β: This is a Beta release of the Fitzwilliam Museum's potential new website.
We want to co-design
our Virtual Museum presence with you.
You can return to our current site at any time.
Museums and galleries in Cambridge will be closed to the public as part of a period of national/local restrictions.
Much of the art in the Fitzwilliam Museum was created for and commissioned by the rich and powerful.
Read here about medieval books produced for a king and a bishop.
See how leaders throughout history have sought to increase and consolidate their power through the spreading of their image: Amenemhat III of Egypt, the successors of Alexander the Great, Napoleon Bonaparte of France and Queen Victoria of England
And see the work of one of England's greatest satirists and printmakers, James Gillray, who used his art to deflate the self-importance of those in power.