Museum News

Amsterdam, Rijksmusuem

As the National Museum of Art and History, the Rijksmuseum holds canonical collections of Netherlandish fine and applied arts and historical artefacts from the Middle Ages onwards, supplemented by important holdings of European and Asian art. Its principal function is to study, enhance and augment these collections and to present them for the enjoyment and benefit of a broad national and international audience.

The Rijksmuseum is currently seeking a new Textile Curator (36 hours per week) to start as soon as possible

Information about the position

You are responsible for the textile, gold-tooled leather and wallpaper collection. European tapestries, linen damasks, oriental carpets, upholstered interior elements, European textiles (including silk fabrics) and lace represent key sub-collections. As curator, you have a vision for the development of this collection, make proposals for acquisition, and implement policy with respect to the formation, maintenance/preservation and management of this sub-collection. You conduct research on the collection and pass on the knowledge acquired to as broad an audience as possible by means of general and scientific publications, exhibitions, presentations, lectures, etc.

Your position falls under the Department of Fine and Decorative Arts, which comprises curators, academic staff, project employees and trainees in the area of European and Asian painting, sculpture and applied arts. In addition, you work closely with conservators, documentation specialists and other museum specialists. Outside the museum, you develop a national and international network, in part through cooperation with other national and international institutions, including museums and universities.

You make a professional impression and can communicate your knowledge of the collection with enthusiasm, with the aim of increasing awareness of the wealth of textile ornament and iconography and the visually prominent role textile plays in European interiors.

Requirements

- You have a university-level qualification in art history.
- You have experience in managing and presenting a museum collection.
- You have an extensive knowledge of art history, preferably in the field of textiles, demonstrated by prominent exhibitions and publications.
- You are object-orientated and have an affinity with textiles. – You recognise the significance of or attribute significance to works of art and other objects.
- You are fluent in English, German and French.
- You have an international network covering Europe, USA and the Middle East or are prepared to develop one.
- Your experience includes interdisciplinary, academic and project work.

Appointment

The position is for one year. After one year, the appointment may be extended twice by one year. This will then – assuming satisfactory performance and unchanged organisational circumstances – be converted into a permanent contract.

Salary

Depending on education and experience, the gross monthly salary will be between €3,284 and €4,574 (scale 12) for a full working week of 36 hours, excluding the holiday allowance and end of year bonus. The collective labour agreement (CAO) for independent national museums applies.

Further information

For further information about the position, contact Gregor Weber, Head of Department of Fine and Decorative Arts, by phone on +31 (0)20 674 7282. For questions regarding the application procedure, phone Anita Jansen, Human Resources Manager, on +31 (0)20 674 7326.

Applications

E-mail your application (letter, CV, list of publications) to vacatures@rijksmuseum.nl by no later than 1 September 2010.

Glasgow, The Burrell Collection

Burrell Tapestries Research Project:
The aim of this three-year project is to prepare a scholarly catalogue and comprehensive research archive of over 200 tapestries acquired by Sir William Burrell. This is one of the largest and most important tapestry collections of its kind in the world, and consists of a coherent and comprehensive series of tapestries. They range from modest small panels and cushion covers to rich wall-hangings. Most of them were made in the late medieval period – between 1400 and 1600 – and originate from various regions of Northern Europe. Despite previous attempts to catalogue them, most have never been published and are not as well known to scholars or to the public as they should be.
Each tapestry is currently being photographed and condition-checked, and a public programme of project-related displays, events and activities is providing an opportunity for visitors to learn more about Burrell’s tapestry collection and the specialist staff and experts who are taking an active part in the project.
The results of the project will provide a sound basis for future research, management and public interpretation of the tapestries.
For more details see this Website: www.glasgowmuseums.com/tapestriesproject
Contact: Patricia Collins, Curator of Medieval & Renaissance Art, Culture and Sport Glasgow: pat.collins@csglasgow.org

Paris, Louvre

Curators in charge of tapestries:
Elisabeth Antoine (Medieval tapestries): elisabeth.antoine@louvre.fr
Agnès Bos (Renaissance and pré-Gobelins tapestries): agnes.bos@louvre.fr
Frederic Dassas (Gobelins and 18th-century tapestries): frederic.dassas@louvre.fr
Anne Dion (19th-century tapestries): anne.dion@louvre.fr

Ecouen, Musée national de la Renaissance

Acquisition: two pieces of the Story of Diana (Anet).
Posted March 2007

Oudenarde

The city of Oudenaarde purchased two Trojan War pieces (Christies New York, September 28 september, 2006, lots 177-178).

New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Acquisition: The Liberation of Oriane, from the series Amadis de Gaule, Delft, workshop François Spierinx, design by Karel I van Mander.
Entry by Tom Campbell in The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, 64, 2 (Fall 2006): 32-33.
posted December 2006

Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum

The Museum acquired The intervention by Artemis during the preparations of the sacrifice of Iphigeneia from The Story of Iphigeneia and Orestes series (September 28, 2006; Christie's, New York; 358 x600 cm). The series was woven between 1648 and 1662 by Pieter de Cracht in Gouda after designs by Salomon de Bray (attr.). The Rijksmuseum now has six tapestries that made part of the same suite which presumably counted eight pieces, as archival material shows that the two documented suites (sold to the elector of Brandenburg and to the Swedish crown) each comprised eight tapestries. The six Rijksmusem tapestries most likely belonged to one of these two editions.
For the series: see Ebeltje Hartkamp-Jonxis and Hillie Smit, European Tapestries in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam/Zwolle 2004, cat. no. 62-a-e.

Ghent

The City of Ghent purchased a tapestry of the scattered set of the Lives of SS. Peter and Paul: Christ and Peter walking over the waters. The set was comprised of ten pieces and was woven in Brussels between 1563-1567 for the St. Peter Abbey in Ghent. The cartoons were designed by Peter de Kempeneer. It is the fourth piece that has returned to Ghent. Five other tapestries of the same set are in a French private collection.
For this set, see a.o.:
Marguerite Calberg, 'Episodes de l'Histoire des Saints Pierre et Paul. Tapisseries de Bruxelles tisses au XVIe sicle pour l'abbaye Saint-Pierre Gand', Bulletin des Muses royaux d'art et d'histoire (Bruxelles) IV, 34 (1962): 63-110.
Guy Delmarcel, 'Peter de Kempeneer (Campana) as a Designer of Tapestry Cartoons', Artes Textiles X (1981): 155-162.

Lausanne, Fondation Toms Pauli
web site

La Fondation Toms Pauli a pour mission d'tudier, de conserver et de mettre en valeur les collections d'art textile ancien et moderne appartenant l'Etat de Vaud. Ce patrimoine est constitu d'un important ensemble de tapisseries et de broderies europennes du 16e au 19e sicle lgu par Mary Toms en 1994, ainsi que d'ouvres d'art textile contemporain (1961-1992) provenant de l'Association Pierre Pauli et de divers donateurs. La Fondation est galement l'hritire des archives du Centre International de la Tapisserie Ancienne et Moderne (CITAM), organisateur des Biennales de la tapisserie de Lausanne de 1962 1995. Son centre de documentation est ouvert aux chercheurs. Installe Lausanne, la Fondation ne possde pas encore d'espace de prsentation permanent. Nanmoins, elle organise des expositions dans des muses suisses et trangers et publie des catalogues. Les collections sont visibles lors de manifestations temporaires.

Madrid, Museo Nacional de Artes Decorativas
Acquisition: The Vision of Ezekiel, with arms of Pope Leo X, model and cartoon by Tommaso Vincidor after Raphael, Brussels workshop of Pieter van Aelst, c. 1521.
The original canopy and only surviving component of Pope Leo X's "letto da paramento", the cartoon of which is preserved in Boughton House (identified and discussed by Thomas Campbell, The Burlington Magazine, July-August 1996, pp. 436-445, the cartoon at p.438). Campbell traced this highly important Raphael school tapestry, previously thought lost, in a Spanish collection in 2003. The tapestry was subsequently offered for sale to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, but the exportation license was denied by the Spanish authorities. Eventually, the Spanish Ministry of Culture acquired the tapestry, and it has now been entrusted to the Madrid museum.

New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Acquisition: Gathering of the Manna, a Florentine tapestry after Alessandro Allori, workshop of Guasparri di Bartolommeo Papini, ca. 1595-96.

Paris, Muse national du Moyen Age
Acquisition: La Pirouète (c. 1500), an emblematic tapestry based on the Ditz moraux pour faire tapisserie by Henri Baude. See entry by Viviane Huchard in La Revue des Musées de France LIV (April 2004): 93-94.

Rotterdam, Museum Boymans van Beuningen
Acquisition: The Wrath of Achilles, model by Peter Paul Rubens, Brussels, workshop Daniel Eggermans, around 1635.
A piece of the presumably first edition, formerly in a French private collection. It was shown in the exhibition Peter Paul Rubens, The Life of Achilles, Rotterdam 2003 (catalogue p.104-105). The Rotterdam museum owns Rubens' original bozzetto of this tapestry.