British Museum - Persia to Greece exhibition
Our second exhibition yesterday was the Luxury and Power: Persia to Greece, so after a quick lunch in the café in the British Museum, we headed to the room and were allowed in earlier than our ticket time (a bonus!). When the Greeks captured the Persian King in 499BC they spoke of the unimaginable luxury they saw and the exhibition certainly had some very impressive objects that would have been used by the Persian court to show their authority up until it was all swept away by Alexander the Great (who introduced his own ideas of luxury!). Photos of many lovely things.
The entry to the exhibition:
These are little seals that would be rolled in clay (you can see the impression they make in the tablet above them). I thought they were lovely and so detailed. This one is Darius the first depicted in a chariot hunting lions. Above him is the god Ahuramazda bestowing divine favour upon the King. The writing is in three languages and says "I am Darius, the King".
Royal women at court had considerable influence and this seal shows a woman who sits on a throne with her feet above the ground (Royalty would never touch the earth). She is being given a songbird by a serving girl. Incense purifies the air.
Women would have carried kohl around in these very small containers. Kohl was considered medicinal and men and women would have used it around their eyes.
This is a tribute to the King in the form of an armband. The vacant shapes would have had either precious stones or glass inlaid in them.
There were a lot of drinking vessels and containers. The trumpet-shaped vessel would have contained wine (which came out in a stream between the front 'legs' of the animal) it would have been held over a bowl and the bowl used to drink.
A headdress ornament in gold - it's a lion-giraffe (of course it is!)
Perikles wearing a helmet pushed back on his head. A Roman copy of a Greek original.
More drinking vessels for everyday folk copying the gold and silver ones that the Persians had in clay. These were more like a cup and it was fashionable to have an animal shape. They called this display Party Animals LOL!
Alexander the Great
This goldfish would have been to carry fragrant oils for the beard and hair (men liked to smell nice!)
A Macedonian wreath made from sheets of gold as a circlet of oak leaves. There are two cicadas and a bee hidden amongst the leaves and acorns. It was incredibly delicate and shimmered and trembled at the tiniest vibration as people walked past the case.
Bee!
There was glass! This was made using the technique 'millefiori' to creast the 'thousand flower' glass. This also had gold leaf incorporated into it.
Gold encased in glass - a really hard technique. The gold leaf flowers were layered between the two glass bowls fused together.
A gold band glass bottle (I really, really wanted this!). Small, exquisite!
These nine gold drinking vessels were found in Bulgaria, once known as Thrace - a bridge between Europe and Asia. 6.2kg of gold (13.5 lbs!!). Probably a gift on it's way somewhere.
It was a very interesting exhibition and I'm glad we went to that as well. There is also a gorilla trail around London at the moment (The Tusk Gorilla Trail) and we saw a couple of them. This one was fun:
We headed home soon after and got back around 3.45 pm having walked around five and half miles...
The entry to the exhibition:
These are little seals that would be rolled in clay (you can see the impression they make in the tablet above them). I thought they were lovely and so detailed. This one is Darius the first depicted in a chariot hunting lions. Above him is the god Ahuramazda bestowing divine favour upon the King. The writing is in three languages and says "I am Darius, the King".
Royal women at court had considerable influence and this seal shows a woman who sits on a throne with her feet above the ground (Royalty would never touch the earth). She is being given a songbird by a serving girl. Incense purifies the air.
Women would have carried kohl around in these very small containers. Kohl was considered medicinal and men and women would have used it around their eyes.
This is a tribute to the King in the form of an armband. The vacant shapes would have had either precious stones or glass inlaid in them.
There were a lot of drinking vessels and containers. The trumpet-shaped vessel would have contained wine (which came out in a stream between the front 'legs' of the animal) it would have been held over a bowl and the bowl used to drink.
A headdress ornament in gold - it's a lion-giraffe (of course it is!)
Perikles wearing a helmet pushed back on his head. A Roman copy of a Greek original.
More drinking vessels for everyday folk copying the gold and silver ones that the Persians had in clay. These were more like a cup and it was fashionable to have an animal shape. They called this display Party Animals LOL!
Alexander the Great
This goldfish would have been to carry fragrant oils for the beard and hair (men liked to smell nice!)
A Macedonian wreath made from sheets of gold as a circlet of oak leaves. There are two cicadas and a bee hidden amongst the leaves and acorns. It was incredibly delicate and shimmered and trembled at the tiniest vibration as people walked past the case.
Bee!
There was glass! This was made using the technique 'millefiori' to creast the 'thousand flower' glass. This also had gold leaf incorporated into it.
Gold encased in glass - a really hard technique. The gold leaf flowers were layered between the two glass bowls fused together.
A gold band glass bottle (I really, really wanted this!). Small, exquisite!
These nine gold drinking vessels were found in Bulgaria, once known as Thrace - a bridge between Europe and Asia. 6.2kg of gold (13.5 lbs!!). Probably a gift on it's way somewhere.
It was a very interesting exhibition and I'm glad we went to that as well. There is also a gorilla trail around London at the moment (The Tusk Gorilla Trail) and we saw a couple of them. This one was fun:
We headed home soon after and got back around 3.45 pm having walked around five and half miles...