This life-size temple sculpture represents Bodhidharma or Da Mo, an Indian Buddhist monk who reached China around 520, bringing Buddhist scriptures with him. He is regarded as the founder of Chan (or Zen) Buddhism.
Such temple sculptures were specially commissioned by Buddhist devotees. They were made in moulds, finished by hand, biscuit-fired and then glazed and fired again.
An artist and a frank cultural commentator, Grayson Perry uses his work to dissect social issues like class, gender and politics. After the EU Referendum in 2016, Perry began making a pair of vases to represent the two sides of the Brexit debate. For the first time he crowdsourced imagery through social media, asking ‘Leave’ and ‘Remain’ voters for suggestions of things they love about Britain, people that represent their values, their favoured colour and brands, and self-portraits. The resulting pots look remarkably similar, which Perry describes as: ‘a good result, for we all have much more in common than that which separates us.’
‘Matching Pair’
Grayson Perry (born 1960)
Made in London, 2017 Glazed earthenware, hand-built, with incised, painted and printed decoration
Purchased with the support of the Ruddock Foundation for the Arts, V&A Members, Sarah Nichols, the William Brake Charitable Trust and an anonymous donor
No other land animals have grown as big as the long-necked dinosaurs.
Diplodocus was one of the largest, with an adult reaching up to 24 metres (79 feet) long and weighing more than three elephants.
Its size was mostly down to the food it ate. Its whole body evolved to eat vast amounts of plants. Its height allowed it to browse on leaves from branches. Its huge digestive system contained bacteria that were crucial to breaking down tough leaves.
This bronze cast is known as Fern the Diplodocus. The Museum’s neighbours – young people from across the local community – named the dinosaur, inspired by the plants living alongside dinosaurs at this time.
Diplodocus carnegii
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図解キャプション
・Blunt, peg-like teeth stripped leaves from branches
・Bacteria in its giant digestive system broke down huge quantities of leaves it needed to survive.
Four thick sturdy legs supported this giant plant-eating machine.
下部注記
Fern the Diplodocus and the Jurassic Garden generously supported by Kusuma Trust
Ammonites lived in ancient oceans. They can easily be recognised by their coiled shells, but their soft tissues – including their octopus-like arms – are rarely fossilised. Some ammonites fed on tiny particles of food and others were probably predators or scavengers of sea creatures.
Ammonite
England
Its hard, outer shell was made up of multiple chambers.
Smaller chambers filled with a mix of liquids and gasses kept the ammonite afloat.
These large, knobby flints with their hollow centres are puzzling. How were they formed? The silica from which they are made originally came from the skeletons of glass sponges, but how the flints later took shape is less certain. One idea is that they formed around burrows made by giant ribbon worms. Another is that they are the remains of barrel-shaped sponges.