FRIGHTFUL STORIES

Detail of a kimono showing a ghost and a giant moon

FRIGHTFUL STORIES

Decomposing head memento mori pendant, front and back

Decomposing face pendant (rosary bead), 1510–1530

This 'memento mori' object - a 'reminder of death' - is especially gruesome as it's a rosary bead! Look closely and see the head of the deceased individual with a headband and inscription about the misery of human life, in German. Turn him around, and discover the later phase of the fate of the human body in decay after death, where worms and other earthly creatures have burrowed through the skull. On display in the European Goldsmiths' Work Wellby Gallery 54, 2nd floor.

Japanese Haunted by spectres triptych panel

Taira no Kiyomori Haunted by Spectres, triptych (detail), 1843–5

The 12th-century warrior Taira no Kiyomori is being haunted by the ghosts of the enemies he has ruthlessly killed during his lifetime in this startling woodblock print. Kiyomori stands on the veranda of his palace looking out over his snow-covered garden. In his vision the trees, hillocks and even the lanterns have been transformed into skulls and skeletons. Here, Kiyomori is depicted as the Osaka-based kabuki actor Nakamura Utaemon IV (1769–1852), who performed this role in the first month of 1845. Not on display.

Bat incense box

This Japanese incense box (kōgō) of black lacquer features two stylised bats and a crescent moon on the lid in gold leaf and togidashi with metal rims. The interior and base are sprinkled with gold flakes on a black lacquer ground (nashiji). Stylisation is a common feature of Japanese art and here the two bats have been depicted as if they were as round as the moon they are silhouetted against. This fine example of lacquer work originates from the early 20th century.

Skull watch/timepiece, c.1640

This silver-cased verge watch is in the shape of a human skull. It was made in the 17th century, possibly in France or England. It's engraved with 'memento mori' exhortations – reflections on death and the after life. The hinged lower jaw reveals the dial which is gilt and engraved with flowers. On the inside there are I-XII and V-shaped half-hours. One of several skull watches and clocks in our collection. On display in the Silver Gallery 55, 2nd floor.

Spider netsuke

The monstrous-looking Earth Spider (from Japanese mythology) peers out of a web and thrusts forward a three-toed claw in this Manjū netsuke. Netsuke were small ornamental toggles used to attach small items suspended on cords from the sash of a kimono. They are now considered collectors' pieces. On display in the Japan 1600-1850 Gallery 37, 2nd floor.

A Witches' Kitchen, by Jacques de Gheyn II, c.1600–10

Women, young and old, stir up magical chaos, casting spells and conjuring demons in this eerie sepia ink drawing by Dutch artist De Gheyn. At this time in the 17th century, witch trials were waning in the Netherlands, although the notion of witchcraft continued to convey the threat posed by rebellious women to orderly households and communities. The idea that a woman’s place was in the kitchen is terrifyingly subverted here. View by appointment in the Print Room.

Satsuma-style vase featuring an autumn scene

Look closely at this elegant earthenware vase and you'll see a bird perched on a flowering cherry tree, intently watching a spider descend on a thread, among autumn leaves. The finely-executed decoration is in overglaze enamels. The vase is from the Yabu Meizan workshop in Osaka, dating to about 1900. Not on display.

Ariel riding on a Bat by Joseph Severn, 1820

Ariel flies on a bat's back, holding a peacock's feather in this atmospheric oil painting, sadly in a ruinous condition due to the bitumen with which it was painted. The subject occupied artist Severn, a close friend of Keats, for over ten years. The first painting is dated 1826 (Victoria and Albert Museum, London) and he exhibited others in 1830, 1836 and 1838. This version was shown to enthusiastic reviews in 1830, when it was bought by Rev Robert Finch, who had already bought the preparatory sketch. Not on display

Ojime skeleton and bat

These two tiny Ojime figurine beads date back to the 19th-century.The skeleton is carved in bone and the bat in bronze, each measures about 2cm high. Until the 19th century, all Japanese citizens wore a kimono, fastened by an obi sash. Small personal items such as purses, pipes or medicine containers were hung from the sash by silk cords. The cord was threaded through a bead, or ojime, then tucked behind the kimono sash and secured with a small ornamental toggle called a netsuke. The Museum has a fine collection of these. On display in the Japan Gallery 37, 2nd floor.

18th century painted plaster panel - Oxford's Broad Street

Death leading a pagan woman, painted plaster panel, 18th century

Part of a cycle of 40 related images, this intriguing panel painting is based on a 16th-century 'Dance of Death' scene. It was salvaged in 1937 from 46 Broad Street, Oxford and produced for Alderman William Fletcher (c.1738–1826) who lived at that address and a tenant and had antiquarian tastes. Not on display.

Study of two gourds, by Jean-Baptiste Huet, 1785

The number 1 inscribed on this drawing and the number 14 written on a watercolour of maize and wheat in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York (inv. no. 1992.2) suggest that they were part of a collection of botanical studies. Huet was a late classical French painter who excelled at representing rural life from a botanist’s perspective focusing on plants and flowers first. View by appointment in the Print Room.

Magician and witch illustration, 1700–1800

A bearded magician wearing a cloak and crowned with oak leaves sits astride an arrow beside a witch wearing a tall black hat riding a broomstick, both hovering in mid-air. This perfect Halloween scene, by an unknown artist, is executed in pen and black ink with brown and grey wash on white laid paper and dates to the 18th century. View by appointment in the Print Room.

In this large, allegorical engraving by the German printmaker Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528), we see a mounted knight in the foreground, while Death rides beside him clutching an hourglass. The Devil is on the right, behind the knight's horse, in the form of a grotesque animal. The knight is accompanied by a dog. A lizard lies beneath the horse's feet, and a skull sits on the tree-stump in the bottom left corner.

It's a finely-executed depiction of calm, steely resistance to evil and mortality. Dürer was probably influenced by the writings of his friend, the humanist philosopher Erasmus of Rotterdam.

Although the anatomical details distinguish the engraving as a masterpiece of naturalistic observation, it's arguably the fantastic elements that give the picture its power. John Ruskin used the engraving to make both moral and practical points in his teachings. It was presented by him to the Ruskin Drawing School and is now in the Ashmolean's print collection.

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View the print in the Western Art Print Room

Death from disease, famine or war was an ever-present reality in the 16th and 17th centuries. Memento mori rings (from the Latin ‘remember that you must die’) reminded the wearer of the brevity of life, and the need to prepare for death and the afterlife. The prospect of death served to emphasise the emptiness and fleetingness of earthly pleasures, luxuries and achievements.

This is the finest memento mori ring in the Ashmolean’s collection. Diamonds are set in the skull’s eye sockets and nose, and in the crossbones. These would have sparkled and flashed in the light, drawing attention to the ring’s macabre message.

The ring was presented to the Museum by C.D.E. Fortnum in honour of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897. It's one of the remarkable collection of over 800 rings, also by C.D.E. Fortnum. The collection was given to the Museum with the aim to help us become ‘an institution of the first importance for teaching and illustrating the development of art applied to both small and larger objects’.

On display in the Arts of the Renaissance, Rings Gallery, 56, 2nd floor.
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Guy Fawkes is said to have been carrying this iron lantern when he was arrested in the cellars underneath the Houses of Parliament on the night of 4–5 November 1605.

Fawkes and his conspirators planned to ignite barrels of gunpowder concealed under firewood in the cellar during the state opening of Parliament when the King, Commons and Lords would all have been present in the Lords’ Chamber – the aim of the ‘Gunpowder
Plot’ being to blow up the chamber and kill the Protestant King James I. Thanks to an anonymous warning, the cellars were searched, Fawkes was discovered and the plot failed.

The lantern measures 36.5cm tall and is on display in the Ashmolean Story Gallery 2, lower ground floor.

Find out how the lantern came to be in the Ashmolean's collection >

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In this lively woodcut illustration, English witches are making merry, the male dancers replaced by devils. Depictions of witchcraft confessions often included scenes of subverted domestic life and pastimes, such as dancing and drinking, as well as ideas from elite demonology.

The woodcut is from T.S. Norris's The History of Witches and Wizards, published in London in 1720. The illustrator is not known. By that time, there had been no executions in England for 40 years, and witch trials were already curiosities passing into folk memory.

The Ashmolean has a significant collection of witch and witchcraft Douce prints, of which this is one.

You can see this print and others by appointment in the Print Room.
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This expressive 80cm-high bronze figure by Feuchère, deep in brooding melancholy, epitomises the interests of the Romantic sculptors. When first exhibited at the Paris salon in 1834, it was described as 'a personification, with plenty of verve and ardour, of the evil genius at odds with being powerless'.

The bronze inspired numerous other sculptures throughout the 19th century, culminating with Rodin's 'Thinker' in 1902.

On display in the Pre-Raphaelites gallery 66, 3rd floor.
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There are several Japanese legends surrounding the evil 'earth spider' or 'tsuchigumo'. Here, the earth spider transfers magical powers to Prince Kurokumo to help him plot revenge on his enemy, the 10th-century warrior Minamoto no Yorimitsu (also known as Raikō). The tsuchigumo creature is basically a giant spider, though it is sometimes described as having the face of a demon and the body of a tiger.

'Tsuchigumo' has also referred to certain groups of people in ancient Japan, such as bandits and resistant leaders, who used guerrilla tactics. Many of these groups lived in hollow earthen mounds and may have used caves as hideouts. There is, however, ambiguity in the sources and it’s unclear if tsuchigumo was first used to refer to people or the monster.

This woodblock colour print is from a ghost series, Beauty and Valour in the Novel Suikoden' by the designer Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, dating to the Edo Period. The evil earth spider also features in another triptych in our Japanese print collection.

You can view this print and others by appointment.
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This ethereal, silk tsukesage (non-formal) kimono is dyed with a design of a female ghost who peers through the window of a house, floating above autumn grasses in a long white burial robe.

She is an example of a yūrei, a tormented ghost who remains among the living in order to seek revenge or take care of unfinished business.

Her pale face, wispy hair and dangling, bony hands express her misery. In Japan, ghost stories are associated with the hot and humid summer months, when a scary ghost story sends welcome shivers down the spine.

The kimono was recently acquired by the Museum.

Not on display
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Explore our ghost and demon prints in a previous online exhibition

Measuring about 6cm square, the top of this official ivory seal for Peking university is carved with two bats. The seal reads: Guoli Beijing daxue yanjiusuo guoxuemen, 'Research institute for the study of the cultural heritage of the Guoli University of Beijing'.

Contrary to their spooky associations in the West, in China, bats are symbols of good luck and happiness. The Chinese admiration for bats goes back to ancient times and the Chinese word for bat is ‘fu,’ pronounced the same as the word for good fortune.

This object is not on display.

Eric North Bequest
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This 20-cm high sculpture was made by ceramic artist Kate Malone, fashioned in stoneware and moulded as a pumpkin with a twisted stem. The underside has two air holes, is fired unglazed in a salt kiln and has caught salt vapours on its surface.

Describing her love of pumpkins, Kate says, 'it has a beautiful shape and it looks corporal like a bosom, a belly or something plump and juicy.' She has made many ceramic pumpkins, large and small, mostly glazed, making this a unique example.

Pumpkins are seen as good omens to ward off the evil spirits of Halloween, because they symbolise abundance at harvest time. The history of pumpkin carving, associated with a ghoulish figure called 'Jack O Lantern' - although popularised in America - goes back to the Celtic tradition. People used to place root vegetables, decorated with scary faces, on their doorsteps to frighten the devilish Jack away.

On display in the Sickert and his Contemporaries Gallery 63, third floor.
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