Posted by Booboo_Kittiefukk at 202.59.99.235 on September 19, 2003 at 02:19:42:
In Reply to: £240,000 Dickhead (note: Penis inside) posted by Kimberlieo on September 19, 2003 at 01:59:10:
: A leading museum has added a bawdy 16th century work of art to its collection, depicting a human head made up of small images of penises.
: The work - affectionately known as "dickhead" - was bought for almost a quarter of a million pounds for the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.The design is glazed on to a ceramic plate and is one of the most celebrated pieces of Italian Renaissance pottery.
: The humorous maiolica plate parodies other such designs which were popular at the time it was created in 1536 by Francisco Urbino.
: His dish parodies the "bella donna" style of dishes which bear portraits of young girls, by creating the slightly grotesque image out of penises, one of which is pierced.
: A ribbon-like strip running around the back of the head bears an inscription, written in reverse, which translates as "every man looks at me as if I were a head of dicks".
: A £100,000 grant towards the £240,000 price came from the National Art Collections Fund, the largest it has given for a ceramic object. Further funding came from the Resource Purchase Grant Fund.
: David Barrie, director of the National Art Collections Fund, said: "This magnificent piece really made us sit up and take notice - we're often asked to support extraordinary things, but we'd never seen anything like this before."
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: Story filed: 09:45 Thursday 18th September 2003