Opening of Ancient and Medieval Galleries
Friday, September 24, 2010
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Italian, Siena or Pisa, Angel of the Annunciation, ca. 1350. |
The Museum’s ancient collection—one of the finest collections of any university museum in the country—includes exceptional bronze and coin holdings, stone sculpture, vases, Roman paintings and mosaics, an impressive jewelry collection, and fine teaching examples of terracotta and glass. The Museum’s fine Medieval and Gothic holdings include a 12th-century stone sculpture of St. Peter from the Third Abbey Church of Cluny, a massive Romanesque stone archway, delicately carved ivory panels, and a rare polychromed wooden statue of the Angel Gabriel from Tuscany. The galleries that house these collections, last installed in the 1940s, are being renovated and reinstalled thematically to make the objects more accessible and comprehensible, with special sections that explore materials and artistic processes and include period music. The restoration of the Ancient and Medieval galleries is the second phase of the Radeke Restoration Project, a multi-year program to renovate and reinstall the permanent collection galleries in the 1926 Radeke Building. The project, begun in 2006 with the restoration of the Main Gallery and the 3rd floor, will be completed in 2012, with renovations to the 6th floor and new exhibits for costume and textiles and Asian art. Support for the restoration of the 5th floor Ancient and Medieval galleries has been generously provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities, Glenn and Mary Jane Creamer, Drs. Yvonne and Arnold-Peter Weiss, George Wyper, and others. Click here to read the press release.
