Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Sunday, 14 December 2025

A Quentin Massys from Campion Hall


The BBC News online website reported some days ago on the identification of a painting in the collection of Campion Hall in Oxford as being by the Flemish artist Quentin Massys - sometimes Matsys or Massijs - rather than being the work of a follower. The article can be viewed at Flemish masterpiece resurfaced at University of Oxford hall

The painting was part of the reredos of the altar in the Chapel - not infrequently described as the finest twentieth century church interior in Oxford, but is rarely open for visitors to admire it.

The art collection was brought together by the then Master Fr Martin D’Arcy in the 1930s, at the time the present Campion Hall was built to the design of Sir Edwin Lutyens. There is a short biographical note on Wikipedia about him at Martin_D'Arcy

One of his other acquisitions for the collection was in the news in 2011 when a Crucifixion was suggested to be a late work by Michelangelo, and was transferred to the Ashmolean for safety and exhibition, like the Massys, as can be read at Lost 'Michelangelo' found at Campion Hall, Oxford



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