UK campaign keeps Brueghel painting on public display

Arts organizations and public donations have raised enough money to keep one of Pieter Brueghel the Younger‘s finest paintings on public display in Britain, organizers of the campaign said on Thursday.

A grant of around one million pounds ($1.5 million) from the National Heritage Memorial Fund raised the total to the 2.7 million pounds needed to save “The Procession to Calvary” for the nation.

The work, completed in 1602, is one of the star attractions at Nostell Priory in Yorkshire, owned by the National Trust since 1954, where it has hung for over 200 years, but it was put up for sale, meaning that it may have entered a private collection not accessible to the public.

The painting shows Christ carrying the cross on the way to his crucifixion. He is surrounded by over 200 figures in a vibrant narrative, set in a contemporary Flemish landscape.

The Art Fund contributed 500,000 pounds, members of the public raised 680,000 pounds and various trusts and foundations brought in another 510,000 pounds.

Gramilano( Editor )

Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano’) about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.

His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman’s Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia’ column for Dancing Times magazine.