After a morning at the Cambridge Botanic Gardens, we visited the Fitzwilliam Museum. I got all arty the moment I saw the window light. The Roman head is of Antinous, a lover of the emperor Hadrian, who drowned in Egypt in mysterious circumstances aged about twenty. Einstein was sculpted in 1933 by Jacob Epstein; Albert was then in an army camp near Cromer as a refugee from Nazi Germany - he and Jacob were the same age. The second bust is of the actress Oriel Ross (real name Muriel Mary Swinhead) who was one of Epstein's menage of wives, mistresses and camp followers. Finally there is Stanley Spencer's 1935 self-portrait, looking very like Paul McCartney. Spencer had resigned from the Royal Academy after a difference of opinion with the Hanging Committee and painted this portrait to assert the fact that he was still an artist, defending himself with his palette (a shield) and his brush (a sword). He rejoined the R.A. in 1950 and was quickly elected an Academician.
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