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Memorial fund buys rare Greek painting for Museum of Antiquities

August 09, 2005

HorsleyKourou.thumb.JPGThe University of New England’s Museum of Antiquities has bought an outstanding work of classical Greek painting with money donated by members of the community.

UNE’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Ingrid Moses, unveiled the painted plate at a ceremony last Friday [5 August]. During the ceremony, Nota Kourou, Professor of Archaeology at the University of Athens, explained the political and cultural context of the painting.

The plate, painted at Athens in the 5th century BC, was acquired in London both as a memorial to Mrs Irene McCready, a major benefactor of the Museum of Antiquities who died in 2003, and in commemoration of the 50th anniversary (in 2004) of UNE’s autonomy.

Professor Michael Macklin, Dean of UNE’s Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, said that many people (including some from inter-State and overseas) had contributed to the memorial fund. Some of them were present at the ceremony. Professor Moses commented on the community’s affection and regard for the Museum of Antiquities, and congratulated the members of the Museum Committee on their stewardship of the collection.

Professor Kourou (who was visiting UNE as part of a lecture tour of Australian universities for the Australian Archaeological Institute in Athens) explained that the plate had been painted during the time that Athens was being rebuilt after the Persian Wars (490-478 BC). As part of the rebuilding process, she said, the city had commissioned large murals, some of them dealing with Athenian victories over the Persians. Painters on vases and plates, inspired by these murals, had taken isolated figures and incidents from them as themes for their own work. Descriptions of the long-vanished murals in ancient Greek literature had enabled scholars to link them with some surviving paintings (in what is called the “early free style”) on vases and plates. There was probably such a link, she explained, between the UNE plate and a mural depicting the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC. In that case, the female figure on the plate would represent a priestess of Athene performing a ritual before the battle to ensure the success of the Athenians.

“It’s a rare scene,” Professor Kourou said. (She noted that there was a similar scene on a plate now in Rome’s Villa Julia.) She pointed out that the plate, with two small holes on its rim to enable it to be hung, had been intended as a wall decoration. “The painter was a talented artist,” she said. “It’s an excellent piece of work and you should be congratulated for acquiring it.”

This latest acquisition by the Museum is on display. The Museum of Antiquities is housed in the Arts Building at the University, and admission is free. It is open on weekdays from about 9 am to 4.30 pm.


Media contact: Professor Greg Horsley, School of Classics, History and Religion, UNE (02) 6773 2390 or Jim Scanlan, Public Relations, UNE (02) 6773 3049.

The photograph displayed here, showing UNE’s Professor Greg Horsley and Professor Nota Kourou from Athens, taken in UNE’s Museum of Antiquities with the newly-acquired plate in the background, is at:
http://photodatabase.une.edu.au/albums/incoming/2005/monthly/August/Horsley%20Kourous%20.JPG

Posted by Jim Scanlan at August 9, 2005 11:52 AM