FRIGHTFUL STORIES

Satan sculpture detail showing the head and folded angel wings

FRIGHTFUL STORIES

Guy Fawkes Lantern, c. 1605

'Remember, remember, the 5th of November'... Guy Fawkes is said to have been carrying this iron lantern when he was arrested in the cellars under the Houses of Parliament on the fateful night of 4–5 November 1605. On display in the Story Gallery 2, lower ground floor.

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 currently in Bettina von Zwehl's exhibition in Gallery 8, open until May 2025.

The Earth Spider Conjures up Demons at the Mansion of Minamoto Raikō, 1843

The 10th-century Japanese warrior Raikō, seen on the far right of this triptych, has been overpowered by the evil magic of the vicious earth spider and has fallen into a dreamlike trance. The earth spider fills his dreams with ghosts and monsters while his retainers play a game of Go, unaware of the encroaching demons. The print was seen as a satire on the unpopular Tenpō reforms that were carried out in the 1840s: the sleeping Raikō could be interpreted as the current shogun and the ghosts as the suffering victims of his reforms. The government banned the print.

Spider-like creature, by Edward Coley Burne-Jones

Burne-Jones drew this spooky spider in one of many illustrated letters he sent to his closest female friend, May Gaskell, and her infant daughter, Daphne, in the 1890s. They are populated by caricatures of the correspondents, and real and fantastical animals, including hairy sprites with tails, pigs in poses, and invented creatures such as the 'phlumbudge'. The Gaskells shared Burne-Jones's love of fantasy, and there are even drawings on the traditional model of 'heads, bodies, legs' with contributions by Daphne. The spider, apparently blind, is one of many expressive doodles in these letters.

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.

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.

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

Werewolf

This werewolf print depicts the Beast of Gévaudan, a man-eating animal that was said to have terrorised the French province from 1764–1767 and killed over 100 people according to legend! Gévaudan was an ancient region located in the Margeride Mountains of south-central France. View by appointment in the Print Room.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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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This woodblock print was made by a French or Italian artist and dates to the 1720s. It’s a chiaroscuro woodcut printed in black, grey and silver, mounted on a board with a piece of knotted string at the front. It has traces of melted candle wax and shows signs of once having been fixed to a stick or pole, so it was most likely carried during a funeral procession.

Such images were probably once quite common at funerals. The skull and crossed bones - an emblem often found on old tombs and monuments - would have reminded those attending the funeral of their own mortality, acting as a Memento Mori. The flickering candlelight reflecting off the silver and white surfaces of the print would have looked quite ghostly, hinting at the horrors of Hell and decay.
Although several of these prints would have been produced, they were not the sort of object that would have been considered worth preserving, so most would have been discarded. This is the only known surviving example of an ephemeral funerary chiaroscuro print.

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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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On a narrow road, lit by a crescent moon, a terrified country estate worker is confronted by a sinister black silhouette with glittering eyes. He throws up his arms in horror, and falls from a placid white pony, flinging down his lantern and spade. His hair is erect with fear, and his hat has fallen off in his fright. He was just riding out in the dark to block up some foxholes, the night before a day's hunting - hence the spade. By blocking the foxholes while the foxes are out looking for prey, he is preventing them from being able to run 'to earth' during the next morning's hunt.

Taken by surprise at a sudden turn of the country lane, the poor 'gentle Swain' imagines that he is being confronted by nothing less than the Devil, when in fact the apparition is simply a chimneysweep with his arms folded. Standing directly in front of his donkey, the sweep - black with soot in the pitch dark - appears to have enormous ears.

This satirical illustration, an atmospheric hand-coloured etching with aquatint, was produced by printmaker Thomas Sutherland (1785-1838). An established aquatint engraver, he normally specialised in more serious sporting and military subjects, as well as topographical views.

On view by appointment in the Western Art 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 jūban (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.

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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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