Simon Bralee

@simonbralee.com

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Advocate for arts and humanities. I believe in the importance of sharing the stories of research to create impact outside of universities. Comms professional and history postgrad researching Anubis in the Roman World. 🏛️🐍 He/him

A bronze figurine of a deity sat on a flowery throne. On her head a helmet with sphinx and feather. She holds a suggestive sceptre and globe.
Loose watercolour depicting the character of punch, a mature gent with prominent proboscis, sitting outside a country inn, like something from a Thomas Hardy novel, with his dog Toby. Punch points with his tankard to a hill figure of himself and said canine companion.
Reconstructed archaic period lion statue coloured with blue main and tail tip, yellowy-brown hide, on a red base.
Column from the Isis Temple in the Field of Mars (Iseum Campense) in Rome, with an image carved in relief of a man with a wreath on top of his (possibly bald) head, carrying a vase in the shape of an Isis Osiris, a drape from his hand shows he is holding the object with hands gloved in his linen robes.
A Roman period black diorite statue of a robed figure, with missing head, holding a vase with Egyptian patterns on it. These normally have a small bust of Osiris on them, but this one doesn't.
Ruins from Pompeii
Dedication slab from the National Roman Museum with relief depicting Sol Invictus, a young man with solar rays projecting from his head, and an old man with a beard identified as Jupiter Dolichenus. The bust of a small goddess with lunar crown is between them.
A large black stage beetle with prominent ‘antlers’
A life sized marble statue representing a human figure in a long robe. He has the fleshy chops of a young man with a well developed appetite. On his head an Egyptian style nemes wig and on his chest a decorative pectoral. A snake writhes around his body, resting their head on the top of his belly.
A small man in a a toga pours some incense on a flame burning in a metal brazier, in front of a large bronze coloured naked man, holding a massive golden coloured club with a lion skin is draped over his arm.
Archaeological site with a black and white mosaic depicting a ladder containing different symbols associated with Mithras. At the far end, the final box contains the name of the donator (Felicissimus), after whom the building is named.
A fragment of wall painting of a farmer leading two large oxen. Only the heads and front of one of the oxen are visible.
A small pyramid gleams in the sun, brick walls can be seen behind it. There is a large open road in front (the modern day Via Ostiense) riden by a classy Italian moped for two.
A finely rendered mosaic of a crocodile on a river bank, with flowers in the undulating waters behind
A marble sculpture of a sandalled foot, either side of the ankle are two small snakes. The one on the left is a woman, her head is now missing but a headpiece is just visible. The snake to the right depicts a bearded man with a headpiece.
Mummified remains of a dog or canid from Late Period to Ptolemaic Period Egypt. It is wrapped in decorative linen. The head is pained black and has large eyes and long erect ears resembling classic depictions of Anubis. From Turin’s Egyptian Museum.
Limestone statue of the normally fearsome Egyptian god Bes looking a little subdued and exhausted. From the Egyptian Museum in Turin.
A wall painting of the godess Isis-Fortuna leaning over a man trying to defecate between two snakes.
Copper alloy figurine of the god Harpocrates from the Roman Period, on display in the National Archaeological Museum Athens. He is a small child with his right finger to his mouth. He has cherubic curls and wears a stylised Pschent, the double crown of ancient Egypt.
A black and white grey marble bust of a bull’s head with white horns on one side and a ma wearing an Egyptian nemes wig on the other.
A clay vessel in the stylised shape of a pig with lines inscribed on back. A ceramic vase is reflected in the glass just in front of the pig.
Book cover of Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife by Francesca Wade.
A bronze statuette of a human-shaped person with a bulls head (solar disk between his resplendent horns). He holds his left arm aloft, a pose resembling images of Augustus and Zeus. In his right hand, he holds out a bowl. He wears Roman armour and sits on a throne.
Photograph of a man on a beach wearing trunks. He has the bronzed godlike body of Ray Winstone in Sexy Beast. He wears a fearsome and detailed bull mask on his head.
A weathered statue of a crouching human. Long stands of hair are visible falling in the shoulders.
A small bronze statuette of a bull with an Egyptian style crown between his horns.
A Latin inscription carved on a gritstone tablet and painted with red text. The translation reads “To the holy god Serapis, Claudius Hieronymianus, legate of the Sixth Legion, Victorious, built this temple from the ground".
A contemporary portrait of Mary Toft, wearing a bonnet and 18th century clothes, with a cute rabbit on her lap.
A steatite black statuette of a dog of the mastiff family, resembling an XS Bully, with a light anxious mien. Covered in cuniform writing.
An oil painting of the Battle of Actium by Lorenzo A. Castro, depicting a stylised sea battle with early modern ships. (Public Domain)
The figure head of a long necked bird, possibly a black swan or Cormorant, at the stern of a wooden ship. It’s head in upside down with a goobery look on its face.
A black and white mosaic of a sailing ship. A swan figure can be seen at the stern of the ship.
A screenshot of CNN Politics with the headline’Donald Trump defends size of his penis’.
A marble statue of a bearded man. His eyes have a piercing stare emphasised by indentations where the pupils would go, possibly containing a stone or glass in antiquity.
A sculpture of a cruel self entitled boy tormenting a goose by pulling at its neck. The boy fights back with terror in its eyes.
A lead votive plaque with an image of Mercury wearing a winged helm and holding the caduceus, symbol of heralds.
A small cat shaped book with an intricate pen portrait of a cheeky anthropomorphic cat surrounded by arcane scripts and scribblings.
A painting of a cat sat at a picnic table laden stood on grass and with glistening glasses of golden beers.
A neo-classical portico with eau-de-nil colour illuminations of Egyptian gods taken from a funerary content, including Anubis, Isis and Nephthys. Where the god Osiris would normally be located in this kind of image there is instead an ankh, the symbol for life. This is art of great power and mystery.
A clay pot with a vaguely owl-like head with beak and eyes. It has a round body with handles which are positioned where the wings or arms would go and two domes positioned to resemble stylised breasts, which might suggest it’s not a bird or not just a bird.
A bronze statuette of the god Mercury wearing a winged helmet and holding a money pouch. He is mounted in a museum, part of the Museum of the Docklands Mudlarking exhibition.
A gold coin depicting a bull with bearded human face. Greek letters at the top of the coin spell out Gelas.
A black stone head with curly hair and beard intricately carved out. Upon his head, a calathos, the holy grain-weight of the god Serapis.
A bronze mould in the shapes of a pig side on.
A small bronze figurine of a crouching pig.
A relief carving on a square stone block depicting a colossal, monolithicesque human figure facing head on. Its belly contains a tumbling figures and another human figure with hands on head resembling a scarab beetle.
A fragmentary mould-made lamp, depicting a bust of the gnarly bearded god Sarapis emerging from a lotus leaves, flanked by a crescent-moon and star or sun.
A small bronze unpainted figurine of a standing woman. On her head an elaborate crown consisting of a horned solar headdress topped with two (ostrich) feathers. In her right hand she holds a steering oar, symbolising her patronage of sailors and her role as a guide over humans. In her left hand she holds two cornucopias or possibly torches.
A small terracotta figurine of a naked buff man carrying a large furry creature on his shoulders. It is held on a wooden plaque which states ‘SATYR CARRYING A GOAT. Presented by Rev GJ Chester, 1878’. The object is similar to other images from antiquity of figures carrying a ram on their shoulders (criophoroi).
RIBA award winning Rainham Riverside picnic shelter in front of a large factory.
Goodreads quote from Peter Carey’s Oscar and Lucinda “Theophilus Hopkins was a moderately famous man. You can look him up in the 1860 Britannica. There are three full columns about his corals and his corallines, his anemones and starfish. It does not have anything very useful about the man. It does not tell you what he was like. You can read it three times over and never guess that he had any particular attitude to Christmas pudding.”
Two terracotta figurines in the British Museum. At the back, a woman is sat on a seat, possibly a throne. She holds a child in her lap, who wears a large cone hat. At the front, a smaller figurine of a standing woman who holds a simplified baby to her body.
A lead-glazed Staffordshire ceramic painted in enamels depicting a tiger mauling the head of a man. While his body is cat-like, the tigers stripes are very stylised and his head is similar to contemporary depictions of bears. The man wears an officers red coat. His pose recalls scenes of the “good death” of classical art. Flowers have been painted on the base of the object.
As We Were by EF Benson. Book cover has a coloured illustration of a large rambunctious episcopal Victorian family.
A delft bowl with a large rim which had a large semi circular cut. It is decorated in blue with images of scissors, combs and various other items and the words ‘Myn iaer is om’, my hair is over?
A marble statue of a baboon. On his head a round lunar crown containing a snake. He gives a weary look. He holds a scroll in his hand.
An ornately decorated small sled. At the front, a mermaid wearing classical armour with fish tail. Two swans decorate the front of the seating area.
A stone relief from the Allard Pierson Museum depicting a labyrinthine shale surrounding a central pool of water, full of fish and a large crocodile.
Bronze statuette of a ram headed humanoid wearing Roman cuirass and tunic. On his head is a traditional Egyptian feathered atef crown. His right hand is stretched out. His clothes and pose recalls the Augustus of Prima Porta statue.
A copper alloy ewer in the shape of a lion with well defined mane. On his back there’s a crescent shape on which a female figure sits. She is tiny compared to the lion.