JC. Princen The Museum Catharijneconvent was founded in 1979. It is a state museum dedicated to Christian cultural and artistic expression in the Netherlands. The collection comprises various older ecclesiastical, episcopal, and monastic collections. The Museum is in the city centre of Utrecht, located in the middle of the Netherlands.
The Museum also has responsibilities throughout the country, such as concerning the work of heritage specialists from the Museum.
They also provide advice and assistance to all convents and churches on their interior and mobile cultural heritage, performing activities throughout the Netherlands.
The Museum of Religious Art is located in an earlier monastery. The Museum houses a vast collection of art-historical and historical objects dating from the early Middle Ages to the present.
The extensive collection depicts Protestant and Catholic culture and art in the Netherlands and their influence on Dutch society.
The collection contains richly illustrated manuscripts, bookbindings adorned with precious stones, intricately-worked pictures, altarpieces, clothing pieces, and ecclesiastical possessions with silver and gold.
The collection highlights the 9th-century Chalice from Saint Lebuinus and carved ivory pieces taken from Lebuinuskerk in Deventer.
Activities
Exhibitions
The Museum currently hosts exhibitions (A collection of around 80.000 objects) that cover a range of Christian subjects, like the Virgin Mary, Martin Luther, Relics, and miracles. The heritage specialists create inventory lists of the collections of the ecclesiastical across the country (approximately 800.000 objects in 6.000 buildings).
They also issue certificates of authenticity for the heritage and advise a heritage curator’s choice in the event of the end of religious activities.
They also are the creators the concept of “The Largest Museum of the Netherlands,” together with 16 synagogues and churches across the country.
Advising
Museum Catharijneconvent, therefore, provides advice to monasteries and churches regarding the preservation and management of cultural value, making available and re-using church interiors and mobile religious objects.
Read the original article here
