News

The Hamilton Kerr Institute is preparing to welcome a new intake of MCEP students in October 2026. The application window will remain open until 27th January 2026, and applications should be made via the University of Cambridge Postgraduate Study pages: Applying for postgraduate courses at Cambridge | Postgraduate Study.A short video for applicants…

https://www.thenakedscientists.com/podcasts/naked-scientists-podcast/painting-where-art-meets-science

The Hamilton Kerr Institute will be holding an Open Day for prospective MCEP students at its studio in Central Cambridge on 23rd October 2025. Please email our Administrator before Monday 20th October to book a place or request further details: hki@fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk

Recently, the HKI said goodbye to a painting that has spent the past five years in our studios. The St John's College full-size portrait of Lady Margaret Beaufort at Prayer sat stoically on an easel throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, waiting patiently to have many campaigns of varnish and overpainting removed to reveal her original, early 16t centur…

AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnership (CDP) studentship - Re-evaluating Punch Marks on Early Italian PaintingsThe Hamilton Kerr Institute and Department of History of Art (University of Cambridge), and the National Gallery, London are pleased to announce the availability of a fully funded Collaborative Doctoral Studentship from October 2023 under…

At present the course is in its last stages of conversion to an academic degree. Therefore, recruitment for 2023-2024 will start later than usual, but then we will welcome applications.

HKI students talked to teachers about how they reconstructed a 15th century painting as part of a successful CPD day.On 1 May, first year Hamilton Kerr Institute (HKI) students took part in continuing professional development (CPD) session for primary school teachers run by the Fitzwilliam Education Team. The students, Rowan Frame and Joanna Nevill…

Staff and students star in a short film made by the Colnaghi Foundation in collaboration with the Wallace Collection to give the public an insight into what lies behind museum collections.The series of films explores the history of how collections are built up, and explains the physical processes behind both artistic creation and conservation proce…

The Hamilton Kerr Institute Bulletin No. 7 and Dr Spike Bucklow’s ‘The Anatomy of Riches’ are now available to orderThe seventh volume in the HKI’s biennial series of reports on its research was published in November 2018 and is now available to buy from Archetype Publications. Dr Spike Bucklow’s book ‘The Anatomy of Riches’ tells the saga of the P…

The HKI's work on the Wallace Collections 'Views of Venice' paintings has featured in an article in The Arts Newspaper.The Hamilton Kerr Institute's good work in restoring Canaletto's skies to vibrant blue and Guardi's canals to their former clarity features as part of the Wallace Collections crowd funding campaign to enable to conservation more of…

The HKI's work on the Wallace Collections 'Views of Venice' paintings features in the 27 November issue of the Art NewspaperFor further details click here

The conservation and analysis of a rare 14th/15th-century Kentish retable, treated at the Hamilton Kerr Institute, featured in The Art NewspaperThe Hamilton Kerr Institute has recently completed the conservation and technical study of the c. 1390-1410 Battel Hall Retable, belonging to Leeds Castle in Kent. Several of the discoveries of the technica…

The conservation and analysis of a miniature painting by Isaac OliverThe National Trust have published the story of how Christine Slottved  Kimbriel of the Hamilton Kerr Institute and Paola Ricciardi of the Fitzwilliam Museum revealed the intriguing techniques used by Isaac Oliver in a miniature painting of Lord Herbert of Cherbury from its Powis C…

Spike Bucklow's "Red" was placed on the American Library Association's prestigious 'Choice List' of Outstanding Academic Publications, 2017. A review in the Burlington Magazine (CLIX, 2017, p. 737) said it was ‘written by a research scientist but with the flair of a biographer’ The book considers artists' reds. It covers the reds that were used 35…

Published by the Journal of Archaeological Science on 30 October, the paper reveals key discoveries such as the first direct rock art dates in the Caribbean, how pre-Columbian rock-art was made and their paint recipes.New research has just been published by University of Leicester and British Museum researchers along with colleagues from the Britis…