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Emperors' Heads
Emperors' Heads
Emperors' Heads
Emperors' Heads
Emperors' Heads
Emperors' Heads
Emperors' Heads
Emperors' Heads
Emperors' Heads
Emperors' Heads
Emperors' Heads
Emperors' Heads
Emperors' Heads
Emperors' Heads
Emperors' Heads
Emperors' Heads
Emperors' Heads
Emperors' Heads
Emperors' Heads
Emperors' Heads
Emperors' Heads
Emperors' Heads
Emperors' Heads
Emperors' Heads
Emperors' Heads
Emperors' Heads
Emperors' Heads
Emperors' Heads

© the copyright holder. Image credit: Dee Robinson / Art UK

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Notes

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The original 14 'Sheldonian Emperors' were commissioned by Sir Christopher Wren from 1662 to 1668, and carved by William Byrd, to go in front of the Sheldonian Theatre. Between 1679 and 1683 four more were added in front of the old Ashmolean Museum, now the Museum of the History of Science. These heads have been given many titles, 'Sages of Antiquity', the '12 Caesars', but it was Max Beerbohm in Zuleika Dobson who called them 'Emperors', and that has stuck. These are the third set of heads outside the museum, replacing the old ones in 1972. For this current set, Michael Black used Lincolnshire Clipsham stone, and the David Loggan engravings as his template. Loggan was the seventeenth-century public sculptor for the University of Oxford.
Title

Emperors' Heads

Date

1972

Medium

Clipsham stone

Measurements

H 120 x W 60 x D (?) cm (E)

Accession number

OX1_DR_S001

Acquisition method

commissioned by the University of Oxford

Work type

Bust

Owner

The Museum of the History of Science

Custodian

The Museum of the History of Science

Work status

extant

Listing status

Grade I (England and Wales)

Listing date

12/01/54

Access

at all times

Signature/marks description

initials on right shoulder: MB

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Located at

Broad Street, Oxford

OX1 3AZ

Surmounting four pillars outside the entrance to the Museum of the History of Science.