Roman fine dining: Mildenhall Great Dish

This sumptuous object is not just one of the most beautiful works of art that survive from Britain. It makes my top 10 of all the works in this series. More than a thousand years before artists like Rubens painted scenes from myth for British clients, a Roman British family dined off this incredible silver banqueting dish with its exquisite portrayals of Bacchus the wine god, a drunken Hercules, lusty satyrs and dancing nymphs. It is stupendous
Illustration: Photograph: Trustees of the British Museum