Page 8 - LOTN Spring Issue 49 2022

DIOCESE
Blairs prepares for the new season with some

outstanding prints by Czech engraver

Jesus is condemned to death Veronica wipes Jesus’ face Jesus is placed in the sepulchre

lairs Museum curators are looking forward to Resilience Grant from Museums and Galleries Scotland to
reopening the museum this April. develop a new website. This enabled us to bring the museum
B The exhibition for 2022 consists of a set of engravings and the collections to people in their own home if they are
of the Stations of the Cross by Czechoslovakian engraver, currently unable to visit. The website includes a virtual walk
Alois Petrak, from paintings by Joseph Ritter von Fuhrich. through of the museum with 3D scans of some of our most
This continues the theme of exhibits of the museum’s print fascinating exhibits. On the website we are also bringing
collections, begun with the Piranesi exhibition and continued together information on all the collections belonging to the
last year with prints by Guiseppe Capparoni. Fuhrich was a Scottish Catholic Heritage Collections Trust, not just at the
member of the 19th Century Nazarene movement in Germany museum, but also those at the University of Aberdeen and the
which inspired the Pre-Raphaelite movement in the UK. The Scottish Catholic Archive at Columba House in Edinburgh.
fourteen prints are both technically outstanding and deeply Museum visiting information can be found on our website at
moving and are clearly inspired by the work of Durer, who was www.blairsmuseum.org.uk and the curators can be contacted
a profound influence upon Fuhrich’s work. at curator@blairsmuseum.org.uk or through the website
The museum will also be displaying all the treasures from for enquiries. The museum is open from April to the end of
the Permanent Collection, such as the world-famous Memorial September. This year we are delighted to be able to reinstate
Portrait of Mary Queen of Scots, the Blairs Jewel, the vestment an open visiting day, no appointment required, from 10am-
collection and the Jacobite portraits. We are privileged to be 4pm Saturdays. We are also open by appointment on weekdays;
able to display the cloth of silver vestments of Henry Benedict; please contact us through the website or email addresses above
Bonnie Prince Charlie’s brother, for another year. to arrange your visit.
Last year the museum gained a significant Recovery and

For 157 years, Blairs College was home to a magnificent collection of paintings, church textiles, sacred silver and
Jacobite memorabilia belonging to the Scottish Roman Catholic Church.

From its establishment Blairs College was recognised as a safe place to receive and preserve artefacts relating to
Scotland’s Catholic heritage. Over the years Blairs accumulated an internationally renowned collection of fine and
decorative art from a number of benefactors, including bishops, priests and friends of Blairs, as well as inheriting
important collections from the former Scots Colleges throughout Europe. When the College closed in 1986, an
independent trust was created, overseen by the Scottish Catholic Heritage Collections Trust, to preserve, interpret and
display this important collection of religious heritage.

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