The blue ceiling studded with stars is called a ‘celure’, from the Latin ‘caelum’, meaning ‘heaven’. Painted in 2012, this celure shows the constellation Pleiades and was inspired by this biblical text: ‘Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades, or loose the cords of Orion?’ (Job 38.31).

By kind permission of the Vicar and Churchwardens, University Church of St Mary the Virgin, Oxford.

This rectangular alabaster relief depicts the agony of Christ in the garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26.36-46). In the foreground are the three Apostles fast asleep. Peter holds a sword, while the others are James and John. Above them Christ kneels with his hands held in prayer. On the rocky outcrop before him, you can see the lower stem of the chalice (now damaged). Behind Christ is Judas, holding a bag of silver and pointing out Christ to the soldiers following him.

Carved and worked alabaster. H 17.9cm x W 19cm

Image © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

This iron band is said to have been used to confine Archbishop Thomas Cranmer during his imprisonment in Oxford in the 1550s. Having played a key role in establishing the Church of England, Cranmer was convicted of heresy during Mary I’s reign and burnt at the stake in Oxford in 1556.

Image © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

The word 'Carfax' is derived from the Latin word for 'crossroads'. Built in the fourteenth century, Carfax Tower was originally the tower of the twelfth century City Church of St Martin. The church itself was demolished in 1900. The tower is all that remains and sports one of several cockerel-shaped weathervanes in Oxford. The weathervane dates from 1820.

High above Broad Street, Antony Gormley’s lone figure is ‘an attempt to bear witness to what it is like to be alive and alone in space and time’ (Gormley). And yet, in spite of its prominence, this figure stands on the margins, often unnoticed above the busyness of the street.

Cast iron. 191cm x 59cm x 36cm.

This Memorial Garden commemorates the fact that University's Botanic Gardens were established in 1621 on the site of Oxford's medieval Jewish Cemetery. The land had been purchased by Oxford's Jewish population around 1190 and had then been appropriated by the Hospital of St John in 1231. The land is now owned by Magdalen College. An ancient footpath linked this cemetery with the medieval Jewish quarter in the city. It was called 'Deadman's Walk'.

This painting imitates the style of Andrea Mantegna (c1431 - 1506), a significant figure in the Italian Renaissance. The composition employs familiar iconography from the passion narratives. Simon of Cyrene carries the cross alongside Jesus, his presence accentuating the heavy weight of the cross. On the right, a Roman soldier jeers at them.

Oil on canvas backed with another canvas. H 63 x W 77.8 cm.

Studio of Andrew Mantegna, Christ carrying the cross (JBS 74)

Reproduced by kind permission of the Governing Body of Christ Church, Oxford.

These baskets date from the early twentieth century and originate from West Africa. They are made using traditional techniques, which date back to antiquity.

Image © Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford

This silver cross from Albania was collected by the anthropologist and explorer, Edith Durham (1863-1944). Exhausted after spending years caring for her mother, she was prescribed travel by her doctor. From the age of 37, she spent 14 years regularly travelling to the Balkans, particularly to Albania, then considered a relatively undiscovered part of Europe. She wrote extensively about her travels in Albania, becoming an ardent advocate of freedom for the Albanian people, undertaking relief work and campaigning for the protection of minorities in the hope of a just and lasting Balkan peace. Image © Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford

The Menorah is the seven branched candlestick with cups made like almond-blossoms. Standing in the Jerusalem temple in front of the Holy of Holies, the place where God's presence dwelt, the Menorah became a kind of visible symbol of God's invisible presence. Roger Wagner's 'Menorah' invites an exploration of God's presence, drawing on the familiar local landscape, and the story of the crucifixion.

Oil on Canvas. H 157.4 x W 195.9cm.

Roger Wagner, 'Menorah’ (WA2009.174)

Image © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford.

The Light of the World (1851–53) is a painting by the English Pre-Raphaelite artist William Holman Hunt (1827–1910). It portrays the figure of Jesus preparing to knock on an overgrown and long-unopened door: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me" (Revelation 3.20).

Oil on canvas. H 121.9 x W 61 cm (PCF 24)

Reproduced by kind permission of the Warden, Fellows and Scholars of Keble College, Oxford.

From the end of the fourteenth century, artists began to combine the iconography of the Annunciation and the Crucifixion by depicting Christ crucified on a lily amid an Annunciation scene. The Lily Crucifixion is a distinctive and beautiful image found almost uniquely in English medieval art. The lily is the symbol of Mary and is often referenced in depictions of the Annunciation and in poetry about the Virgin. The Lily Crucifixion at St Michael-at-the-Northgate was also originally part of an Annunciation scene, although the other panels are now lost.

Reproduced by kind permission of the Rector and Churchwardens, The City Church of St Michael-at-the-Northgate, Oxford

Presented to the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology in 1869, this composition (oil on canvas) is a reworking of an earlier painting of 'The Deposition' by the Flemish artist, Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641). The earlier painting, now in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich), has been dated c.1615. This painting is generally dated c.1619 at about the time when he was working as an assistant to Rubens in Antwerp.

Oil on canvas. H 207cm x W 137cm.

Anthony van Dyck, The Deposition (WA1869.1)

Image © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

Lazarus by Sir Jacob Epstein (1880–1959) was installed in New College, Chapel in 1952. This is no sentimental resurrection. It shows Lazarus, awakened from death and struggling to free himself from the cloths that bind him (John 11.1-45).

Reproduced by kind permission of the Warden, Fellows and Scholars of New College, Oxford.