Royal Holloway artworks on loan to exhibition in Pisa, Italy

In December, two of Royal Holloway’s artworks were transported to Pisa for a new exhibition celebrating the works of sculptor Giovanni Pisano.

The Royal Holloway art collection was contacted last year by the Opera Della Primaziale Pisana, about their upcoming exhibition ‘Giovanni Pisano: Memoria di uno scultore’. Giovanni Pisano was a thirteenth century sculptor and painter, who worked extensively in Pisa and Siena Cathedrals. The exhibition aimed to gather artworks by and relating to Pisano, to explore his legacy.

The Opera Della Primaziale Pisana oversees the Piazza del Duomo, otherwise known as the ‘Square of Miracles’ in Pisa. This UNESCO Heritage Site houses four architectural wonders; Pisa Cathedral; Pisa Baptistery; Camposanto Monumentale (the ‘Monumental Cemetery’); and, most famously, the Leaning Tower of Pisa (a bell tower for the cathedral). The square now also contains two additional museums and a temporary exhibition space.

Two works in the Royal Holloway collection were of particular interest for the exhibition – watercolours of Siena Cathedral showing Pisano’s pulpit, painted by the artist and collector Christiana Herringham. Herringham, who painted in the late nineteenth century, was particularly interested in Italian art, and avidly documented what she saw on her travels, in tempera and watercolour. After her death, her husband donated her works to Bedford College, which then became part of the Royal Holloway collection after the merger in 1985.

The Opera Della Primaziale Pisana planned to include the Herringham watercolours in a section of the exhibition called ‘Foreign Eyes’, which aimed to investigate nineteenth-century British and European responses to Pisano’s work

[Christiana Herringham, Italy: Siena – Siena Cathedral: Columns and Pulpit (P0745.1)]

[Christiana Herringham, Italy: Siena - Siena Cathedral: Pulpit (P0745.3)]

On agreement of the loan, plans were made for a courier to oversee the installation of the artworks in Pisa. The Art Collections Officer travelled with the paintings to see them hung in the exhibition space, and was given a tour of the exhibition in progress, which showed the wonderful variety of Pisano’s work, and the different artists that had been inspired by him.

This loan is a fantastic opportunity to share Royal Holloway's artwork, and in particular to show off Herringham's work, and introduce the Opera Della Primaziale Pisana to such a wonderful artist and key part of Royal Holloway’s collection.