LONDON, ENGLAND.- The Fitzwilliam Museum houses the collections of art and antiquities of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1816, it is one of the oldest public museums in the country. The closure of part of the Museum, due to its Courtyard Development Project has provided the National Gallery with a unique opportunity to borrow a group of Italian, Dutch and Flemish masterpieces painted between the mid 16th and 18th centuries to form this special exhibition.



Included in the exhibition are impressive and important works such as Titian’s 'Tarquin and Lucretia', Salvator Rosa’s 'L’Umana Fragilità', Rubens’s 'Death of Hippolytus' and Frans Hals’s 'Portrait of a Man'. Several themes often associated with High Renaissance and Baroque art occur in the paintings, in particular a liking for dramatic encounters and a preoccupation with the transience of human life. Many of the pictures display daring compositional inventiveness, strong emotional effects, and dramatic use of light and colour. Some also demonstrate the exchange of ideas between Italian and Netherlandish artists which occurred during this time.



These paintings represent major strengths of the Fitzwilliam Museum’s collection, as well as its history, by closely reflecting the interests of its founder, Richard, 7th Viscount Fitzwilliam of Merrion (1745-1816), whose own bequests may not be lent from the Museum. His collection was rich in Italian High Renaissance paintings, in particular the work of Venetian and Bolognese masters, and he also owned a substantial collection of 17th century Dutch paintings.



After the exhibition all the loans will be on display for a further year, integrated with the Gallery’s permanent collection and shown alongside works that put them in their proper historical contexts.