The Holburne is delighted to announce further details of a major, two-million-pound development with the autumn opening of the Schroder Gallery, a new gallery space displaying world-class Renaissance treasures coming to the museum from the Schroder family collection. The Schroder Gallery opens to the public on 10 September 2025.
The new space on the lower ground floor of the museum, designed by Eric Parry Associates with Real Studios, takes inspiration from the great treasury displays of the past. It will house one of the finest private collections of silverware in the country, displayed in its entirety in public for the first time, as well as paintings, bronzes, maiolica and gems.
The display of over 100 pieces of silver in the Schroder Gallery includes some of the greatest masterpieces of the silversmith’s art, such as The Schwarzenberg Nef, a rare Mechanical Celestial Globe, and The Aldobrandini Tazza (one of a set of twelve dishes once described as ‘one of the most spectacular groups of 16th century silver’).
A major part of the collection is comprised of works in bronze, which enjoyed a revival in Renaissance Italy. An example from early 17th century Florence depicts the abduction of Deianeira, wife of Hercules, by the centaur Nessus by Giambologna (1529-1608), the greatest Florentine sculptor of the time and court sculptor to the Medici Grand Dukes of Tuscany. Bronze was ideal for making objects that were both functional and decorative, such as an intricate writing box, bearing the coat of arms of Cardinal della Rovere, attributed to Severo de Ravenna, a well-regarded producer of bronze sculptures in early 16th century Padua.
The collection also contains masterpieces of 16th century Italian maiolica, a type of vibrantly coloured, glazed pottery. An Urbino deep circular cistern (1549) is highly decorative, painted in blue, green, yellow, orange, brown, and purple. Examples of istoriato dishes, bearing mythical and allegorical themes,include The Mazo Dish painted with the figures of a bestial man, and Eloquence. An Urbino istoriato circular dish depicts Leda and the Swan, recalling an episode from classical mythology, and possibly the Renaissance inclination to the erotic.
Important paintings from the first half of the 16th century are also hung in the Schroder Gallery, including works by artists such as Lucas Cranach the Elder and Hans Holbein the Elder, and notably Hans Burgkmaier’s important portrait of the great Augsburg banker Jakob Fugger and his wife Sibille Artzt.
The works are a loan to the Holburne from the Estate of the late British banker Bruno Schroder, by his daughter Leonie and her family. The loan adds an array of world-class works of art to the collection of one of the most respected regional art museums in the country.
Director of the Holburne, Dr Chris Stephens, said: “I could not be more thrilled or grateful that the Schroder family have chosen the Holburne as the home for their extraordinary collection of Renaissance fine and decorative art. This is one of the greatest acts of philanthropy in the Holburne’s history and the addition of so many works of such high quality in a dramatically designed gallery will greatly enhance the Holburne’s offer to its audiences and its standing more widely.”
Building work on the new gallery began in summer 2024 under the direction of Eric Parry RA, the architect responsible for the Holburne’s renowned modern extension which opened in 2011. The building work involved converting archive and picture stores on the lower ground floor into a new gallery underneath the 2011 extension. As well as creating a new gallery space with full environmental controls, the redevelopment creates a more generous circulation space in the lower ground floor of the museum, with a new display area for additional works from the Holburne Collection.
At the same time, the Museum is also opening to the public a new gallery on the first floor. Though used most recently as an office, this brings back to public use a space designed as a gallery when the former Sydney Hotel was converted into the Holburne Museum in 1916. Located directly adjacent to the grand Ballroom overlooking Great Pulteney Street, the new first-floor gallery will house the Schroder family’s collection of 17th century painting, mostly Netherlandish but including a major work by Claude Lorraine, the grandfather of the pastoral landscape. Shown on a rotating basis, the Schroder Collection of 17th century paintings extends and enhances the Holburne’s own collection.