured a number of recent additions to the collection and was followed by 'A Pleasing Occupation': Professional and Amateur Flower Drawings by Women Artists, the majority of them from the Broughton Collection. In the Charrington Print Room we were able to see Goya's comprehensive treatment of the Bull Ring in his Tauromachia, a fascinating display of Altered States, and the harrowing Witness of the Holocaust, consisting of twelve original lithographs of German concentration camps by Leo Haas.
We are conscious of how important all of these exhibitions are in attracting regular and new visitors to the Museum, and we wish to record our gratitude to both the curatorial and technical staff for their readiness to prepare and present such a varied and stimulating sequence of displays.
Over the year the number of records on Adlib, the Museum's centralized collections database, increased by nearly 20% from 98,500 to 118,000. Alongside steady growth in the number of records created across the Museum's collections there were substantial increases for coins and prints. These areas have been the focus of retrospective accessioning, undertaken as part of the Museum's Designation Challenge Fund project for 2004-06, and a key objective within the Fitzwilliam's documentation plan.
There has also been a significant increase in the number of images added to the collections database. The number of records with images attached nearly doubled, rising from 20,730 to 40,460. Again much of this resulted from work on the coins collection as well as ongoing work to create digital images of the antiquities collection. This has made an important contribution to collections management and has enhanced the resources available to the public through the on-line collections catalogue.
Use of the Museum's website continued to grow throughout the year. The number of unique visits to the website during the calendar year 2004 was 890,865 compared to 444,826 during 2003 and this trend has continued through the first half of 2005. Use of the on-line collections catalogue continues to account for a large proportion of activity on the website, with over 1 million 'hits' during 2004.
The eGuide, the Museum's handheld multimedia guide that was launched in June 2004, was evaluated throughout the year. Public response to this electronic guide, which provides interpretation for a selection of items from the collections, was very positive. The mix of audio and visual content on the eGuide demonstrated that it holds great potential as a tool for learning about and enjoying the collections. Work continued on an updated version of the eGuide, incorporating adaptations in response to feedback gathered during the trial, in anticipation of its development beyond the pilot stage.
Work was completed on the Westminster Retable and it was exhibited at the National Gallery (18 May - 4 September) prior to its return to the Abbey. Dr Paul Binski helped to organize a two-day symposium on it, which was held at Gonville and Caius College, 19-20 April, and was attended by 98 delegates. Contributions from the speakers will appear as text in the planned monograph on the Retable, the second in the series initiated by the publication of the Thornham Parva Retable in 2004. We are deeply conscious of the fact that the successful completion of this project occurs after more than a decade of sustained research and treatment of medieval panel painting in England, and we congratulate the Institute on the significant contribution it has made thereby to technical art history.
Four interns were invited to pursue second-year internships at the Institute, one of whom was awarded a Conservation Fellowship by the Kress Foundation and a second was supported in part by the British Commonwealth Trust. Both third-year students qualified and two more began the course in September. Ann Massing's teaching was covered by Mary Kempski during the second year of her Leverhulme Research Fellowship.
We are grateful to the executors and heirs to John Brealey's estate for entrusting the Institute with his personal archive which comprises written reports, books, cuttings, and correspondence. Before he moved to New York to head the Department of Paintings Conservation at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Mr Brealey was closely involved in the planning of the Institute. It seems appropriate, therefore, that his archive should be kept there.
Persistent deficits continue to threaten the long-term future of the Institute. Towards that end discussions have begun within the University to renew both its funding and management. We look forward to their outcome and meanwhile, we continue to hold the view that as a department of the Museum, the Institute's best interests are served by integration. We are grateful to the Director, Ian McClure, for his leadership of the Conservation Division as a whole, and for his commitment to closer co-operation between the Institute and the Museum.
During the period 1 August 2004 to 31 July 2005, the Fitzwilliam lent some 91 objects for temporary exhibitions at 45 venues worldwide. We continued to lend items from our reserve collections to Colleges and University Departments with appropriately secure premises.
The Museum benefits greatly from the generosity of lenders and we are particularly grateful to those who lend long-term. The Keatley Trust continues to support us. We are grateful to the Trustees of the Spittle Grandchildren's Settlement for the loan of 25 illuminated manuscripts from the collection of the late Denys Spittle, who as a schoolboy was befriended by the then Director, Sydney Cockerell, and at the time of his death held the record for the longest continuous membership of the Friends of the Fitzwilliam. His collection will be catalogued for publication and will be displayed in 2007. We are grateful to Dr Sandra Hindman for placing on loan four cuttings from the same manuscript as the 35 cuttings presented by Mr and Mrs Ferrell. We also thank the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge, for the loan of the bronze bust of Sir Isaac Newton by John Michael Rysbrack, Mr R. M. Shaw for Millais's Asleep, Mr P. J. and Mrs O. M. Ward for a collection of early 20th century Guild of Handicraft silver and C. R. Ashbee drawings, Mrs J. M Barrett for additional Oriental ceramics, Mr E. C. Chamberlain for Goya's Los Desastres de la Guerra, and the Trustees of the Marie-Louise van Motesiczky Charitable Trust for the carved honestone relief fragment, attributed to Loy Hering.
We also wish to thank the many lenders who prefer to remain anonymous, including the owners of several important panel paintings: a 15th century Florentine School, View of Florence and Il Bacchiacca's, The Madonna and Child with Saint Anne, the Gandini, The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine, and the Terborch, Family Portrait, which complement the Museum's collections.
This was the first full year of funding under Renaissance in the Regions, the government's scheme to invest in regional museums in order to sustain and extend the services they provide. It amounted to £198,000 and was earmarked to build capacity in several vital areas; museum education, documentation of the collections, IT, and financial management. Although the level of funding will remain relatively modest in the short term, it is projected to rise to over £700,000 by 2007-08, and will benefit not only the Fitzwilliam but all of the University museums. Meanwhile we record both our pleasure in working with our partners in the regional 'hub', Colchester, Luton, and Norfolk Museums and Archaeology Services, and our gratitude to Margaret Greeves, Assistant Director, who has added the job of liaison with them to her other myriad duties.
Research carried out by both curatorial and conservation staff is fundamental to the activity of the Museum. In the Department of Antiquities it was focused primarily on the Egyptian collection, in anticipation of its reinstallation in 2005-06. Work on European Medieval Coinage continued under Dr Blackburn's supervision in the Department of Coins and Medals and Dr Panayotova, Keeper of Manuscripts and Printed Books, led the Cambridge Illuminations Research Project, funded by the AHRC 2003-06, which aims to produce a multi-volume catalogue of all Western illuminated manuscripts preserved in the Fitzwilliam Museum and the Colleges. The exhibition of Cambridge Illuminations referred to elsewhere in this Report was one important biproduct of that initiative.
As usual, we have forwarded a detailed report on teaching activities to the central bodies. It underlined, once again, the importance of the collections for teaching and research generally and the extent to which members of staff contribute directly to University teaching. Collectively they gave more than 60 lectures or classes to undergraduates and graduate students of the University in a wide range of Faculties including Archaeology and Anthropology, Architecture and History of Art, Classics, English, History, Modern and Medieval Languages, Oriental Studies, and Theology. They gave another 30 or so talks or papers to other HEIs including the University of Oxford, University College London, Leicester University, and the Universities of Munich and Oslo.
Outside the sector they spoke on at least 90 occasions to organizations ranging from alumni groups to professional bodies and conferences at home and overseas. In addition to offering undergraduate supervisions and advising postgraduate students, eight members of staff acted as examiners or assessors in this University and elsewhere. The following list of publications demonstrates both the research activity of the staff and their wider contributions as curators and scholars.
Martin Allen, 'The English currency and the commercialization of England before the Black Death', in Medieval Money Matters, ed. Diana Wood (Oxford, 2004), pp. 31-50.
Martin Allen, 'Cambridge (Chesterton Lane), Cambridgeshire', Treasure Annual Report 2002, pp. 140-1.
Martin Allen, 'The Framlingham Castle, Suffolk, hoard of Cross-and-Crosslets (Tealby) and Short Cross coins, 1850', Numismatic Chronicle, 164 (2004), pp. 282-5.
Martin Allen, 'The groats of Edward I', British Numismatic Journal, 74 (2004), pp. 29-38.
Martin Allen, 'Medieval English die-output', British Numismatic Journal, 74 (2004), pp. 38-49.
Martin Allen, Mark Blackburn, William R. Day, and Adrian Popescu, 295 entries in 'Coin Register 2003', edited by Martin Allen, Richard Abdy, and Philip de Jersey, British Numismatic Journal, 74 (2004), pp. 198-229.
Sally-Ann Ashton, Roman Egyptomania. Exhibition catalogue (Golden House Publications, London, 2004).
Sally-Ann Ashton, 'Egyptian sculptors' models: function and fashion in the 18th Dynasty' in J. Bourriau and J. Phillips eds., Invention and Innovation. The social context of technological change 2. Egypt, the Aegean and the Near East 1650-1150 BC (Oxbow Books, Oxford, 2004), pp. 176-199.
Sally-Ann Ashton, 'Roman Egypt in Cambridge', Minerva 15:6 (Nov./Dec. 2004), pp. 9-11.
Sally-Ann Ashton, review of 'Peter. F. Dorman, Faces in Clay: Technique and Allusion in a Corpus of Ceramic Sculpture from Ancient Egypt', Orientalia 74, p. 152.
Mark Blackburn, 'Money and coinage', in The New Cambridge Medieval History, vol. I (c.500-c.700), ed. P. Foreacre (Cambridge, 2005), pp. 660-74, 893-4.
Mark Blackburn, 'Coinage and Contacts in the North Atlantic during the Seventh to Mid-Tenth Centuries', in Viking and Norse in the North Atlantic. Select Papers from the Proceedings of the Fourteenth Viking Congress, Tórshavn, 19-30 July 2001, ed. A. Mortensen and S. V. Arge (Tórshavn, 2005), pp. 141-51.
Mark Blackburn, 'The Normans, three centuries of achievement, AD 911-1204', Minerva 15:5 (Sept./Oct. 2004), pp. 54-55.
Spike Bucklow, 'Cleaning Theories: Traditional and Modern', in Zeitschrift für Kunsttechnologie und Konservierung, 18:1 (2004), pp. 38-50.
Lucilla Burn, Hellenistic Art, from Alexander to Augustus (British Museum Press, London, 2004).
Lucilla Burn, 'The Cockerell Cup', 2004 Review, The Annual Report of the National Art Collections Fund, 2005, p. 56.
Willam R. Day, 'Early imitations of the gold florin of Florence and the imitation florin of Chivasso in the name of Theodore I Paleologus, Marquis of Montferrat (1306-1338)', Numismatic Chronicle, 164 (2004), pp. 183-99.
Craig Hartley with assistance from Anna Woodham: A virtual exhibition to accompany the Yoshitoshi exhibition in the Shiba Gallery was published on the Museum website.
Craig Hartley, 'Pablo Picasso, Three Progress proofs of Dreams and Lies of Franco' in The National Art Collections Fund, 2004 Review, London, 2005, p. 57.
Craig Hartley, 'Stone into wine', in Hughie O'Donoghue: The Drunkenness of Noah (Purdy Hicks Gallery, London, 2005), pp. 5-9.
James C. S. Lin, 'Pu Quan - an artist from the last imperial family', Bulletin of the National Museum of History, Taipei, 2005.1, pp. 64-69
James C. S. Lin and Shelagh Vainker, Pu Quan and his generation - Imperial Painters of Twentieth-century China (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 2004).
Jane Munro, 'Frédéric Bazille. Black Woman with Peonies', 2003 Review. The National Art Collections Fund, 2004, p. 86.
Jane Munro, 'French Impressionism in Cambridge', Homes and Antiques, July 2004, pp. 15-16.
Stella Panayotova, review of L. F. Sandler, The Lichtenthal Psalter and the Manuscript Patronage of the Bohun Family, Turnhout, 2004, in The Times Literary Supplement, 18 March 2005, p. 27.
Julia Poole, 'Head of John the Baptist on a Dish, supported by Angels', 2004 Review, The Annual Report of the National Art Collections Fund, 2005, p. 56
Adrian Popescu,'The coins', in A. Lyons, Romano-British Industrial Activity at Snettisham, Norfolk, East Anglian Archaeology Occasional Papers 18 (2004), pp. 46-49.
Adrian Popescu, 'Wormegay, Norfolk', Treasure Annual Report 2002, p. 135
A. Popescu, 'Coins', in D. Robertson (ed.), 'Neolithic, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Early Saxon and Medieval activity in the Norfolk Breckland: Excavations at Grange Farm, Snetterton, 2002', Norfolk Archaeology 44:3 (2004), p. 509.
Duncan Robinson, 'University Museums UK: Past and Present Directions', in Los Museos Públicos en el siglo XXI (Fondacion Hispano Británica, 2005).
S. Robson, S. Bucklow, N. Woodhouse, and H. Papadaki, 'Periodic photogrammetric monitoring and surface reconstruction of a historic wooden panel painting for restoration purposes', International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, 35, B5 (2004), pp. 395-401.
David Scrase, review of Eric Pagliano, Dessins Italiens de Venise à Palerme du musée des Beaux-Arts d'Orléans Xve-XVIIIe siècle, in The Burlington Magazine, 146, no. 1218 (Sept. 2004), pp. 624-5.
David Scrase, review of Lizzie Boubli, L'atelier du dessin italien à la Renaissance. Variante et variation, in The Burlington Magazine, 146, no. 1220 (Nov. 2004), p. 770.
David Scrase, Catalogue entry, 'Lucas van Uden, A view of the Escorial' in the exhibition catalogue, The journey of Cosimo III de' Medici to Santiago da Compostella, (Galicia, 2004), pp. 462-4.
David Scrase, 'Giovanni di Benedetto Bandini, Standing Figure of a Saint' in 2004 Review, The Annual Report of the National Art Collection Fund, 2005, p. 57.
David Scrase, 'Taddeo Zuccari, Study for the 'Battle of Tunis'' in Disegno, giudizio e bella maniera, Studi sul disegno italiano in onore di Catherine Monbeig Goguel (Silvana Editoriale, Milan, 2005), pp. 90-91.
William Webb and Helen Strudwick, A Heroes history of ancient Egypt (Colour History Ltd, York, 2005).
Renate Woudhuysen, review of Michael Graf von der Goltz, Kunsterhaltung Machtkonflikte; Gemälde-Restaurierung zur Zeit der Weimarer Republik (Berlin, Reimer, 2002), in Studies in Conservation, vol. 49 (2004), pp. 284-286.
Treasures of the Fitzwilliam Museum was published in an edition of 7,500 by Scala/FM (23 December 2004) and is available in paperback at £19.95. Introduction by Duncan Robinson, text by David Scrase, Jane Munro, and Craig Hartley (Paintings, Drawings, and Prints), Julia E. Poole and Carol Humphrey (Applied Arts); Lucilla Burn, Sally-Ann Ashton, and Helen Strudwick (Antiquities); Stella Panayotova (Manuscripts and Printed Books); Mark Blackburn, Adrian Popescu, and Martin Allen (Coins and Medals).
In last year's Report we argued for continued investment in this and the University's other museums. We did so on the grounds that they provide both outstanding academic support services to the higher education sector as a whole and offer unparalleled opportunities for learning with pleasure to the widest possible constituencies. We note with some satisfaction that in the course of the past year resources have increased from both internal and external sources, to enable the Fitzwilliam Museum to increase access intellectually and physically and to build the infrastructure in a way which will enable us to offer more, more widely. To our academic colleagues and to the communities we serve, we pledge our resolve to combine the highest standards with value for money. We thank and congratulate the entire staff of the Museum on what has been a highly successful year in which to prove the importance of the Courtyard Development for our future.
| ANNE LONSDALE (Chairman) | DEBORAH HOWARD | DAVID MCKITTERICK |
| JOHN BROWN | CAROLINE HUMPHREY | VERONICA SUTHERLAND |
| PAUL CARTLEDGE | JOHN KEATLEY | RICHARD WILSON |
| RICHARD CORK | JEAN MICHEL MASSING |
(as at October 2005)