omgthatartifact:

Transformation Mask

Richard Hunt, 1993

The Minneapolis Institute of Art

omgthatartifact:

Rattle

Haida, 19th century

The Royal Ontario Museum

zerogate:

Depiction of Christ’s tomb as a traditional Roman mausoleum; the three Marys look like Roman matrons; Christ rising from the dead to grasp his Father’s hand in heaven is depicted as a Roman heroic youth. c. 400 A.D.

stormwolves:

I think it’s important to have people who aren’t actors around you. You get a warped view if you stay in it for too long. […] I spent most of my life watching HBO series wishing at some point in my career I might be able to work with them and then having the opportunity so young is kind of awesome. I was trying to keep cool throughout the audition process, but it’s by far the biggest thing I’ve ever done. I’m a year out of drama school, so I’m very, very lucky. My character […] goes through the biggest journey possible. She starts off as this very submissive, exiled princess, then by the end she’s kicking ass. I’ll immerse myself so much into the character that I won’t have time to get starstruck.

omgthatartifact:

The Rubens Vase

Byzantine, 400 AD

The Walters Art Museum

“Carved in high relief from a single piece of agate, this extraordinary vase was most likely created in an imperial workshop for a Byzantine emperor. It made its way to France, probably carried off as treasure after the sack of Constantinople in 1204 during the Fourth Crusade, where it passed through the hands of some of the most renowned collectors of western Europe, including the Dukes of Anjou and King Charles V of France. In 1619, the vase was purchased by the great Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640). A drawing that he made of it is now in Saint Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum, inv. 5430. The subsequent fate of the vase before the 19th century is obscure. The gold mount around its rim is struck with a French gold-standard mark used in 1809-1819 and with the guarantee stamp of the French departement of Ain. A similar late Roman agate vessel, the “Waddesdon Vase” or “Cellini Vase,” in now in the British Museum, London.”

omgthatartifact:

Amuletic Armband with Holy Rider, Saints, and Magical Symbols

Byzantine, 6th-7th Century AD

The Walters Art Museum

“Originally made up of seven inscribed medallions, this armband demonstrates the intermixing of Christian, Jewish, and pagan imagery on an object of magical, medicinal purpose. Judging by the inscriptions, most armbands (made in Byzantine Syria and Egypt) were used to treat abdominal disorders.”

omgthatartifact:

Diptych with Circus Scenes

Byzantine, 5th century AD

The Hermitage Museum