Melbourne Art Journal
Number 5 2001-2
Contents
Editorial: The Italians Exhibition
Joan Barclay Lloyd
Mary Queen of the Angels; Byzantine and Roman Images of the Virgin and Child
Enthroned with Attendant Angels
(Margaret Manion Lecture 2000)
This lecture considers depictions of the Virgin Mary enthroned, with the
Christ Child on her lap and accompanied by angels or saints, in Byzantine
and medieval Roman art. In such images both Mother and Son are shown in hieratic
frontal poses. Since the icon is said to derive from early representations
of the Adoration of the Magi, a few examples are first examined that are linked
to that iconography. This is followed by a consideration of images of the
Virgin and Child enthroned with attendant angels, which survive in Byzantine
art from the sixth to the twelfth century. Although these icons are similar
in composition, they often differ in important details, which enable a clearer
interpretation of their meaning and historical significance. The last part
of the paper discusses depictions of this theme in medieval Rome. While there
are some images which are very like those in the Byzantine world, there are
also some with significant variations. In particular, the Virgin Mary is often
represented in the gold or purple robes of a princess or queen, with elaborate
and regal jewellery. These Roman images of ‘Maria Regina’ are
considered in their historical, liturgical and doctrinal contexts. They culminate
in the vision of the Coronation of the Virgin in the late thirteenth-century
apse mosaic of S. Maria Maggiore.
Alison Inglis
‘The Queen of the South’: Archaeology and Empire in Edward J.
Poynter’s The Visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon
(Margaret Manion Lecture 2001)
ir Edward J. Poynter (1836–1919) considered his vast painting The
Visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon to be ‘the masterpiece of
his life’. Exhibited in London in 1890, it was subsequently purchased
by the Art Gallery of New South Wales. This lecture investigates the painting’s
history and the artist’s use of archaeological and orientalist sources,
and argues that the work would have had ‘Imperialist’ connotations
for its Victorian audience.
Merilyn Savill
The Triple Portrait of Pierre Bernard, Gérard Edelinck and Nicholas
de Largillière
This article argues that the debate at the Académie Royale de Peinture
et Sculpture over the status of its engraver members, motivated by Louis XIV’s
public recognition of the ownership by Gérard Edelinck, ‘graveur
du Roi’, of an engraving after a painting by Charles Le Brun, inspired
the triple portrait, The Artist in his Studio, by Nicolas de Largillière.
This portrait, while acknowledging the artistic status of the ‘graveur
du Roi’, also affirms his dependence on Le Brun as originating artist.
Paul Paffen
A Grand Illusion: Benjamin Duterrau and The Conciliation
Benjamin Duterrau’s The Conciliation (1840), which represents the
so-called ‘conciliation’ between Aborigines of the Big River and
Oyster Bay tribes and the European colonists, has been called ‘the first
history painting attempted in Australia’. This article argues that in
composing the painting Duterrau was guided by principles of taste that were
shaped by British views concerning history painting and British theories of
moral sentiment. Duterrau applied to his representation of Tasmanian Aborigines
expressions in keeping with principles of expression embodied in Raphael’s
tapestry cartoons to sustain British nationalist and aesthetic interests in
a colonial context. While the subject of the picture presents conciliation
as an historic fact, Duterrau’s treatment suppresses the fact that the
Tasmanian Aborigines were evicted from Van Diemen’s Land by a process
of intimidation rather than conciliation.
Iva Rosario
Josej Kucîk’s Sgraffito Murals in the Church of the Holy Trinity,
New Norcia
In 1967 the Benedictine community at New Norcia, Western Australia, commissioned
a large scale mural of the Stations of the Cross for the Church of the Holy
Trinity from the Czech-born artist, Josef Kucík (1912–1993).
This mural is unusual because it is executed in sgraffito and extends beyond
the traditional fourteen scenes to include supplementary pictures, some of
which are connected with the history of the Benedictine Order in New Norcia.
This article begins by outlining the nature and evolution of the sgraffito
technique in Kucík’s homeland, Czechoslovakia. After describing
the motivation and overall structure of the Stations of the Cross, it focuses
on five representative scenes from the cycle and analyses their structure,
style and their place in the iconographic program.
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