I needed to be in Oxford last Friday, and decided to visit the Pompeii exhibition at the Ashmolean before going home. I hadn't appreciated that I was visiting 2 days before this very successful exhibition ended, and wasn't able to get a ticket until 5.15pm, which didn't fit in with my plans for the evening. I should have visited the exhibition earlier or bought a ticket.
Anyway not to be deterred, I went round looking for my favourite things. I really enjoyed looking for these, photographing them, and then sharing them here.
I'm looking for my favourite piece to start with, it's very difficult, the pieces chosen are fabulous in such different ways. I'm going to pick the jar decorated with palm trees from the Loomweight Basement, Knossus 1850-1800 BC :
It's so old, yet is the sort of thing I would love to be able to make, and to have in the house or garden.
Closely followed by this jar decorated with six tentacled octopus and murex shells from the Palace at Knossus, 1450-1400 BC Apparently murex shells are the source for the purple-red dye, a popular colourant across the east Mediterranean.
I was drawn to the Casts once again where this fabulous cast entitled Laocoon, from Rome c 50-20 BC can be found. The priest Laocoon and his two sons can be seen struggling with two flesh eating snakes that had been sent as divine punishment for the priests' crimes.
For anyone familiar with the story of the two John Tradescants whose collections formed the basis of the Ashmolean artefacts, although it is named after Ashmole, this Powhatan's Mantle or cape is beautiful and it's quite amazing it still survives dating from before 1656 which is when John Tradescant acquired it.
The panel of 48 tiles depicting vases and cypress trees among flowers from Syria and Iran 1600-1700 is simply splendid.
I love the panels explaining the different sorts of decorative patterns used at this time, this one below explains 'arabesque' describes an Islamic form of plant-like decoration of interweaving stem branching into split leaves and secondary items.
The colours in Islamic tiles are echoed by William de Morgan in his tiles, this one depicting a carnation flower is beautiful. It's designed by de Morgan, but the decorator is unknown.
This snake, another de Morgan piece made from 6 tiles and is fabulous.
I then wandered into the paintings, and very much admired 'Shelley's Grave' by William Bell Scott. It's beautifully composed and the rendition of the plants is superb.
'Mary Magdelen' depicted by Eric Gill in 1926 is stunning
and Robert Polhill Bevan's depiction of horses is beautiful.
I missed the James Tower exhibition last year at the Victoria Art Gallery, his work, 'Prism' is instantly recognisable
and so is this Mother Pumpkin II by Kate Malone with a Janice Tchalenko bowl beneath it.
New to me this time was this piece, 'Satan' by Jean-Jacques Feuchere donated by Lord Archer. The bronze inspired numerous sculptures throughout the 19th century culminating with Rodin's Thinker in 1902. There's an article about it in a February 2016 edition of the Oxford Mail by Megan Archer.
I also noticed these fantastic chandeliers over a staircase
and the circular window above
and a couple of views from outside the Ashmolean taken while eating sandwiches
above a wing, and below the front advertising the Pompeii exhibition!!
Just before the sun went down, there was a lovely view down Ship Street
Anyway not to be deterred, I went round looking for my favourite things. I really enjoyed looking for these, photographing them, and then sharing them here.
I'm looking for my favourite piece to start with, it's very difficult, the pieces chosen are fabulous in such different ways. I'm going to pick the jar decorated with palm trees from the Loomweight Basement, Knossus 1850-1800 BC :
Closely followed by this jar decorated with six tentacled octopus and murex shells from the Palace at Knossus, 1450-1400 BC Apparently murex shells are the source for the purple-red dye, a popular colourant across the east Mediterranean.
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