Museum Director Reunited with Beloved Renaissance Painting

 

Museum Director Reunited with Beloved Renaissance Painting

In a heartwarming reunion, Luke Syson, director of the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge University, is once again working with a Renaissance painting that holds a special place in his heart. Sandro Botticelli's "Venus and Mars" is being loaned to the Fitzwilliam Museum from the National Gallery, where Syson previously worked, to celebrate the National Gallery's 200th birthday.

This marks the first time in 150 years that the painting has left the National Gallery, and it will be on display at the Fitzwilliam Museum from May 10 to September 10. Syson is thrilled to be reunited with the piece, which he cared for during his time at the National Gallery.

"It's not just for people who already know and love Botticelli," Syson said. "We are showing a picture that can really make it about them, but also about now." He believes that the painting's beauty and mystery are as compelling as any great poem, and that it suggests all sorts of possibilities.

Syson is excited to share this masterpiece with new audiences outside of London and to give it a new context. He believes that objects belong to the moment they are created, but also to every period afterwards, and that what we bring to them is just as important as what the artists intended.

The loan is part of a larger program that will see 12 paintings from the National Gallery's collection go on display at museums and galleries across the United Kingdom. Syson sees this as an opportunity for museums to ask new questions, bring new audiences, and give new context to some of the world's most celebrated works of art.

"Venus and Mars" is a captivating painting that has been admired for centuries, and its arrival at the Fitzwilliam Museum is a significant event. Syson's reunion with the piece is a testament to the power of art to bring people together and to transcend time and place. As he said, "It's as close to a poem in paint as you can get… like lots of poetry, it doesn't tell one clear story, it suggests all sorts of possibilities."