For two years now I have awaited the re-opening of Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum, which has undergone a major renovation. Each time I have been in Oxford I have stood nearby it whilst waiting for the bus home. Today, I made a trip to Oxford just to see the museum. Founded in 1683, the Ashmolean is Britain’s first public museum. The collections range from archaeology to the fine and decorative arts. In this blog I am just showing examples of some of the pieces or exhibits I enjoyed, with data from exhibit labels to remind me what I saw.
The new Cascading Staircase and atrium form the central core of the new design.
A wall of busts show well in one of the staircases.
Royal Elephants from Mughal India: Paintings from the collection of Howard Hodgkin.
“This group of paintings and brush-drawings . . . has been selected from the distinguished collection of the artist Howard Hodgkin. A passionate collector of Indian paintings since his schooldays, Hodgkin has long favoured elephant themes as one of the main themes of his collecting. Throughout the ages Indian artists have indeed shown a strong affinity for this noble animal and an intuitive sympathy in depicting it. They have always known how to convey a sense of its massive volumes and its grace in motion, its wise intelligence and its playful charm.”
All of these superb drawings put to shame my own meagre collection of elephant-motif objects at home. My favourite family heirloom is the foot of a rogue elephant shot at the request of the local maharajah by my grandfather in about 1916 in India, where my mother was born.
Coincidentally, when I completed my visit at the Ashmolean, I wandered over to the Oxford Modern Art Gallery, which was given over to an exhibit of Howard Hodgkin’s own work, entitled “Time & Place.” It moves this fall to Tilburg and next year to San Diego. Interesting stuff, my favourite being a series of four large works (204x266 cm) called “Home, Home on the Range,” “Where the Deer and the Antelope Play,” “Where Seldom is Heard a Discouraging Word,” and “And the Skies Are Not Cloudy All Day.” No photos were allowed so I bought some postcards.
The Flemish Gallery was overwhelmingly dreary. Just too many dark paintings.
This outfit belonged to T. E. Lawrence and was probably worn by him while a liaison officer with the Arab forces 1916-1918. He worked closely with Emir Faisal (later King Faisal of Iraq), and on his suggestion adopted Arab dress: “I was . . . [fitted out] . . . in splendid white silk and gold-embroidered wedding garments which had been sent to Faisal lately (was it a hint) by his great-aunt in Mecca.” (T. E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, Chapter 20)
Guy Fawkes’ lantern.
Palissey ware dishes from France, early 1600s; ceramic.
Powhatan’s Mantle. Powhatan (died 1618) was chief of the Powhatan Indians that occupied Virginia at the time the Jamestown settlement was founded in 1607. Today he is best known as the father of Pocahontas. It may really be a wall hanging, and has been in what has become the Ashmolean collection since at least 1638.
Tragic masks, first century BC to first century AD. A Roman period rendition in marble of the kinds of wooden masks that were worn by actors in classical Greece.
Jar decorated with six-tentacled octopus and murex shells, Palace at Knossos, Crete, 1450-1400 BC, clay. Murex shells are the source for the purple-red dye, a popular colourant for textiles across the east Mediterranean.
Dancing Ganesha in stone, Western India, A 650-750. “Ganesha dances joyfully, flanked by musicians. He holds a mango or sweetmeat, which he savours with his trunk.
Nandi, the bull of Shiva; basalt, Deccan or South India, 1500-1700. “A young bull, later known as Nandi, often accompanies images of Shiva, as the god’s associated animal or vehicle (vahana). But images of this kind are often positioned in front of a Shiva temple, facing towards the deity within the inner shrine."
Ganesha, gilded bronze, Orissa, 1500-1600. “Ganesha, Remover of Obstacles, holds an ankus (goad), cobra, his broken tusk and a bowl of sweet cakes which he feels with his trunk. His vehicle, the mouse, looks up at him from the base."
Qajar enamelled set, signed by Baqir, Iran, about 1800. "The art of enamel painting on gold, silver and copper developed in Iran during the 1600s and enjoyed continued success until the early 1900s. This set was created for the ruler of Iran, Fath Ali Shah Qajar (ruled 1797-1834). The saucer and bowl are decorated with the twelve signs of the zodiac, the animals of the Far-Eastern zodiacal tradition, the seven planets and the six major constellations. Lines of poetry on the saucer dedicate the set to the ruler."
Tiles from Iran 1800-1900: Yusuf and Zulaikha: “These tiles come from two different sets depicting the story of Yusuf and Zulaikha. Based on the twelfth sura (chapter) of the Qur’an, it originally derives from the story of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife in the Old Testament. In the Qu’anic version, Yusuf is a handsome slave in the service of an Egyptian man. His master’s wife, named Zulaikha in later literature, attempts unsuccessfully to seduce him. Both the single tile and the set depict the episode in Yusuf’s appearance before the women of Memphis. Overcome by his beauty, they faint or cut themselves with the knives they hold in their hands.
Both pieces are from Iran, 1850-1900 and are Fritware, moulded, with underglaze painting.
The model ship of wood and rope was once thought to be a model of Sir Francis Drake’s Golden Hind. It is now believed to represent a merchant ship built around the time of the death of Elizabeth 1st.
Ornamental tile design by William De Morgan (1839-1917). He was a painter, designer, potter, and novelist. “He was the most important potterymaker of the Arts and Crafts movement in England and a prolific tile designer. His fascination with pottery design from Islamic cultures is evident in this panel.”
The Messiah by Antonio Stradivari (1644?-1737). Printed label: Antonius Stradivarius, Cremonensis/Faciebat Anno 1716. “This violin dates from Stradivari’s ‘Golden Period’ of about 1700-1720. He was then at the height of his powers and had developed an ideal size and shape for making instruments. This violin owes its fame chiefly to its fresh appearance. Because it has been owned mostly by collectors and not by professional players, it has not been exposed to the wear and tear of frequent playing. One of its early owners who kept it out of sight but often boasted about it to his friends provoked the violinist, Delphin Alard, to say: ‘Your violin is like the Messiah. It is always expected by never appears.’ This, it seems is the origin of the name by which it is now known. Although little damaged, the Messiah has been altered. The neck has been lengthened and the pegs, fingerboard and tailpiece are not original.”
Godefrey de Bouillon, tapestry, between 1610-1631, workshop of Jan Raes the Elder, Brussels, woven in wool, silk and linen. It shows the crusader Godefrey de Bouillon as a victorious soldier, after he captured Jerusalem in 1099.
The Fitzwilliam Coin Cabinet, made in Florence around 1748-50, the stand made in England around 1770-90. “Cabinets with mosaic panels of precious stones (‘pietra dura’) were popular with British Grand Tourists in Italy. Colourful pietra dura was a specialty of the Grand Ducal workshops in Florence. The cabinet was adapted to hold a coin collection and its stand is ornamented with applied glass medallions, from a popular portrait series of Roman Emperors. The statue of Venus added on top of the cabinet is based on a model by Giambologna (1529-1608)."
The Hunt in the Forest, by Paolo di Dono, called Uccello (1397-1475); tempera and oil, with traces of gold. “Uccello was famous in his lifetime as a painter of perspective and of nature. Painted about 1470, this nocturnal landscape is a brilliantly structured composition. The animals and humans recede coherently to a vanishing-point at the centre of the painting. The bright colours create mosaic-like surface patterns.”
Proserpine by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882); coloured chalks on paper; inscribed, PROSERPINA, signed in monogram and dated, DGR 1871. Bequeathed by Miss May Morris, 1939. “After eating some pomegranate seeds, Proserpine was confined to the kingdom of Hades by her husband, Pluto.” The model was Jane Morris, “who served as the type of ideal beauty in numerous compositions by Rossetti, including several versions of Proserpine.”
I had looked forward to seeing the Pre-Raphaelite Gallery and admit to being underwhelmed. I have numerous Pre-Raphaelite prints in my apartment, and they are much brighter than the chalk drawings displayed here. My own print of Proserpine is much more colourful.
Reverie by Date Gabriel Rossetti (1868), coloured chalks on paper. “Rossetti made a number of remarkable portraits of Jane Morris in 1865, and in 1868 began a series of drawings of her. These showed her either as a character from mythology, or as the personification of an abstract concept. Reverie depicts Mrs Morris in the traditional pose of the thoughtful person, with her head resting on her hands.” To this day, I believe that Jane Morris was the most beautiful woman, ever.
Wardrobe, decorated in oil by Sir Edward Burne-Jones (1833-1898); oak and deal. “This wardrobe is traditionally supposed to have been given by Burne-Jones to William Morris and Jane Burden as a wedding present in 1859. The wardrobe is dedicated from EBJ to WM and is inscribed with the opening verses of Chaucer’s The Prioress’s Tale. . . . Jane Burden was the model for the figure of the Virgin and her escort of angels.”
Miss Ruth Stewart Hodgson, oil on canvas, by Frederick Lord Leighton (1830-1896). “When this painting was first exhibited in 1878, the critic W. M. Rossetti described it as ‘a small girl in dark-red velvet and fur, standing on the brown floor, with a blue carpet-fringe in front running parallel to the frame; plump and rosy, with unoccupied hands.’ It is one of Leighton’s most charming portraits.”
Farmer’s Boy, oil on canvas, by Sir George Clausen (1852-1944), dated 1884. Clausen’s large painting, Labourers after Dinner, “was the first sign that he was turning away from the sentimental peasant pictures popularised in England and France by Jules Bastien-Lepage, towards more naturalistic and brutal genre subjects. This is a study of the head of the boy at the centre of Labourers after Dinner.” On my wall at home, I have a print of Clausen’s Young Girl.
Gentle Spring, by Frederick Sandys (1829-1904), oil on canvas.
The School-Girl’s Hymn, by William Holman Hunt (1827-1910) oil on panel, signed and dated 18 WHH 59. “This was described by the artist as a ‘pot-boiler’ and shows ‘a girl going to school in a smiling summer Sunday morning, singing her hymn as she walks along.’ The model was Miriam Wilkinson, a labourer’s daughter Hunt met while staying with Thomas Combe as a farmhouse near Hastings in 1858.”
Mary Magdalen (1926), by Eric Gill (1882-1940), Caen stone.
Ewer and basin by Rod Kelly, born 1956; sterling silver, London 2008, with enamels by Sheila McDonald. “The griffins and baluster columns on the border derive from the architectural ornament of the University Galleries Building by C. R. Cockerell (now the front part of the Ashmolean).”
Tapestry of the Battle of the Animals, about 1723, sold to Emperor Chien Lung 1769, looted from the Imperial Summer Palace in Beijing in 1861 and returned to Europe. “The original tapestry design was in a collection of paintings and drawings illustrating the natural history of Brazil, presented to Louis XIV of France in 1670. Several sets were woven from the original cartoons between 1687 and 1725. The series became known as Tenture des Indes. The royal arms of France appear in the upper edge, suggesting that it was part of a set made for the king. Woven in 1723, it was probably sold to the Emperor Chien Lung dated 1771.”
“Clock case supported by scrolls and fantastic fish and flanked by female personification.” By James Cox from 1775-1800. Ormolu case with a panel painted en grisaille.
Swedish runestone written in memory of a mother, father and brother, about 1100, Sweden. It was found outside a church in Ed, Sweden, was commissioned by a man named Portseinn and carved by a well-known stonecarver named Oepir.
Georgian dessert table, showing a dessert setting for a prosperous middle-class household in England about 1760-1770. The table is laid with Worcester dessert plates and dishes, wine and syllabub glasses, and silver from the 1730s.
“Maiolica plate with head composed of penises,” by Francesco Urbini (between 1531-1537). Tin-glazed earthenware. I actually did not see this plate; I bought a postcard, and then went back to find the plate. I asked four guides and all four made suggestions, but no one knew where it was.
I was unsure about how long I would need to browse the exhibits, or how long I could stay on my feet wandering through 67 galleries. The staff gave me a sheet naming 22 Must-See items, so I used that as my guide and found all but two of them. (I guess I didn’t find The Mummy and Nested Coffins of Djeddjehutyivefankn, because I couldn’t pronounce it!) Some I photographed, above, and some I studied. Excellent ones I couldn’t photograph included the giant Bodhisattva (China, AD 800) and The Alfred Jewel, England. The Modern Art Gallery is closed to photography, which is where I discovered the work of Mark Gertler (1891-1939): His Gilbert Cannan and his Mill is a wonderful oil on canvas.
If you have a couple of hours in Oxford, visit the Ashmolean—just opposite the Martyrs’ Monument. It is free, has a cafe and restaurant, and an excellent gift shop, and it well worth seeing.
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