{"id":14487,"date":"2024-04-24T21:17:44","date_gmt":"2024-04-24T20:17:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=14487"},"modified":"2024-04-25T13:14:19","modified_gmt":"2024-04-25T12:14:19","slug":"days-out-cambridge-the-fitz-etc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sebpalmer.com\/blog\/?p=14487","title":{"rendered":"DAYS OUT: Cambridge, The Fitz, etc."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Love these angels on the angles.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

My delivery shift today was in Cambridge. So I took the opportunity, once finished, to park in town, and visit The Fitz, for another look at their current William Blake show. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our previous visit was great. But not sufficient to properly take it all in. On the walk from the car park to The Fitz, there\u2019s loads of triffick architecture. Here are a few snaps:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Corner of Pembroke College.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Pembroke. Fab\u2019 portal.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Funky \u201860s style dude, on a lamp-post!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Now that\u2019s a door!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The above door is opposite<\/em> Pembroke. I\u2019m not sure which College it belongs to. I\u2019m assuming it\u2019s part of the all powerful University? Could it be part of the Whipple Museum of the History of Science? I don\u2019t think it\u2019s part of the Museum of Zoology\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Pembroke College. Magnificent!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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More of those corner Angel details.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Zooming in a bit.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The grand Pembroke archway details.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Amazing! Pembroke \u2018digs\u2019.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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More Pembroke accommodation. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We love the chimney stack along this road. So grand, and yet so much a thing of their times. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Beautiful!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And so, to the Fitzwilliam Museum itself. First port of call, the subterranean toilet block. Just as I enter the latter, a stream of young foreign students exit, one of whom says \u2018hello!\u2019, in a rather impish manner. Young scamps!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This chap\u2019s on guard near the lavs.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The above sculpture is placed just outside the loos. Wonder what the subject would make of his situation now? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Love this! <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I love the (?) ceramics. And I\u2019ve had numerous postcards of his work over the years. I may even have a wee book (poss\u2019 from the Shire series?) or summat like it, on him? I hadn\u2019t realised that this particular design was slightly 3-D!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A chilled looking Bodhisattva.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The above is a wooden Bodhisattva. Looking very relaxed, despite missing his right hand and poss also his right foot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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You\u2019re not wrong, Billy. Beauty is<\/em> a necessity.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And finally, to the show itself\u2026 William Blake\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Dantean Circle of the Lustful.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I took another snap o\u2019 this \u2018cause I am one of the Lustful. And I was intrigued by my Dantean Doom. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Version #1.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This pair of prints is interesting. Separated by many years, and based on the work of another artist, what I particularly like is how Blake develops the detail of the setting. Which is entirely his own contribution. The original source is the figure alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Version #2.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The exhibition as a whole is great for setting Blake in the context of his times, amongst his peers. And showing such things as the veneration of classicism in art education, at that period. How Blake reacts to it all over time is fascinating. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Europe, Supported by Africa & America<\/em>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There are some very intriguing prints in the show which illustrate Blake\u2019s, erm\u2026 commercial illustration work. The above is one such. And it\u2019s doubly fascinating, because it\u2019s one of several he contributed to a work about slavery in British Guiana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My wife\u2019s family are from Guyana. A legacy of the slave trade, returned to British shores. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blake was very much anti-slavery. Although the book for which this and other illustrations by him were commissioned wasn\u2019t published as an anti-slavery work – the author (a former soldier) had been complicit in putting down slave results – it was adopted by the movement on account of its unvarnished accounts of the brutality of slavery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Gillray\u2019s Presages of the Millenium<\/em>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On leaving The Fitz, the eye is once again constantly arrested by architectural splendour and beauty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Peterhouse chapel?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Emmanuel United Reformed Church.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In addition to the several Colleges along Trumpington St, there are many churches. Further into town it becomes Kings Parade, then Senate House Hill. All of which feel, to the pedestrian, like a single street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you take Great St. Mary\u2019s, on Senate House Hill, as a start or end point, and work backwards towards the Fitz, there\u2019s an ecclesiastical embarrassment of riches, including such jewels as King\u2019s College Chapel, St Botolph\u2019s, and the above pictured Emmanuel, which is right beside Little St. Mary\u2019s, this last of which has an enchanting graveyard\/garden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Anti-Royal Republicanism lives!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I then met Teresa, at Heffers bookshop. Whilst waiting for her I had a brief look over this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I bought a set of 10 Bill Blake postcards, from The Fitz. I\u2019m massively tempted by two Blake books: the exhibition catalogue, and a Complete Illuminated Manuscripts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, as a final money-saving thought. Next time, Park & Ride and buses! Parking in The Grand Arcade cost me just under \u00a310! Street parking opposite The Fitz is insanely expensive, at \u00a37.20 per hour!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My delivery shift today was in Cambridge. So I took the opportunity, once finished, to park in town, and visit The Fitz, for another look at their current William Blake show. Our previous visit was great. But not sufficient to properly take it all in. On the walk from the car park to The Fitz, … <\/p>\n

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