Sutton Hoo Helmet is a 2002 sculpture by the English artist Rick Kirby. A representation of the Anglo-Saxon helmet of the same name found in the Sutton Hoo ship-burial, it was commissioned by the National Trust to hang outside the Sutton Hoo visitor centre. Together with the centre, the sculpture was unveiled by Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney on 13 March 2002. Weighing 900 kg (2,000 lb), it is 1.8 m (5.9 ft) high, 1.2 m (3.9 ft) wide and 1.6 m (5.2 ft) deep. It is made of mild steel plates that are coloured red. Designed to have a "fierce presence", it is inspired by the fragmentary appearance of the reconstructed helmet rather than the glistening replica made by the Royal Armouries. Steel is Kirby's favoured medium, allowing the sense of scale and dramatic impact found in Sutton Hoo Helmet. The sculpture is illustrative of Kirby's largely figural body of work, and its mask-like quality has been repeated in subsequent pieces.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sutton_Hoo_Helmet_%28sculpture%29
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1697:
The Peace of Ryswick was signed between France and the Grand Alliance, ending the Nine Years' War. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_of_Ryswick
1944:
Second World War: Allied forces captured San Marino from the German Army. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_San_Marino
1973:
Billie Jean King defeated Bobby Riggs (both pictured) in straight sets at the Astrodome in Houston, Texas, in an internationally televised tennis match dubbed the "Battle of the Sexes". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Sexes_%28tennis%29
2006:
The Real Irish Republican Army carried out a rocket launcher attack on the headquarters of MI6 in Vauxhall, London, but the building suffered little damage and there were no casualties. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_MI6_attack
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
missing in action: 1. (chiefly military) The designation for a member of an organization (usually military) with whom contact is lost and whose whereabouts are not known, but whose death is not confirmed. 2. (by extension) Not present when one is expected to be. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/missing_in_action
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
History is full of stories, full of triumph and tragedy and battles won and lost. It is the people who speak to me, the men and women who once lived and loved and dreamed and grieved, just as we do. Though some may have had crowns on their heads or blood on their hands, in the end they were not so different from you and me, and therein lies their fascination. I suppose I am still a believer in the now unfashionable "heroic" school, which says that history is shaped by individual men and women and the choices that they make, by deeds glorious and terrible. --George R. R. Martin https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_R._R._Martin