07 February 2016

Details from the Ashmolean Museum

A treasure-chest of delights!
Dogs and deer from Uccello's Hunt in the Forest

From Piero di Cosimo's The Forest Fire; they hybrid beasts were "added at a late stage"
Sculpted buttonhole stitching -
Marble; bust of a pope

Terra cotta; model for Handel's statue in Westminster Abbey by Roubilliac
Birds -
Fleeing (?) from a scene of animal carnage on a tapestry

Decorous and contented, painted on china
 Fantastical scenes -
Unicorns in traction

The mouth of Hell (painted by Lelio Orsi, 1540s)
 Blue and white -
Musician on a chinese plate

"Ladies" on a wall-panel of tiles
Grand tapestries -
Embroidered, Spain, 1600

Woven, 17th century
A medieval alabaster, Adoration of the Magi -
(Another detail is here)

All seen too quickly;but consider another way of looking at things, which the Ashmolean offers as an Afternoon Tea Talk on 9 April:

Slow Art Day

"Discover the pleasures of taking your time to appreciate a work of art. Look at five works of art for 10 minutes each and discuss what you have seen over afternoon tea. ... Slow Art Day is an international event encouraging people to discover the joy of taking time to look at art."

1 comment:

Charlton Stitcher said...

I'm off to the Ashmolean again in the spring with my textile group. What a wonderful place it is ... and Slow Art Day sounds wonderful. Something for my diary with a couple of like-minded friends?