Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Asparagus were a favourite of Coorte’s and appear in 12 known paintings.

See this painting on display in our Still-life Paintings gallery on the second floor.

🖌️ Still Life of Asparagus, Adriaen Coorte (c. 1660 - after 1707), 1699. Oil on paper. WA1940.2.22

An oil painting of a bunch of asparagus tied in a round bundle against a black background.

This painting by the artist Adriaen Coorte, made in 1699, shows a simple bunch of dramatically lit asparagus, on a stone shelf.

Still life paintings of food, often called Vanitas, were a common theme in Dutch art in the 17th century and alluded to moral themes such as the brevity of life.

See the brooch on display in Gallery 30 on Level 1.

💜 Disc brooch with cameo, 6th century CE. Amethyst, gold, sardonyx. AN1909.816

Polished amethysts and a garnet stone are suspended pendant-like from the base, marking the owner out as a wealthy and educated patron of the arts.

In Late Antiquity, disc brooches were used for fastening cloaks, but a piece of jewellery as fine as this brooch would have been more decorative.

The helmet worn by the central figure suggests an identification of either the Roman goddess of wisdom – and war – Minerva (Greek Athena), or Roma, the personified city of Rome.

A round gold brooch with an enamelled portrait in the centre. Hanging from the bottom are three amethyst beads

This exquisite 6th-century brooch features an oval sardonyx stone cameo with a female portrait bust positioned in the centre of a gold disc. This is decorated with a cabled border and circles and shapes made of fine wire, or filigree.

When brilliantly coloured Prussian blue pigment was first introduced in the 1830s, it was such a novelty that some publishers produced aizuri-e (blue-printed pictures using only shades of blue) for the fascinated public.

🏔️ EAX.4386

Japanese woodblock print of mountains and a waterfall, the foreground mountains are in blue and black

Hiroshige’s predecessor Hokusai was also skilful in his depictions of waterfalls and Hiroshige was no doubt aware of Hokusai’s designs when choosing this subject.

The mountains here are printed almost entirely in blue, providing a bold contrast to the pale Fuji in the background.

Japanese woodblock print of mountains and a waterfall, the foreground mountains are in blue and black

This brilliantly coloured Japanese woodblock print is by Utagawa Hiroshige.

Here Mount Fuji is viewed beyond a waterfall in the Izu peninsula to the south-east of Mount Fuji.

The waterfall is probably Jōren waterfall, a well-known Izu landmark.

The reverse of a bronze medal commemorating Robert Burns, Scottish poet. In the centre is a shield containing a tree and a horn.

The front shows a portrait of Burns, whilst the back reproduces his personal seal, with two of his mottoes, one of which is "Better a wee bush than nae bield [shelter]", which pays homage to Burns' agricultural background.

🪙 Robert Burns Centenary commemorative medal, 1859. HCR115808

A bronze medal with the head and shoulders of Robert Burns, Scottish poet.

Tonight is Burns Night, the anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns, the national poet of Scotland.

This medal, made in 1859 by the Pinches family business in London, commemorates a hundred years since his birth on January 25, 1759.

The Traitors image credits @bbc thetraitorsukofficial

A photograph of Claudia Winkleman wearing a layered black tulle dress next to a black vase

A photograph of a person wearing a cloak, holding up a lantern next to Guy Fawkes' lantern

A portrait of Claudia Winkleman next to a 17th century portrait of a woman wearing a large ruff

An impressionist painting of a stream train above a photograph of a moving steam train

The Ashmolean 🤝 The Traitors

🖤 Vase with violet-blue glaze, Qing Dynasty, Yongzheng Period (1723 - 1735)
🕯️Guy Fawkes' lantern, c. 1605
🖼️ Portrait of a Lady, Johannes Cornelisz. Verspronck, c.1640
🚂 Detail of A Landscape with Two Steam Trains, likely by Félix Pissarro, c.1895

Fanny Claus, the seated figure in this painting, was a talented concert violinist and friend of Suzanne Leenhof, Manet’s wife. Berthe Morisot, sketchily indicated on the right, was an accomplished artist who later married Manet’s brother, Eugène.

🌸 WA2012.53

An oil painting of a seated woman wearing a long white dress and a pink flower on top of her head.

Édouard Manet was born on this day in 1832.

After twice failing the entrance exam to train as a naval officer, Manet went to Paris to pursue a career in the arts. By the late 1860s, he was one of the most celebrated artists in the city.

This is not surprising as workers from Murano were employed in Ravenscroft's glass-house at the Savoy, London.

See it on display in Gallery 48 on Level 2.

💜 Purple decanter bottle 1671–1700. Glass, 19cm height. WA1957.24.2.1

George Ravenscroft (1618-81), a glass merchant, was the first to obtain a patent to produce lead-glass in England from 1674.

The pincered decoration of lozenges on the body is known as 'nipt diamond waies', a type of decoration with Venetian origins.

A amethyst-shade purple glass bottle with a bulbous bottom and long thin neck

This beautiful amethyst-tinted serving bottle is made from a type of glass developed during the 1670s that contained a high percentage of lead.

This so-called ‘lead-glass’ or ‘crystal’ was much heavier, less fragile and more brilliant than that produced previously in either England or Europe.

This was placed between two pieces of glass, which were fused together by heating, then shaped to make the bowl.

See the ring on display in Gallery 30 on Level 1.

🦁 Gold-glass fragment with a lion, set in modern finger-ring, 201–400 CE. Gold and glass, 1.8cm diameter. AN2007.15

A gold ring with a blue and gold enamelled figure of a lion in the centre

This ring, featuring a fragment of gold-glass, depicts a roaring lion. At only 1.8 cm across, the animal is depicted in extraordinary detail.

Roman gold-glass images began as parts of glass bowls. Images were made by engraving a picture onto a sheet of gold leaf.

A watercolour painting of a woman wearing a frilly lace bonnet laid down with her head on a blue pillow.

A watercolour painting of a woman wearing a frilly lace bonnet laid down with her head on a blue pillow.

Forget #BlueMonday, what is something that always makes you smile?

💙 Girl in a Bonnet with her Head on a Blue Pillow, 1902, Anna Alma-Tadema (1876–1943). Watercolour on paper. WA1964.81

When he awoke he wrote a poem about her: ‘In the moonlight under the trees a beautiful woman comes’.

Manjū netsuke depicting the Spirit of the Plum Tree, 1850–1900. Japan. Ivory, 5.1cm diameter. EA2001.74

A round cream-coloured netsuke with a figure of a Chinese lady in traditional clothing carved in to it.

A round cream-coloured netsuke with a figure of a Chinese lady in traditional clothing carved in to it.

This Japanese netsuke features a beautiful Chinese woman by a vase of plum blossom.

The subject refers to a famous poem by the Chinese poet Zhao Shixiong (589–618). When climbing Mount Luofu in Southern China, the poet fell asleep under a flowering plum tree and the Spirit of the Plum Tree appeared

The colourful touches of bright watercolour, and the blue and green of the trees, in this painting give the sense that it was completed quickly in bright summer sunlight.

🎨 Landscape with tall trees and a view of the sea, Berthe Morisot (1841 - 1895), 1886. WA1955.23

An impressionist painting of a seaside landscape in summer

Berthe Morisot, French painter and one of the founding members of the Impressionist movement, was born on this day in 1841.

This watercolour was made in Jersey where Berthe Morisot spent the summer of 1886. Morisot painted watercolours, mainly of landscape, throughout her life.

A watercolour painting of a villa garden with rough tree shapes, a cream wall and a blue gate.

🖼️ Gates of a Villa in Italy, c.1909, John Singer Sargent (1856–1925). Watercolour on paper, 35.4 x 49.5 cm. WA1951.138

A watercolour painting of a villa garden with rough tree shapes, a cream wall and a blue gate.

John Singer Sargent was born on this day in 1856.

Sargent's output as a portrait painter was impressive, but he also produced a large number of landscapes on his travels in Spain, Italy, and Switzerland.

THIS IS WHAT YOU GET EXHIBITION A major retrospective exhibition exploring the visual art of Stanley Donwood and Thom Yorke and the iconic images of Radiohead. Open until 18 Jan 2026.

🎟️ Weekend tickets are very limited. We advance booking, or visiting in the week for greater availability.

🏛️ Ashmolean Members go for free.

🎨 Membranes (detail), Stanley Donwood & Thom Yorke, 2022, tempera, gouache on canvas © Stanley Donwood & Thom Yorke. Photo Emma Wood. Courtesy of TIN MAN ART

An abstract artwork, inspired by a map, made up of different patterns and shapes of different colours

📣 Last chance to see This Is What You Get: Stanley Donwood, Radiohead, Thom Yorke – this exhibition closes 18 January 📣

Don't miss this unique opportunity to look at the creative forces behind some of the most important and influential music of the past few decades.

An oil painting featuring a weathered stone wall that spans the middle, in the foreground is luscious green grass, behind the wall trees of green and red

Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema was born on this day in 1836.

During a visit to Rome from December 1875 to April 1876, Alma-Tadema collected material for future paintings. He made three studies of parts of the city, including this one in the gardens of the Villa Borghese.

🍃 Detail from WA1966.13.1