This piece is typical of the Rinpa style of painting. The Rinpa School emerged in Kyoto in the early 1600s and is distinctive for its dramatic compositions and bold use of gold and colours.

🍁🍃Screen with autumn and winter flowers, Watanabe Shikō (1683 - 1755). EA1970.175

He described this picture as 'a study of a magnificent curved staircase and balustrade, leading to a grand façade that would reduce a millionaire to a worm'.

See this piece on display in Gallery 65 on Level 3M.

☀️ A balustrade, John Singer Sargent, 1906. WA1929.7

As planes took to the air during the First World War, the world was being seen from entirely new angles, inspiring artists to experiment and to depict landscape in unexpected ways.

In this work by Christopher Nevinson the abstract patchwork of fields is laid out under the wing of a military aircraft, the sharp angles of the composition emphasising the dizzying height of the plane.

This example was made c.1890 and measures just 4cm high.

See it on display in Gallery 37 on Level 2.

🍁 Ojime, c.1890. EAX.11265

Seihō was one of the founders of the Nihonga 'Japanese painting' style, which combined traditional Japanese subjects and materials with European artistic techniques and conventions.

🐦 Painted and embroidered screen depicting a group of sparrows, Seihō Takeuchi (1864 - 1942), 1910–1920. EA2013.35.a

Several versions of the Sumerian King List have survived, but this is the most complete and best-preserved King List ever discovered.

See the Sumerian King List in Gallery 19 on Level G.

📜 Sumerian King List, 2000–1800 BCE, Larsa, Sumer (modern Iraq). Clay, 20 x 9.1 cm. AN1923.444

These fantastical kings are followed by legendary kings of the distant past and those known from historical documents. Unusually, some of these earlier rulers include a shepherd, a fisherman, and a leatherworker – even a female tavern-keeper is said to have been king!

The list is not factual as we would understand it, but a combination of myth, legend and historical information.

The list begins in a mythical time and some kings are alleged to have reigned for over 20,000 years.

📷 Untitled poster, Stanley Donwood & Thom Yorke, 1997 © Stanley Donwood & Thom Yorke
📓 Notebook pages featuring 'Police Head', Thom Yorke & Stanley Donwood, 1996–98 © Thom Yorke & Stanley Donwood
🎵 OK Computer album cover, Thom Yorke & Stanley Donwood, 1997 © 1997 XL Recordings Ltd