Norman Jones donation on display at Bologna's Museo Civico Medievale

From Nov. 23, 2024 to May 5, 2025, in the Lapidarium of the Museo Civico Medievale in Bologna, will be on display a selection of 47 pieces, including Indo-Islamic Murshidaba miniatures, Hindu-inspired statues and objects, Japanese woodcuts, netsuke, and objects of private use, from the collection of Oriental art that belonged to English collector Norman Jones (1903-1985) and was donated to the Municipality of Bologna in 2023 by his daughter Ruth, to enable its widest usability by the public and scholars.

The exhibition Perspectives of the East. The Norman Jones Donation to the Museo Civico Medievale di Bologna is curated by Mark Gregory D’Apuzzo, Giovanni Gamberi, Massimo Medica and Luca Villa, and is organized in collaboration with the Centro Studi d’Arte Estremo-Orientale (CSAEO) of Bologna.

The nucleus donated by Ruth Jones, a lecturer transplanted to the city of Bologna, is the result of her father Norman’s lifelong interest in Eastern history, cultures and art. The donation consists of 146 objects and works (150, if one considers the series with more pieces) that include textiles, sculptures, prints, drawings and watercolors, from the Far East and the African continent, some of them dating back to ancient Egypt, as well as books and photographs. And this exhibition at the Museo Civico Medievale di Bologna is the first public opportunity to present and enhance the Norman Jones collection.

In addition, a stereoscope and a homogeneous collection of 300 albumen and silver salt gelatin stereoscopes, dating from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, produced by European and North American photographic studios, which Ruth Jones donated to the Federico Zeri Foundation of Bologna in 2008, are part of the original collection.

Born in Africa to an English family in 1903, Norman Jones spent his early youth in London and on the Isle of Wight, later completing his studies at St. Catherine’s College, Cambridge, with a degree in English Literature. He spent most of his working life as an elementary school teacher in Harrogate, Yorkshire County, where he died in 1985. During his college years he developed a passion for collecting African, Asian and Far Eastern art, books and photographs, becoming a frequent visitor to antique stores in London, Cambridge, York and Harrogate.

Prominent within the Jones collection are Chinese objects dating from the Qing dynasty (1644-1912), including some 20 embroidered textiles and mandarin squares, five fans, sculptures and watercolors.

The Japanese core, dating from the 18th to the 20th century, has some pieces of considerable artistic value as evidenced by the series of amber and wood netsuke, including an initialed one, depicting death assaulting a wolf. The largest portion is represented by 68 ukiyo-e woodcuts from the 18th and 19th centuries by some of the best-known and most celebrated artists of the Edo period. Indeed, there are works by, among others, Kitagawa Utamaro (1753-1806), Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849), Utagawa Toyokuni ( 1769-1825), Utagawa Toyohiro (1773-1828), Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858), Kikukawa Eizan (1787-1867) and Utagawa Kuiyoshi (1798-1861).

From India comes a small group of miniatures datable to the second half of the 18th century, made by artists who resided at the court of the nawabs of Murshidabad, Bengal. There are also a number of metal statues depicting Hindu deities, of more recent manufacture, testifying to the religious culture still in majority in India today. Finally, two Kalighat watercolors and two Buddhist devotional images most likely executed in Nepal are included among the works in the Indian core of the Norman Jones collection.

The substantial artistic holdings acquired have been included in the permanent collections of the Bologna Civic Museums Sector, thus augmenting with new interesting pieces the Indian, Chinese and Japanese collections already held at the Museo Civico Medievale, the location identified for the conservation of the works. Ruth Jones’s donation represents an important sign of appreciation and trust in the Civic Museums of Ancient Art, which has long been committed to enhancing, also through a long-standing collaboration with the Bologna Center for the Study of Far Eastern Art, its extra-European and in particular Oriental collections.

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalog published by Silvana Editoriale, which gives an account of the phases of study and research preceding the realization of the exhibition project. Edited by Giovanni Gamberi and Luca Villa, the volume contains essays by Massimo Medica, Mark Gregory D’Apuzzo, Luca Villa and Giovanni Gamberi, as well as critical entries on all the works that make up the Norman Jones collection. During the opening to the public, there will be an extensive cultural and educational program with guided tours, educational workshops and a thematic lecture series dedicated to Asian art, curated by the Centro Studi d’Arte Estremo-Orientale (CSAEO) of Bologna and with the collaboration of Luca Villa.

For info: www.museibologna.it/medievale

Norman Jones donation on display at Bologna's Museo Civico Medievale

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