Art Curators versus Philosophers

I went to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford today, together with Francesca Minerva and Alberto Giubilini. On the plaque below this Roman bust it reads: The subject has a light beard and a long thick hair. It falls to his shoulders at the back but ends in a few straggling locks on the brow. The unfashionable long hairstyle suggests an intellectual figure – a philosopher or a sophist. Well, thank you, art curators at the Ashmolean!

museum