Bob Jones University Museum and Gallery

The Museum and Gallery, Inc., formerly known as the Bob Jones University Museum and Gallery, is an art museum located on the campus of Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. Established in 1951, it holds one of the most significant collections of sacred art in the United States, with particular distinction in Italian Old Master paintings. The museum focuses primarily on European religious art from the 14th through 19th centuries, encompassing paintings, sculpture, furniture, architectural elements, textiles, Greek and Russian icons, and ancient artifacts. As of 2017, the museum closed for a planned relocation to downtown Greenville, South Carolina, though this move had not been completed by the time of available sources. The institution's collection has been widely recognized for its depth in Italian Baroque painting, with its holdings in this area claimed by the museum to be unsurpassed among American institutions.

The museum originated from the personal initiative of Bob Jones Jr., who became president of Bob Jones University in 1947 following his father, Bob Jones Sr., the university's founder. Jones Jr. had developed an enthusiasm for Christian art during his youth and began collecting in 1948, securing an acquisition fund from the university's Executive Committee with the purpose of building a collection that would serve both educational and religious aims. The museum officially opened on Thanksgiving Day 1951 with 25 paintings displayed in two galleries adjacent to the Bowen Collection of Antiquities. Even at this modest beginning, the collection included works by Sandro Botticelli, Domenico Ghirlandaio, Tintoretto, Paolo Veronese, and Jusepe de Ribera. The collection expanded rapidly, reaching approximately 200 works by 1962 and about 250 paintings by 1966. In 1956, the museum moved to a new Fine Arts building on campus, and in 1965 it relocated again to the former university dining hall. A landmark acquisition came in 1963 with the purchase of seven paintings from Benjamin West's Progress of Revealed Religion series, originally commissioned by King George III for a chapel at Windsor Castle. In 1996, the museum became an independent tax-exempt corporation, and in 2019 it formally changed its name to Museum and Gallery, Inc. The museum opened a second, smaller downtown location at Heritage Green in 2008, but closed this satellite facility in 2017 due to declining visitation and the need to reassess the collection's expansion and future direction. Bob Jones III, son of Bob Jones Jr., served as university president from 1971 to 2005 and subsequently oversaw the collection.

The collection is organized around sacred art of the Western world, with painting as its dominant medium. The holdings span from the 14th to the 19th centuries and are distributed across 25 galleries. Italian painting constitutes the largest and most celebrated component, with over 100 works representing the 15th through 18th centuries, including significant concentrations of Renaissance and Baroque art. The Flemish and Dutch schools form another substantial group, while French, Spanish, and British paintings are present in more limited numbers. The collection extends beyond painting to encompass sculpture, furniture, architectural elements, textiles, Greek and Russian icons, and ancient artifacts. The Bowen Collection of Antiquities, comprising approximately 1,000 objects from Palestine, Egypt, and the Roman Empire, was assembled by missionary couple Frank and Barbara Bowen to illustrate biblical history and was donated to the university in 1943 before being incorporated into the museum at its founding. The James Cole Collection of ecclesiastical vestments and textiles represents another specialized holding. The museum also maintains a collection of Russian icons. Notable institutional claims about the collection's significance, particularly regarding its Italian Baroque paintings, have been characterized by external observers as somewhat exaggerated though not without substantive basis.

The museum's Italian Renaissance holdings include Sandro Botticelli's Madonna and Child with an Angel, works by Bicci di Lorenzo, Niccolo di Pietro Gerini, Francesco Granacci, Marco d'Oggiono, Il Sodoma's Procession to Calvary, Andrea del Sarto's St. Sebastian, and Tintoretto's The Visit of the Queen of Sheba to Solomon. The Italian Baroque is represented by Giovanni Lanfranco's St. Cecilia, Salvator Rosa's Landscape with the Baptism of Christ, Luca Giordano's Christ Cleansing the Temple, Carlo Dolci's Madonna and Child and The Repentant St. Peter, Mattia Preti's Christ Seats the Child in the Midst of the Disciples, Domenichino's St. John the Evangelist, Guido Reni's St. Matthew, Giovanni Baglione's The Body of Christ Prepared for Burial, and Alessandro Magnasco's Monks before a Fireplace. Northern European highlights include Gerard David's The Risen Christ, Jan Gossaert's The Virgin Preparing the Bath of the Child, Lucas Cranach the Elder's Joab Slays Abner and Salome with the Head of John the Baptist, Peter Paul Rubens's Christ on the Cross, Anthony van Dyck's Madonna and Child, and Gerrit van Honthorst's The Holy Family in the Carpenter Shop. Spanish painting features Jusepe de Ribera's The Entombment of Christ and Ecce Homo, Bartolome Esteban Murillo's The Martyrdom of St. Andrew and The Heavenly Shepherd, and Jose Antolinez's St. Michael the Archangel Overcoming Satan. French works include Simon Vouet's King David Playing the Harp and Salome with the Head of St. John the Baptist, Charles Le Brun's Pentecost, and Pierre Hubert Subleyras's Christ in the House of the Pharisee. The seven Benjamin West paintings from The Progress of Revealed Religion, acquired in 1963, are displayed in the War Memorial Chapel rather than in the main museum circuit. Other British and American works include Edward Matthew Ward's Martin Luther Discovering Justification by Faith and paintings by Eyre Crowe, Edwin Long, and Frederic James Shields.

The museum's physical history reflects the collection's growth across multiple campus locations. It opened in 1951 in two galleries adjacent to the Bowen Collection of Antiquities. In 1956, it moved to a new classical-style Fine Arts building on the university campus. A further relocation occurred in 1965 to the university's former dining hall, an expansion celebrated with a gala attended by international experts and guests. The 2008 opening of a satellite location at Heritage Green in downtown Greenville represented an attempt to broaden public access, though this facility was closed in 2017. The original campus location remained the primary site until the museum's closure that same year. Plans announced in 2017 envisioned a move to downtown Greenville, though the status of this relocation was not resolved in available sources. The War Memorial Chapel on campus houses the Benjamin West series separately from the main galleries.

The Museum and Gallery, Inc. is located in Greenville County, South Carolina, on the campus of Bob Jones University, a private Protestant fundamentalist institution founded in 1927. The museum was established as an integral part of the university but became an independent corporation in 1996. As of 2017, the museum closed to the public for a planned move to downtown Greenville, South Carolina, and its present operational status and accessibility were not specified in available sources. During its active period, the museum maintained a website at bjumg.org. The institution's ownership structure as an independent corporation, combined with its origins within and continued connection to Bob Jones University, reflects a distinctive model of American museum organization tied to evangelical educational institutions. The museum's public role has been shaped by both its academic mission and its efforts to reach broader audiences, including through television exposure via NBC specials and through loans to exhibitions domestically and internationally.