The British Museum
Bloomsbury - London, UK
We spent most of the day at the museum and I feel like I just scratched the surface. You could probably come here every day for a month and still only get to experience a fraction of the treasures and history here.
Here are some photos of things that I found especially interesting.
Sir Robert Cotton (left) and
Martin Folkes (right) sculptures by
Louis-François Roubiliac. Folkes looks a lot like Jim, our security guard at my job.
Sculpture casts of
Osiris and other Egyptian gods and goddesses (by
Ephraim Gerrish Stannus).
This is
the Bust of Clytie from the
Charles Townley collection.
Clytie is a character from Greek mythology who was once the lover of the god
Helios. Later after she had been spurned, she protested by sitting naked on the rocks and starting at the sun without food or water for nine days. The bust was said to have been created around 40 to 50 A.D. and was found near Naples.
This bust of
Zeus was donated to The British Museum by
J.T. Barber Beaumont in 1836. It's from the villa of the Roman Emperor
Hadrian at Tivoli and was sculpted in the 2nd century A.D.
Campo Iemini Venus
This
statue of
Venus is from the second century and was found at
Campo Iemini in 1794. It was eventually part of the collection of
King George IV and was donated to
The British Museum in 1834 by
King William IV.
Another statue from the
Charles Townley collection.
Minerva is the Roman goddess of wisdom and strategic warfare. She was the Roman equivalent of
Athena in Greek mythology. The white marble head of this piece is from the 2nd century AD and was found on the
Esquiline Hill in Rome. The helmet and bust were added by
Carlo Albacini in 1783.
