Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

Hi, my name is Robert Lammon. This is the Artifact, a short form series from Stuff to Blow Your Mind, focusing on particular objects, ideas, and moments in time. On a recent visit to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, I came across one of the weirder pieces of art I think you could hope to find in such a place. Alongside various historic pieces from around the world, here's something that seems to stand outside of any given artistic tradition, or so it seemed to me. It looks like the creature from John Carpenter's The thing was in the process of turning into an ox when the flamethrowers hit it. The result a googly eyed head of an ox atop a wooden pillar of twisting hooves and tissue. Granted, I was pretty jet lagged when I first took this side, literally struggling to stay awake on my feet, but this absurdity really captured my attention and woke me up a little bit. The museum's website lists it as head of an Ox, while the signage in the museum calls it head of an ox on a tree trunk. Indeed, this bizarre sculpture from the second half of the seventeenth century consists of an ox head carved from marble atop a tree trunk, with added wooden hoofs. If all of this was not enough, an oval cavity in the top of the ox head contains a wrinkled stone that for all the world looks like a fossilized or petrified brain. So what is this brain all about? Well, for a while, according to the museum and the museum piece by curator Don Hoskin, it was long believed to be the fossilized or petrified brain of an ox. Subsequent analysis, however, I think, chiefly by the Natural History Museum in nineteen thirty three, revealed that it was in fact an osteoma or benign bone tumor, likely previously attached to the bones of an elephant or whale. Given its enormous size still relative to the sculptal system they're attached to, an ostioma can grow quite large. According to a twenty eleven paper giant frontal osteoma by Vishwakarma, at all one human osteoma reached a size of seven point one by five point three by five point one centimeters are roughly two point eight by two by two inches, which they say is one of the largest human ostioma ever reported. The ostioma in the ox Head, however, is somewhat larger. As Hoskin explains in her article, the piece is typical of seventeenth century fascination with naturally occurring oddities, even if the naturally occurring centerpiece of the work was not fully understood at the time. While its origins are shrouded in mystery, the piece likely came from a collection of curiosities in Villa Altequro and Padua in northern Italy. The museum acquired the piece in Venice in eighteen eighty two. The piece is on display now, so if you find yourself in London, I do recommend popping over to the Victoria and Albert Museum, go spend a few moments with it and revel in the morbid natural curiosity of a bygone age. Tune in for additional episodes of The Artifact, the Monster Fact or Anamalia Stupendium each week in the Wednesday slot here and the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast feed. As always You can email us at contact at stuff to Blow your.

Hi, my name is Robert Lammon. This is the Artifact, a short form series from Stuff to Blow Your Mind, focusing on particular objects, ideas, and moments in time. On a recent visit to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, I came across one of the weirder pieces of art I think you could hope to find in such a place. Alongside various historic pieces from around the world, here's something that seems to stand outside of any given artistic tradition, or so it seemed to me. It looks like the creature from John Carpenter's The thing was in the process of turning into an ox when the flamethrowers hit it. The result a googly eyed head of an ox atop a wooden pillar of twisting hooves and tissue. Granted, I was pretty jet lagged when I first took this side, literally struggling to stay awake on my feet, but this absurdity really captured my attention and woke me up a little bit. The museum's website lists it as head of an Ox, while the signage in the museum calls it head of an ox on a tree trunk. Indeed, this bizarre sculpture from the second half of the seventeenth century consists of an ox head carved from marble atop a tree trunk, with added wooden hoofs. If all of this was not enough, an oval cavity in the top of the ox head contains a wrinkled stone that for all the world looks like a fossilized or petrified brain. So what is this brain all about? Well, for a while, according to the museum and the museum piece by curator Don Hoskin, it was long believed to be the fossilized or petrified brain of an ox. Subsequent analysis, however, I think, chiefly by the Natural History Museum in nineteen thirty three, revealed that it was in fact an osteoma or benign bone tumor, likely previously attached to the bones of an elephant or whale. Given its enormous size still relative to the sculptal system they're attached to, an ostioma can grow quite large. According to a twenty eleven paper giant frontal osteoma by Vishwakarma, at all one human osteoma reached a size of seven point one by five point three by five point one centimeters are roughly two point eight by two by two inches, which they say is one of the largest human ostioma ever reported. The ostioma in the ox Head, however, is somewhat larger. As Hoskin explains in her article, the piece is typical of seventeenth century fascination with naturally occurring oddities, even if the naturally occurring centerpiece of the work was not fully understood at the time. While its origins are shrouded in mystery, the piece likely came from a collection of curiosities in Villa Altequro and Padua in northern Italy. The museum acquired the piece in Venice in eighteen eighty two. The piece is on display now, so if you find yourself in London, I do recommend popping over to the Victoria and Albert Museum, go spend a few moments with it and revel in the morbid natural curiosity of a bygone age. Tune in for additional episodes of The Artifact, the Monster Fact or Anamalia Stupendium each week in the Wednesday slot here and the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast feed. As always You can email us at contact at stuff to Blow your.

Mind dot com.

Mind dot com.

Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.