"Masterpieces Of The British Museum" is a six episode documentary on art treasures in the British Museum. Fulmar Television & Film produced this series. Fulmar was a production company best known for its "Private Life Of A Masterpiece" documentary series. Over 10 years, from 2001 to 2011, that series had 19 50 minute long individual episodes usually covering a famous painting by a great artist e.g. "Census At Bethlehem" by Pieter Bruegel. So, when Fulmar produced its British Museum series in 2006, in went the word masterpiece in the title. Fulmar folded after 2011, no more documentaries or anything for BBC, channel 4 or itv.
Its 2006 "Masterpieces Of The British Museum" is Fulmar at its peak. Four out of the six 30 minute episodes in this series are really interesting to me: The Sutton Hoo Helmet; Dürer's Rhinoceros woodblock print; the Assyrian Lion Hunt Reliefs; and the Lewis Chessmen. I think the other two episodes on artwork, on the Ife King mask and the Aztec double-headed serpent, are put in for geographic balance, to show an African and ancient Mexican art object.
The Sutton Hoo Helmet episode describes the discovery of the 7th century ship burial site England, where excavators found beneath a mound a fabulous treasure horde featuring golden objects like scarf clasps looking brand new and also the many pieces of an iron helmet that, when put together, are a window to a lost world. The Assyrian Lion Hunt Reliefs are near life-size scenes of an Assyrian ruler, the scenes carved into alabaster wall panels stretching down the walls of two facing hallways in the museum. It is a wonder that these 2,600 year old reliefs survived in such great condition. Dürer's Rhinoceros print is one of many, even though the museum has a great copy. The Lewis Chessmen episode was interesting enough for me that I bought a replica set.
If you are a culture vulture like me, the back stories on the art objects in this British Museum documentary series are real interesting. Made 20 year ago, Masterpieces Of The British Museum has not dated at all.
