An important illustrated history of the relationship between Cambridge and the Black Atlantic. Between 1400 and 1900, European powers, not least Britain, colonised the Americas and transported over 12.5 million people from sub-Saharan Africa as slaves. The contested space, formed by the interactions of multiple people and cultures, both Black and white, we now call the Black Atlantic. Cambridge and Cambridgeshire played a key role in this international narrative – a story of commerce, profit and colonialism, of opinion-forming, and of struggle. Through the lens of historic artworks, artefacts and natural history specimens, this book and the exhibition it accompanies analyse the rise and growth of enslavement, the profits made by Dutch and British traders and plantation-owners, the power of images, the knowledge produced by enslaved people, histories of resistance movements and the consequences of these events today. Works by contemporary makers challenge long-held assumptions, address erasures, and create alternative narratives of repair, freedom and justice.

UK Winner of the Entertaining category of the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards 2020 Food defines us as individuals, communities, and nations - we are what we eat and, equally, what we don't eat. When, where, why, how and with whom we eat are crucial to our identity. Feast and Fast presents novel approaches to understanding the history and culture of food and eating in early modern Europe. This richly illustrated book will showcase hidden and newly-conserved treasures from the Fitzwilliam Museum and other collections in and around Cambridge. It will tease out many contemporary and controversial issues - such as the origins of food and food security, overconsumption in times of austerity, and our relationship with animals and nature - through short research-led entries by some of the world's leading cultural and food historians. Feast and Fast explores food-related objects, images, and texts from the past in innovative ways and encourages us to rethink our evolving relationship with food.

This book, the first comprehensive interdisciplinary account of Michelangelo's work as a sculptor in bronze, is the outcome of extensive original research undertaken over several years by academics at the University of Cambridge together with a team of international experts, directed by Dr Victoria Avery, a leading authority on the history, art and technology of bronze casting in Renaissance Italy. The catalyst for this innovative project was the attribution to Michelangelo of the Rothschild bronzes - two extraordinary bronze groups of nude men on fantastical panthers - prior to their display at the Fitzwilliam Museum in 2015. First proposed by the distinguished Michelangelo scholar Professor Paul Joannides and validated by the wide-ranging research published here, the attribution to Michelangelo has now gained widespread acceptance. As part of this pioneering project, Professor Peter Abrahams, the eminent clinical anatomist specialising in dissection, has carried out the first ever in-depth scientific analysis of the anatomy of Michelangelo's nude figures. Abrahams' findings have uncovered hitherto unrecognised features of Michelangelo's unparalleled mastery of the structure and workings of the human body that give the gesture and the motion of his figures their unique expressive force. Enigmatic and visually-striking masterpieces, the Rothschild bronzes are the focus of this multi-authored, interdisciplinary volume that contains ground-breaking contributions by leading experts in the fields of art history, anatomy, conservation science, bronze casting and the history of collecting.

This book explores the significance of beautiful and engaging objects - chosen, acquired, personalised and treasured - to the people who once owned them. With over 300 works discussed, it takes us on a dazzling visual adventure through the decorative arts, from Renaissance luxuries wrought in glass, bronze and maiolica to the elaborate tablewares and personal adornments available to shoppers in the Age of Enlightenment. En route the authors consider the impact of global trade on European habits and expectations: the glamour of the Eastern exotic, the ubiquity of New World products like chocolate and sugar, and the obsession with Chinoiserie decoration. They ask what decorative objects meant to their owners before the age of industrial mass production, and explore how technological innovation and the proliferation of goods from the sixteenth century onwards transformed the attitude of Europeans to their personal possessions. Illustrated throughout with superb colour photographs, many unfamiliar and hitherto unseen gems of the Fitzwilliam Museum's Applied Arts collection are here published for the first time.