16th Century painting gets new life at Ludlow Museum Resource Centre
A late 16th Century Dutch painting has found a new lease of life thanks to BBC’s Your Paintings project and support from museum experts Constantine Ltd.
“The Miracle of the Quails” by the Dutch artist Maarten van Heemskerk has been carefully displayed at the Ludlow Museum Resource Centre.
The painting shows the Israelites exodus from Egypt, when large flocks of quail provided them with food (Exodus 16.13, Numbers 11.31 and Psalms 105.40). Several figures in the painting are shown gathering quails from the ground. Moses presides over them pointing his staff towards the sky.
Heemskerk’s style of the painting reflects the work of Flemish artists of the late sixteenth century who were much influenced by Italian paintings. In 1532 Heemserk visited Italy where he made numerous drawings of classical sculpture and architecture. His works hang in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg and the National Gallery, London.
Like many paintings of this period “The Miracle of the Quails” was designed to be displayed in a country house or a grand civic room rather than a modern building of a more moderate size.
Emma-Kate Lanyon, Head of Collections, explained:
“This work is approximately 2.5 meters square. It is one of the most significant paintings to have been donated to our collection, but has not been on public display since it was removed from the old Shrewsbury Borough Guildhall, and has never been on open public display in a museum.”
Shropshire Museums has a collection of around 4,000 paintings, prints and drawing. Many of these are on display in our museums or are used for temporary exhibitions and research. However, displaying some pose a challenge to our curators. “The Miracle of the Quails” has been one such challenge.
Mike Owen, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member responsible for tourism and culture, said:
“We are extremely lucky to have such an internationally important painting in Shropshire. Like all museum authorities we hold our collections for public benefit, so we felt strongly we had to find a solution and allow the public to enjoy it.”
Rosanna Taylor-Smith, local Shropshire Councillor for Ludlow North, added:
“This is a great opportunity for residents and visitors to come to Ludlow and enjoy this special painting. It is a large painting, and has been installed on the first floor for its first public exhibition since it became part of our collection here in Shropshire.”
When the opportunity came for Shropshire Museums to work with the Your Paintings project, which aims to promote the nation’s art collections, staff saw a possible solution. Work started with museum logistics experts at Constantine Ltd to identify a space that could accommodate the painting. After careful measuring and computer-aided modelling, it proved possible to install “The Miracle of the Quails” at the Museum Resource Centre in Ludlow. With Constantine’s expertise the painting just fitted through the doors, was hoisted over a balcony and into place on a first floor landing.
Daniel Lockett, the museum’s facilities manager, said;
“We were all extremely relieved when it was finally safely in place. It is wonderful to celebrate the nationwide launch of the BBC Your Paintings website by putting this picture on display, and I hope visitors to the Museum Resource Centre will enjoy seeing it too.”
Your Paintings is a joint initiative between the BBC, the Public Catalogue Foundation (a registered charity) and participating collections and museums from across the UK. On 13 December 2012 Your Paintings completed their hugely ambitious project to put online the United Kingdom’s entire collection of oil paintings in public ownership. This makes the UK the first country in the world to give such access to its national collection of paintings. In total, 3,217 venues across the UK have participated in the project and 211,861 paintings are now on the Your Paintings website. This includes 219 works from Shropshire Museums’ collection .
The website http://www.bbc.co.uk/yourpaintings was formally launched on Wednesday 6 February 2013, allowing people to discover, comment on and help tag this valuable resource.
