Asian art (a preliminary account)

Asian

South Indian, 16th/17th-century: Krishna (granite). Presented by Rev.G.Newport 1883 (NGV 60-D1A) One of the more arresting early photographs of the Melbourne Public Library includes a particularly fascinating detail. Dimly visible in the background of the reading room (Queen’s Hall), presiding serenely over the carefully posed gentlemen at their desks, is a statue – not of Sir Redmond

Ancient art (a preliminary account)

Ancient

Samuel Calvert: Sculpture Gallery, Melbourne Public Library: wood engraving, published in The Illustrated Melbourne Post, 27 July 1866 (SLV) The hyperbole with which prominent local critic James Smith described the Melbourne Public Library’s new Sculpture Gallery when it opened in 1865 reveals both the classicizing aspirations underlying the new collection, and their obvious limitations: “Enough that