Coloured by hand

Art. Culture. Antiquities. Natural history. Issue 15 November 2016 Building our future A word from the Director As readers of previous issues of MUSE will be aware, we are planning to bring together the collections of the Nicholson and Macleay museums and the University Art Gallery into the new Chau Chak Wing Museum, which is scheduled to open at the end of 2018. In this issue of MUSE we relect on the histories of the museums and the changes they have undergone over the past century. The museum project has received a welcome boost with a $5 million grant from the Ian Potter Foundation, one of Australia’s leading philanthropic foundations. This brings the total philanthropic funding for support of the new museum to $22.25 million. The new museum will triple the exhibition area as well as provide new study spaces for object-based learning across faculties. There will be many surprises for visitors as we reveal previously unseen items in the collections. The exhibition galleries of the Macleay Museum and University Art Gallery close on November 25 to allow staff to research and plan the suite of new exhibitions for the Chau Chak Wing Museum. The Nicholson Museum will remain open through to mid 2018 and will host programs of all three collections during the construction period. David Ellis Director, Museums and Cultural Engagement This is your last chance to see the galleries as they are now conigured. Floating time is the last exhibition the University Art Gallery will present in its current location, and both gallery and exhibition close on November 25. From the collections, an exhibition of a diverse selection of items from the Macleay collections will continue until 25 November. David Ellis, photograph by Martin Ho Sydney University Museums Comprising the Macleay Museum, Nicholson Museum and University Art Gallery Open Monday to Friday, 10am to 4.30pm and the irst Saturday of every month, 12 to 4pm Closed on public holidays. General admission is free. Become a fan on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. Sydney University Museums Administration +61 2 9351 2274 +61 2 9351 2881 (fax) university.museums@sydney.edu.au Education and Public Programs To book a school excursion, an adult education tour or a University heritage tour +61 2 9351 8746 museums.education@sydney.edu.au Macleay Museum Macleay Building, Gosper Lane (off Science Road) +61 2 9036 5253 +61 2 9351 5646 (fax) macleay.museum@sydney.edu.au Nicholson Museum In the southern entrance to the Quadrangle +61 2 9351 2812 +61 2 9351 7305 (fax) nicholson.museum@sydney.edu.au University Art Gallery War Memorial Arch, the Quadrangle +61 2 9351 6883 +61 2 9351 7785 (fax) ann.stephen@sydney.edu.au sydney.edu.au/museums MUSE edited by Candace Richards. Produced by Marketing and Communications, the University of Sydney, October 2016. 16/5946 ISSN 1449-0420 ABN 15 211 513 464 CRICOS 00026A Forest Stewardship Council (FSC®) is a globally recognised certiication overseeing all ibre sourcing standards. This provides guarantees for the consumer that products are made of woodchips from well-managed forests and other controlled sources with strict environmental, economical and social standards. In this issue 16 Garden views Extraordinary photographs reveal the evolution of Sydney’s Royal Botanic Garden as it reaches a major milestone. 26 String theory A painting of a cellist in the University collection makes a provocative connection between art and music. 20 A taste of chocolate We revisit a deliciously named Bronze-Age pottery type from the site of Pella in Jordan, hinting at certain hopes for an afterlife. 29 Weapon of choice We trace the provenance of a replica sword in the Nicholson Museum to an unconventional religion. 22 Coloured by hand Professor Abercrombie Lawson was not just a brilliant botanist; his exquisite hand-drawn slides reveal an artist’s eye. 02 Down memory lane In 1989, a ire in the Quadrangle threatened the Nicholson Museum. We review some little known moments in its history. 24 From ear to eternity Two students cataloguing bone fragments from the Jericho collection have made an unexpected discovery. 06 Beyond the shoebox As the Art Gallery shoebox comes to an end, we look at a few treasures and our favourite shows since it opened in 1959. 32 Medicine meets museums Our budding doctors are learning how detailed observation of art can boost their visual diagnostic skills. 10 If this wall could talk The University of Sydney is rich with intriguing architectural detail, not least the façade of the Macleay Museum. 34 Making history All the news on University of Sydney Museums: talks, acquisitions, VIP visits, new staff, comings and goings. 13 The face of Osiris What happens when we die? The Ancient Egyptians were fascinated with the afterlife, embodied in the god Osiris. 36 Find your muse For your diary: everything that’s coming up at Sydney University Museums. Above: View of the Nicholson Museum, 1940s-50s. See story on page 2 From the cover: Landscape labelled ‘Alsophilia australis’, attributed to Lawson, HP90.35.312 (this is the rough tree fern, now Cyathea australis). See story on page 22. 1 Above: JW Power, Apollon et Daphné, 1929, oil on canvas, Edith Power Bequest 1961, the University of Sydney, managed by Museum of Contemporary Art, PW1961.86. See story on page 6. Down memory lane – The Nicholson Museum has undergone many changes in its 156-year history. Dr Ted Robinson relects on some surprising highlights. 2 Fig 1 (opposite): View of the Nicholson Museum, 1940s-50s Fig 2 (above left): View of the Nicholson Museum, 10 April 1984; pictured centre, Dipylon Krater (NM46.41) Fig 3 (above right): View of the Nicholson Museum in the aftermath of the 1989 fire With the Nicholson Museum about to experience a seismic shift through its move to a new, purpose-built University Museums building, it’s worth relecting on its recent past. Few will recall the museum as it was up until the late 1990s, but in many ways the changes to its appearance and functions over the past 11 years were as dramatic as those that are likely to come in its new home. Having worked as an assistant at the Nicholson from 1985 to 1996, then joining the Department of Archaeology, I’ve had a front-row seat. In the late 1940s and 1950s, the museum was a crowded space (Fig 1). Ancient objects and casts were extensively used in teaching in the Department of Archaeology (established 1948), and exciting new objects continually poured into the collection. The Second World War brought a lot of antiquities onto the market from old collections in inancial distress, and British teams (especially in the Near East) could still send a portion of the antiquities they excavated to the Commonwealth universities that helped fund their excavations. A great deal of undergraduate teaching took place in the museum, and showcases tended not to be locked, to facilitate teaching access. 3 This eventually changed after a number of thefts, most notably of Bronze Age jewellery from the British excavations at Tell el-Ajjul on the Gaza Strip. The Nicholson Museum had always been curated by a professor, initially of Classics and later of Archaeology. The early 1960s was a period of major staff changes and saw the arrival of Alexander Cambitoglou as Professor of Archaeology and honorary curator of the Nicholson Museum. The Museum’s display area was immediately transformed. The sandstone walls and leadlight windows were covered, and all casts were taken off display: only authentic objects were to be displayed in the ‘modern’ Nicholson Museum. This display had essentially remained unchanged for two decades when I arrived in 1985 (Fig 2), although a Lower Gallery had been set up underneath the present display area. This should have extended the space people could visit but, at the last minute, the staircase that was proposed from the main galleries was found to contravene ire-safety regulations and was never constructed. In the 1980s and 1990s, the Nicholson Museum had a full-time conservator and a full-time attendant, one of whose jobs was to remove all the objects from one showcase every day to dust it, and to clean smudged glass throughout the museum. An inspection was held most mornings to ensure every object had been replaced with geometric precision. More rarely, Professor Cambitoglou would arrive with a white-cotton glove for a snap check of dust levels on top of the showcases. and it looked very much as if the museum would burn down. I could think of nothing else to do but unlock every case and co-opt anyone who happened to be standing around to carry the entire contents of the museum over to the Great Hall. Although the School Education Program began in those years, the museum was a much quieter place than today, being used mainly for research and undergraduate teaching. Once the ire was out, everything was carried back again (Fig 3) and not a single object was damaged (apart from some old glued joins that had come apart), and nothing went missing. One very valuable Greek bronze statuette of a horse (Fig 4) could not be located – a week later a colleague returned it after discovering it in the pocket of his coat. Some important publications appeared, such as Classical Art in the Nicholson Museum (1990), in which 25 eminent scholars produced chapters on signiicant objects in the collection. Excitement was not a word you’d associate with the museum in those days, with one or two odd exceptions. On a sleepy Wednesday afternoon in March 1989, an arsonist set ire to the southeastern corner of the Quadrangle, The Friends of the Nicholson Museum, a large and active group today, had its genesis in those years. The main annual fundraising event was the Nicholson Museum Concert, held in the Great Hall and featuring Musica Viva’s headline international touring group each year. The president during my time was 4 Fig 4: Bronze figurine of a horse, mid 8th century BC, Greece, NM86.10 Fig 5: Red figure skyphos, 325–310BC, Apulia, Italy, NM95.16 Lady Gwen Cassidy, a formidable, robust yet genteel and funny woman, a captain’s pick that no one would object to. She was held in such esteem that a ine Apulian red igure skyphos featuring a female acrobat was purchased for the museum at the end of her presidency (Fig 5). The Friends of the Nicholson group raised money principally for the purchase of antiquities – few of the things bought in those days would have been possible under the much more rigorous acquisitions policy of today. The museum’s minimalist, object-rich and explanation-poor display was ripe for change in the new millennium, and I have been astonished and delighted by all the exhibitions, publications, lectures and other events that have taken place in the past 11 years during the curatorship of Michael Turner. 5 Tastes are constantly changing, as is orthodoxy in museum display. I was interested to see that the recent Death Magic exhibition adopted a more minimalist style of display. I await with interest the new University Museum, and look forward to training the next generation of archaeologists with objects from the Nicholson’s amazing collections. Dr Ted Robinson is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Archaeology and former assistant at the Nicholson Museum. Beyond the shoebox – As we prepare for our new museum, it’s the end of an era for the beautiful but small University Art Gallery, known as the ‘shoebox’. Dr Ann Stephen sketches its history. The University Art Gallery was conceived in the 1920s by University architect Leslie Wilkinson as a bridge from the neo-Gothic Quadrangle to be grafted onto the Macleay Museum. However, it was not constructed until the early 1950s by the then Dean of Architecture, H. Ingham Ashworth, with funds from the Centenary Appeal to commemorate those who died in the Second World War, hence its original name, the War Memorial Gallery. Approached via a circular staircase, the interior with its wonderful barrel-vaulted ceiling was described by the late Trevor Howells, in his guide to the University’s architecture, as “decorated by charmingly detailed plaster strap work, its attenuated form from the hand of Ashworth”. Fig 1: J W Power, Tête (Head) 1931–32, oil on canvas, PW1961.87 Edith Power Bequest 1961, the University of Sydney, managed by the Museum of Contemporary Art It fell to Allan Gamble, a former lecturer in architecture, to run the gallery from 1959, and to hold the irst Australian exhibition of JW Power’s paintings (one example is Fig 1) shortly after the announcement of Power’s remarkable gift to the University in 1961. 6 Fig 2: Jeffrey Smart, Coogee Baths – Winter, 1961, oil on canvas, UA1976.57, donated through the Alan Richard Renshaw bequest 1976 By 1972, the gallery had reverted to an ofice until an appeal was mounted to refurbish and, with the assistance of the Chancellor’s Committee, architect Peter Tonkin undertook a modest renovation. In 1995, it was reopened by then Chancellor Dame Leonie Kramer. Since then, the gallery has functioned continuously for three decades with four successive curators and six assistant curators who have mounted more than 70 exhibitions. The gallery initially opened just three days a week, but since 2000 our wonderful volunteers have kept the doors open ive days a week. The exhibition program has drawn on the University’s great benefactions, with artists such as Lloyd Rees and Jeffrey Smart (Fig 2) from the Renshaw bequest among perennial favorites. More recently, the gift of Roddy Meagher’s magniicent collection (Fig 3, over page) was celebrated in several exhibitions: Consuming passions focused on his modernist works, including many by Grace Cossington Smith; and Fugitive Forms and Grand Designs was a 7 selection of his European drawings from the 16th century to the 19th century. Asian cultures have been a recurring theme in the program. In 1998, under the guidance of curator Pam Bell, Modern Japanese Prints drawn from the Morrissey Bequest celebrated a generous bequest in memory of Arthur Sadler, Professor of Oriental Studies, who had taught Morrissey. Japanese prints from the bequest have been shown in four subsequent exhibitions, most notably in 2011 in Japan in Sydney: Professor Sadler & modernism, 1920–30s, which examined the role played by Sadler in stimulating exchanges between Australian modernists and Japanese culture. In 1999, when Sioux Garside became curator, she invited then Associate Professor John Clark to extend the Morrissey bequest to acquisitions of Chinese prints, which created an international exhibition exchange between China’s Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, Sydney College of the Arts at the University of Sydney, and the gallery. Fig 3: Roddy Meagher at home, photograph © Michael Myers 2009 The collection also formed the basis for our inal exhibition in the old space, Floating Time, which chronicled how Chinese artists responded to their country’s political and cultural upheaval over the late 20th century. The gallery has fostered collaborations between art historians and students at the Power Institute, notably Professor John Clark, Professor Mark Ledbury, Dr Stephen Whiteman, Dr Donna West Brett, Dr Georgina Cole, Minerva Inwald, Bingqing Wei and Dr Clare Veal. Several of our scholarly catalogues have also been published by the Power Institute, some with the support of the Chancellor’s Committee, and four have won prestigious awards. In recent times, exhibitions have taken a contemporary direction with solo shows: Narelle Jubelin: Vision in Motion, featuring the University’s own modernist architecture; and Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook: The Village and Elsewhere, which included video installations by the Thai artist. Some have become popular touring exhibitions, including those that have traced little known avant-garde histories such as Mirror Mirror: then and now, that examined how mirrors have been used by artists across a spectrum of international art movements (Fig 4, opposite page). Then there was 1969: The Black Box of Conceptual Art, a reconstruction of the irst exhibition of conceptual art in Australia. Our exhibitions have marked important anniversaries. For instance, Freedom Riders took the 1965 Freedom Ride as an historic framework for works by six contemporary Aboriginal artists and the late Robert Campbell Jr. We celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Power Bequest in 2012 with four exhibitions, including Atelier Paris, showcasing the work of Australian artists at the Power Cité studio residency in Paris. Other exhibitions highlighted the Power collection’s Latin American and German strengths. A reconstruction of JW Power’s 1934 solo exhibition in Paris gained extended life in partnership with the National Library of Australia. In 2015, a program of six exhibitions of women’s art marked the 40th anniversary of International Women’s Year: ranging from Girls at the Tin Sheds: Sydney feminist posters 1975–90 to three solo exhibitions including mid-career Sydney artists Mikala Dwyer, Barbara Campbell and Jacky Redgate; a group show entitled Reparative aesthetics: Rosângela Rennó and Fiona Pardington; and a group show from the Power bequest, Women in Power. When Dwyer painted a dazzling mural in the gallery’s spiral stairwell it was like a small shockwave in the Quadrangle. With the new museum, our art collections and artists will inally have the space to challenge and inspire future generations. Ann Stephen is Senior Curator, University Art Gallery. 8 Fig 4: Installation view: Mirror Mirror: then and now, 2010 University Art Gallery: exhibition history in the War Memorial Arch 1995 – Oficially reopened, October – – Stars from the collection – 1996 – Aboriginal Paintings – A survey – – Old Master Drawings – – Town and Gown: Images of Australian Identity – – Modern Japanese prints – – Lloyd Rees paintings – 1997 – Egyptian exhibition – – Jeffrey Smart in context – – Cazneaux at the University – – Norman Lindsay/Ned Kelly – 1998 – Face – – Modern Japanese Prints – – Beyond China – 1999 – Phidia’s Way: Jeffrey Smart – 2000 – Stones of learning – – Contemporary prints from China – – Peter Callas – Um Novo Tempo (A new time) – 2001 – Paintings in stone: Quadrangle Medallions by Deborah Beck – – Alfred Coffey – – Old Master drawings and prints, 17-19th centuries – 2002 – Botanica – – Power Play – The art of JW Power – – New Chinese prints – – Beauty and the Beast - The art of James Gleeson 1938-1958 – – Celebration of the Sesquicentenary – 2004 – New Gifts to the Art Collection – – Horses for Courses - the art of Suzanne Archer – – Sightseeing from Beijing – – Fire Dreaming – 2010 – Mirror Mirror: then and now – – Kent State: four decades later – – China and revolution: history, parody and memory in contemporary art – – Exposed: Art and the naked body – 2005 – Donald Friend – Friends and lovers – – Imaging the apple – – Kinetic: the art of Ralph Balson, Grace Crowley, Rah Fizelle and Frank Hinder – – The Phantasmagorical Grid: Justin Trendall and the inluence of Giovanni Battista Piranesi – – Fortuna: Art, collecting and benefaction – 2011 – Japan in Sydney: Professor Sadler & modernism, 1920-30s – – Freedom Riders: Art and activism 1960s to now – – Jeffrey Smart: Unspoken – 2006 – Leslie Wilkinson in Europe 1904–06 – – Water Dreaming – – Strange Matters – 2007 – The last thing I remember – – Outpouring – Jan Fieldsend – – Dreaming Spires and Ivory Towers – – Chartres: Lloyd Rees – – Morpheus – 2008 – Greatest hits / previously unreleased tracks – – Cuts both ways – – David Sequeira: My Father’s Library – – Siri Hayes: Landscapes – – New Victorians – – Foresight: Union Art Collection – 2009 – Melt – – Resort Nadir: Irene Hanenbergh – – Poesia Visiva: Italian concrete and visual poetry of the 1960s and 1970s – – Collecting Passions: A century of Modernism from the home of Justice Roddy Meagher – – Anne Marie Grgich – 2003 – Temptation - Sir Charles Nicholson’s Collection – – Japanese Prints 1950–1990 – – Lindsay Brothers – Lionel and Norman – – The Way of the Brush: Ian Fairweather, Roy Jackson, Tony Tuckson – 9 2012 – Narelle Jubelin: Vision in Motion – – Joseph Beuys and the ‘Energy Plan’ – – Vibration, Vibração, Vibración – – JW Power: Abstraction-Création, Paris 1934 – 2013 – Atelier Paris: The Power Studio – – Test Pattern – – 1969: The Black Box of Conceptual Art – – Jeffrey Smart 1921–2013: Recondita Armonia - Strange harmonies of contrast – 2014 – Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook: The Village and Elsewhere – – Fugitive Forms and Grand Designs: 16th–19th century drawings from Justice Roddy Meagher’s collection – – Mikala Dwyer: Garden of half-life – 2015 – Girls at the Tin Sheds: Sydney feminist posters 1975-90 – – Barbara Campbell: Ex Avibus – – Reparative aesthetics: Rosângela Rennó and Fiona Pardington – – Jacky Redgate: Mirrors – – Women in Power – 2016 – Dušan Marek: art/ilm post 1960 – – Floating Time: Chinese prints 1954–2002 – If this wall could talk – The Macleay Building’s 1920s sandstone façade partially obscured the original 19th century architecture, but it provides one of the University’s most interesting Gothic features, writes Dr Craig Barker. The Macleay Building is one of the architectural gems of the University of Sydney campus. The irst signiicant architectural addition on campus to the original University buildings, it was purpose-designed to house the Macleay family collections of natural history (Fig 1). Designed by George Allen Mansield, the ire-proofed brick-and-iron building was constructed between 1886 and 1888, and transfer of the Macleay collections began in 1888. In 1890, the museum was opened to the public. However, soon after the University began using the museum building for teaching purposes, and by 1918 two concrete loors were inserted, destroying the original open court and galleries and seeing the public galleries of the Macleay collections restricted to the very top loor ever since. It would not be the last modiication the building would undergo. Fig 1 (above): A view along the side of the Great Hall to the Macleay Museum in 1900, image from the University of Sydney Archives (G3_224_1818) In November 1923, the Buildings and Grounds Committee accepted a plan by botany professor 10 Fig 2: Construction of Botany building 1925, image from the University of Sydney Archives (G3_224_MF374_0018) he was instrumental in implementing a masterplan of beautiication of the grounds throughout the 1920s. Abercrombie Anstruther Lawson (1870–1927) and recommended that a botanical laboratory be constructed at the eastern end of the Macleay Building, which by this stage was already being used for teaching the subject (Fig 2). The extension across the eastern end of the Macleay Building meant the loss of the original entrance to the building, and changed forever the perception of the Macleay Building and its museum. Among Wilkinson’s achievements during this period was the construction of the Northern and Western Ranges of the Quadrangle in 1924–5, thus completing Edmund Blacket’s Gothic Revival masterpiece. Wilkinson also worked closely with Gowrie Waterhouse, linguist and camellia expert, in the construction of the Vice-Chancellor’s courtyard and associated azalea and camellia gardens. Lesley Wilkinson (1882–1973) had been employed by the University in 1918, when he famously dressed in tailcoat and top hat for his interview for the position. He was soon appointed the University’s irst Professor of Architecture. The following year he was made University Architect, and despite an often tempestuous relationship with University authorities, It is down Science Road however, that one sees Wilkinson’s touch: the Mephistopheles fountain and the Italian palazzo façade moved from the George Street premises of the Commercial Banking Co. Fig 4: Sandstone grotesques on the oriel roof 11 Fig 3: Hofmeister’s shield on the exterior of the building in 2016 The building extension was brick with a sandstone skin and a slate roof, and a perpendicular northeast gable window. The oriel window presents a real Late Gothic/ Tudor character to the structure, as does the entrance lobby on the southeastern corner with chamfered beams and joists on stone corbels providing a medieval atmosphere. The corbels are shaped liked scrolls with the names of famous natural scientists. Part of Wilkinson’s masterplan for the University and its grounds was to bring unity to the range of architectural styles that had sprung up on campus. The then 25-year-old Macleay Building was one of those structures he wanted to improve. Designed to be viewed from both Parramatta Road and from the front lawn, and to complement the Gothic features of the Great Hall, the Wilkinson addition would link the sandstone features of the Quadrangle and screen the utilitarian architecture of the Macleay Building. Wilkinson hoped the new structure would link to the Quadrangle through a connecting archway over Science Road that he had planned in 1924, but wasn’t actually built until 1956–8. It would eventually house the University’s Art Gallery. Wilkinson’s exterior facing over the Botany Lawn has some real whimsical features: three carved grotesques shaped like meerkats hold shields bearing the names of Darwin, Mendel and Hofmeister (Fig 3). Best of all, a sandstone carving in the form of a kookaburra, a small wallaby and an owl were added to the roof of the oriel (Fig 4, previous page), joining the famous kangaroo on the Quadrangle’s Clocktower. Designed by Wilkinson, the façade of the Macleay is an example of how his style would often bring him into conlict with the University. He did not submit his plans to the Buildings and Grounds Committee for approval and provided relatively limited accommodation for the considerable cost. Today, the beauty of Wilkinson’s addition cannot be denied. Along with the Quadrangle and the Anderson Stuart Building, it is listed on the NSW State Heritage Register as “probably the inest collection [of Gothic Revival buildings] in Australia”. Dr Craig Barker is Manager, Education and Public Programs, Sydney University Museums. You can visit the Macleay Building and the Botany Lawn as part of a Heritage Tour of the University of Sydney. Heritage Tours run for groups of more than ive people on weekdays and can be booked by contacting our team via email: museums.education@sydney.edu.au Although only one room deep, the Wilkinson extension added laboratories and a herbarium. An article in the Sydney Morning Herald of 13 June 1925 sang the praises of the stained-glass windows including portraits celebrating pioneers of botany including Robert Morrison, John Ray, Linnaeus and Hofmeister. 12 The face of Osiris – Two depictions of the ancient Egyptian god Osiris in the Nicholson Museum collection lead Candace Richards to explore aspects of the Egyptian afterlife. The ancient Egyptians called this corpus of spells “Going forth by day”, which today are known as the Egyptian Book of the Dead. There are about 200 spells in the book, each invoking the gods for a variety of causes including knowledge, passage through the underworld, passing a test, such as the weighing of the heart (spells 125 and 30B), or avoiding dangers such as dying a second time (spell 44) or eating dung in the gods’ domain (spell 52). Finding your place in the afterlife, the realm of the gods, or Duat, was no mean feat in Ancient Egypt. Your physical body had to be prepared appropriately through mummiication, and your ba (one aspect of the ‘soul’) was guided through a series of trials and protected from otherworldly dangers as it travelled each day into the realm of the gods and could return each night to its mummy. To assist these processes, as much care as one could afford was given to the deceased: the body was mummiied for longevity; incantations and offerings were made for the deceased during burial; and ritual objects and spells were buried with the mummy for ongoing protection and guidance. Fig 1 (above): Fragment of a hieratic papyrus containing lines from spell 1 of the Book of the Dead, Ptolemaic Period, 332-30BC, donated by Sir Charles Nicholson, 1860, NMR.85.1 13 images as a funeral scene often found in the irst 15 spells of the Book of the Dead during this period. There are several variations of these spells and there is no one deinitive version, as modern readers might expect from the title Book of the Dead. Similarly no individual was buried with a standard set of spells, although some were more favoured than others. On the right of the piece is a vignette of the god Osiris. He is depicted in proile wearing his atef crown, seated on a throne holding his crook and lail, the symbols of the Pharaoh, in either hand. At irst glance it appears that this inely executed vignette was completed as a line drawing, with no colouring as is sometimes found in spell illustrations. However, on closer inspection, the collar at the top of his netted covering is gilded (Fig 2). The quantity and quality of spells buried with a mummy depended on the wealth and status of the deceased. At the cheaper end of the spectrum, workshops would often produce several copies of individual spells leaving blanks for the names of the owner to be added once purchased. A wealthier individual, however, might have employed a scribe to craft speciic spells for the journey to the afterlife, complete with elaborate illustrations. Depictions of Osiris were an important component in the repertoire of symbols and objects used for seeking eternal life. Osiris presided over the judgement of souls and, as the original mummy brought back from the dead twice revived by his wife Isis, was closely linked to the transformative processes of death. The irst spell in the corpus is for “going forth by day into the realm of the gods”, ruled by Osiris. A version belonging to Petenephthimis is one of the best preserved Egyptian texts in the Nicholson collection (Fig 1) and dates to the Ptolemaic Period (332-30BC). By the Ptolemaic Period, mummy shrouds, the linen sheet laid over a mummiied body, were sometimes painted with depictions of Osiris, which had developed from simple proile drawings to elaborate frontal portraits of the god. A fragmentary example from the Nicholson collection dated to the Roman Period, is a frontal depiction painted in blue, brown, pink, red and black pigments on linen (Fig 3). The hieratic script is written in a thick brush, except the portions that name the deceased, son of Tamounis, suggesting that they were added to a pre-made text, rather than written speciically for him. The igurative top border of the scene is substantially damaged. However, an analysis by Marc Coenen in Egyptian Art in the Nicholson Museum, 2006, identiies these small Fig 2: Detail of gilded decoration on NMR.85.1 14 Fig 3: Fragment of a mummy shroud with a depiction of Osiris in thick, coloured pigments, Roman Period, 30BC-600AD, donated by Sir Charles Nicholson, 1860, NMR.407 adult man, and shows a full-length Osiris with his crook and lail, resting on the body at the shoulders. Sadly, that piece is missing the face of the god. On this small fragment the crowned Osiris is surrounded by a worshipper, snake and depiction of a djed pillar. The djed pillar, an amuletic representation of the spine of Osiris, was a powerful symbol for endurance and stability. The discolouration of the linen in the top left corner of the piece suggests how it was tucked around the mummiied body. Osirian mummy shrouds were used to identify the mummiied individual with the god. In doing so, the dead invoked the transformative and rejuvenating qualities of the god, hopeful of a successful judgement and meeting with Osiris. These shrouds often showed a full-length portrait of the god in his mummiied form, and are scaled to the size of the actual mummy. An example in the British Museum (EA6714) is wrapped around the body of an unnamed Candace Richards is Acting Senior Curator, Nicholson Museum. 15 Garden views – In celebration of the 200th anniversary of Sydney’s Royal Botanic Garden, Jan Brazier highlights several striking photographic images in the Macleay collections. This aerial view, looking south over Government House, the Gardens, the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Circular Quay, Macquarie Street and the City of Sydney, was taken by Hall and Co in the 1930s. HP83.66.380 16 With the backdrop of Sydney Harbour, the Botanic Garden was (and still is) a place of tranquility and beauty, popular for Sunday afternoon strolling. The Victorian landscaping relected the English landscape movement, where statues and urns were used as focal points, as well as providing a classical education through the selection of archetypal statuary. The Macleay Museum’s association with Sydney’s Royal Botanic Garden formally began in 1836, 20 years after the Garden was established, when Alexander Macleay was appointed Chair of the Committee of Superintendence, a position he held until 1848. The following year, Macleay’s eldest son, William Sharp Macleay, was appointed Chair. Today it is the historic photographic collection that most strongly links the Macleay Museum to the Garden. Changes in the Garden’s physical landscape were captured by photographers, commercial and amateur, providing a rich visual history of this green heart of Sydney. The Botanic Garden has been a magnet for photographers since the 1850s. Landscaped vistas, people strolling through avenues lined with classical statues and the beauty of the formal gardens – all were views captured by the photographic lens. Jan Brazier is Curator, History Collections, Macleay Museum. Robert Hunt arrived in Sydney in 1854 to take up the position of first clerk at the Sydney branch of the Royal Mint. A skilled amateur photographer, his images are some of the earliest photographs of the Botanic Garden. This stereographic view of tree ferns and elk horns is untitled; however, the glass negative it was printed from is inscribed ‘Botanical Gardens’ on the plate, together with the year, 1859, and his initials, RH. Hunt went on to become Deputy Master of the Sydney Mint. HP81.106.391 (print); HP81.106.430 (negative) 17 The Garden Palace was built for the Sydney International Exhibition, which ran from 17 September 1879 until 20 April 1880. A fire on 22 September 1882 destroyed the building and its contents, which included the records of many government departments and the collections of the Technological Museum, the library of the Linnean Society of NSW, which held books gifted by W Macleay, and the ethnographic collection of the Australian Museum, all of which were stored there. This view was taken by an unidentified photographer and captioned as “Remains of Garden Palace after the fire, Sydney”. Only the Palace gates at the Macquarie street entrance to the garden remain today. HP82.7.225 This view of the Botanic Garden with ships on the harbour by an unknown photographer is simply captioned “Sydney Gardens”. Land at Farm Cove was drained and claimed from 1848 to 1878, with a new sea wall built in 1880. HP82.7.216 18 Leichhardt studio photographer J G Park took this view of the main walk at the Palace Garden looking west. The statues of Mercury and the Venus di Medici were placed in the Gardens in 1903. This is a rare image of the statue of Venus in situ, as in 1911 Archbishop Kelly protested at the nude statue on public view. Venus is thought to have been removed during the ‘morality purge’ of 1915. In 1930, she was discovered in the grounds of the Lapstone Hotel in the Blue Mountains. HP80.49.46 John Paine was a commercial photographer in Sydney from the mid-1870s until the turn of the century. He specialised in scenic views, offering hundreds of pictorial photographs of NSW for sale. This photograph captures the popularity of the Garden with the public, and shows the original classical statuary in place. HP82.39.32 19 A taste of chocolate – Pieces of delectable Bronze Age pottery in the Nicholson Museum come from tombs in the Jordan Valley, their form suggesting hopes for an afterlife of entertaining, writes Dr Paul Donnelly. 20 These three vessels are examples of earthenware known as ‘Chocolate-on-White Ware’ and were made around 1550BC. The chocolate-brown decoration painted over the smooth burnished (polished) white slip was all the inspiration Sir Flinders Petrie of the Palestine Exploration Fund needed to allocate this tasty name in the 1920s. It has, quite appropriately, ‘stuck’ since then. Over the course of the 20th century the Nicholson Museum collection has grown through the allocation of inds from the University of Sydney’s own archaeological excavations as well as donations from other institutions around the world made in gratitude for the University’s support for their own excavations. The legal division of inds between a country of origin and the excavating institution is a thing of the past, but as a result of this practice the Nicholson is home to important groups of stratiied archaeological material that are of value to students and scholars today. Our examples of Chocolate-on-White come from Pella in Jordan, a site in the north Jordan Valley. It was irst excavated by the University of Sydney in 1978 under the directorship of the then professor of Near Eastern archaeology, Basil Hennessy. The excavations of the Bronze and Iron Ages at Pella continue today under the direction of Dr Stephen Bourke. The successive layers of the 10 hectare ‘Tell’, or habitation mound, at Pella accumulated over time to nearly 30 metres in height spanning 9000 years of continuous occupation, its population sustained by its perennial spring, fertile soil and fortuitous placement on major trade routes. Countless generations living and dying there have left a rich archaeological legacy including tombs that honeycomb the landscape, at such a density that they frequently intersected with each other and allowed brief collisions of distant ages. These Chocolate-on-White vessels were from tombs 20 and 62 in archaeological area XI of Pella. The Canaanite people who produced them believed providing gifts would sustain The landscape around Pella is honeycombed with underground tombs. Photo: Paul Donnelly the deceased for their journey in the afterlife. The decoration, ine inish and relative rarity of these vessels make them stand out among the usual plain utilitarian wares and suggest they were made as ‘tableware’ for serving rather than long-term storage. Appropriately then, the forms of the vessels suggest ancient hopes for an entertaining afterlife – relating as they do to shapes associated with wine consumption - the large bowl or ‘krater’ for mixing wine with water, the jar and jug for serving into drinking cups. The ware is found throughout the southern Levant (modern Jordan, Palestine, and Israel) but its relative abundance at Pella suggests it was the location of at least one major workshop, and thanks to the generosity of the Department of Antiquities of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the University of Sydney is home to one of the best collections in the world outside that country. Dr Paul Donnelly is Associate Director of content for the Chau Chak Wing Museum. His PhD, completed in 2006, focused on Chocolate‑on‑White Ware. Opposite page: Chocolate-on-White Ware jug and jar, middle to late Bronze Age circa 1550BC. From Pella, Jordan. NM1985.5, NM1985.6 Donated by the Pella Project, the University of Sydney, 1998. Chocolate-on-White Ware mixing bowl, middle to late Bronze Age circa 1550BC. From Pella, Jordan. On loan from the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, NGA.1190. 21 Coloured by hand – Professor Abercrombie Anstruther Lawson (1870–1927) was a brilliant botany teacher whose classes were enormously popular, write Annie Rayner and Dr Rosanne Quinnell. He left an extraordinary resource. Photomicrograph of fossil plant Medullosa anglica (now extinct), HP90.35.601 Last semester, the Macleay Museum’s Jan Brazier asked if we would examine a collection of lantern slides used by Professor Abercrombie Lawson in the 1920s. There were two initial issues: irst, we didn’t know what a lantern slide was; secondly, we knew little about Professor Lawson’s work. Professor Lawson was a botanist with a meticulous eye for detail well matched with artistic lair, ably demonstrated by his hand-coloured lantern slides. These were photographic images on glass, hand-coloured by Lawson. Much like a Powerpoint, they were projected onto the classroom screen. Photomicrograph of fossil plant Lyginodendron oldhamium (now extinct), HP90.35.596 Professor Lawson’s research was in the general area of land plants, particularly seed-producing plants such as conifers. He conducted his work on gymnosperm gametophytes, spindle formation and embryogenesis in an exciting era for genetics and evolutionary understanding of plants. 22 During his academic career, Professor Lawson demonstrated a strong commitment to education. Following posts at Stanford and Glasgow Universities, he moved to Australia in 1913 as foundation professor of the University’s Botany Department, where he advocated ield-based, engaged-enquiry approaches to studying botany. Field excursions were a regular feature of his classes. In his irst year of teaching, Professor Lawson had 136 students and very limited facilities; but by 1919 he was working with some 450 students, and his class was described as the largest and most popular in the sciences at the University. His determination to develop the University’s facilities for teaching and research led to the addition of the Botany Building on the eastern end of the Macleay Museum (completed in 1926). In this building, Lawson led meticulously planned laboratory classes and lectures illustrated with lantern slide projections. The building was itted out with a teaching herbarium named in honour of taxonomist and botanist John Ray (1627–1705). Initiated with Professor Lawson’s own specimens in 1916, the Ray Herbarium today contains 50,000 specimens of preserved plants and algae. Lawson’s public life gives an indication of his modern take on his subject. The Melbourne Leader reported that in his 1917 lecture to the Royal Society of NSW, Lawson decried the lack of knowledge in Australia of Gregor Mendel’s idea of heredity, noting its take-up internationally “increased knowledge of heredity … means increased power of control over the living thing and … will lead to considerable and important improvements in the methods of breeding animals and plants”. In the 1920s he was involved in a movement to encourage the Australian Government to protect Indigenous plant species. Professor Lawson had a large collection of lantern slides that he used for teaching and botanical lectures for both students and the public. In June 1924, the Sydney Morning Herald offered an advertisement for “Five Lantern slide of the orchid Pterostylis pedunculata, attributed to Lawson, HP90.35.623 (in May 1924, Lawson gave a lecture on orchids, illustrated with coloured lantern slides) lectures on Australian ferns, trees and wildlowers” by Professor Lawson at a cost of four shillings for the course (about $16 in today’s money), or one shilling at the door. About 1000 of his lantern slides were donated to the University; 85 of these were transferred to the Macleay Museum, a collection that includes photomicrographs that would have been used in his lectures on the evolution of plants. Professor Lawson passed away from a sudden illness on 26 March 1927, just after being honoured through selection as a candidate for Fellowship of the Royal Society of London. Ten of Lawson’s botanical sheets are featured in From the collections, the new exhibition at the Macleay Museum. Annie Rayner is a second‑year science student and Dr Rosanne Quinnell is a senior lecturer in the School of Life and Environmental Sciences. 23 From ear to eternity – 1mm An exciting discovery is the latest chapter in the story of students Miranda Evans and Amanda Gaston and their work with the Jericho collection. Three middle ear bones from Tomb B35, Jericho, dated to 1900-1500 BC: a malleus bone (right); incus bones (left and centre) bags, segregated from the comingled human and animal remains found in the tombs. This process was the most effective way to gather a Minimum Number of Individuals (MNI) for each tomb. Sorting through the thousands of tiny fragments from the Jericho bone collection, we come across many that are rather nondescript and diagnostically irrelevant. But not these three tiny complete bones, discovered since our last MUSE article (issue 14, pages 24–27). During our project, sorting and cataloguing each bag of remains, we ind the fragments of a single person’s skull and teeth, and now, in some instances, the three smallest bones in the human body: the middle ear bones. While tiny, these bones of the middle ear are unmistakable. We recognised them from prepared examples in lab sessions, but we had never seen them in an archaeological context before. In an attempt to keep track of how many individuals were within the tombs, the archaeologists who excavated the human skulls catalogued each into separate These bones, the stapes, incus and malleus (known colloquially as the stirrups, anvil and hammer) are responsible for conveying sound to the eardrum through tiny vibrations. As 24 in the 1950s. In addition, the collection of a considerable amount of matrix (the surrounding dirt) may have trapped the ossicles within the skull, which over time has naturally loosened and fallen away, leaving the bones intact. sound waves hit the eardrum, it causes the inner-ear bones to vibrate, in turn conveying the vibrations to the cochlear, which houses the sound receptors. The ear ossicles are the only bones that are already fully developed by birth and remain the same size into adulthood. The ear ossicles do not tell us a lot of information about the ancient individuals. There is no difference between females and males, nor between the young and old. Rather, they represent impressive modern excavation skills and are a fascinating and somewhat unique ind that connects us to the ancient people of Jericho. To date we have found a total of nine incus and malleus bones, but no stapes. The stapes is the smallest of the three bones, signiicant when one considers the average incus is 7mm long and the malleus less than 9mm. Often these minute bones are not found on archaeological sites due to their size. The fact that, in this collection, several have been found attests to the impressively careful excavation practices led by renowned British archaeologist Dame Kathleen Kenyon Amanda Gaston and Miranda Evans are students of archaeology, anatomy and histology at the University of Sydney. They volunteer at the Nicholson Museum. External and middle ear, opened from the front; right side from Henry Gray’s Anatomy of the Human Body, 1918 (Fig. 907), sourced from www.bartleby.com/107/illus907.html 25 String theory – A mysterious cellist in a work by WA Bowring brings out the sleuth in Chris Jones. At irst glance, a painting of a cellist in the University Art collection is just a well-executed portrait of a musician at practice. However, closer examination reveals that the cellist is in an artist’s studio and is using an abstract painting as his musical score. What is the meaning of this strange scene? This collection of facts provides tantalising clues about the possible context in which this painting may have been created. The work was donated to the University of Sydney in 1968 by the Josef Kretschmann Club, a musical society established in 1923 in honour of Josef Kretschmann (1835–1918). A Bohemian who came to Australia in 1876, Kretschmann was well known and loved as a music teacher and conductor. The club held regular concerts, actively supporting the Sydney music scene. By 1927 the club also aimed to encourage the study and understanding of the other ine arts and on 26 August 1927 artist Antonio Dattilo-Rubbo (1870-1955) gave a talk to the club, titled ‘The Relationship of Music to Painting’. Dattilo-Rubbo was an artist and teacher. Among his students was Roy De Maistre (1894-1968) who, along with fellow artist Roland Wakelin (1887-1971), explored the relationship between art and music. De Maistre developed a theory of colour harmonisation, identifying analogies between colours and notes of the musical scale. In 1919, de Maistre and Wakelin held an exhibition called Colour in Art – that became talked about as “pictures you could whistle”. The exhibited works were some of the irst abstract paintings in Australia. Dattilo-Rubbo supported his student’s modernist experiments, even defending them publicly. The painting is by New Zealand-born artist Walter Armiger Bowring (1874–1931), who is best known for commissioned portraits. Bowring moved to Australia in 1925 with his new wife Violet Bowring (née Nelson), also an artist. Both were actively involved in the Sydney art scene, including attending events held by the Josef Kretschmann Club. The cellist portrait is one of two Bowring paintings the club donated to the University of Sydney. The other, Portrait of a Gentleman (1926), is quite possibly a portrait of Dattilo-Rubbo. Bowring worked in the realist tradition. His subject matter included portraits and landscapes as well as cartoons and caricatures. His work responded to what 26 WA Bowring, Cellist, circa 1927, oil on canvas, UA1968.3 27 WA Bowring, Portrait of a Gentleman, 1926, oil on canvas, UA1969.2 was commercially successful at the time. He was dismissive of contemporary experimental art forms, stating that “for so-called modern art in its more extreme form, I have no sympathy at all”. Did Dattilo-Rubbo’s talk in 1927 touch on his student’s ideas about the relationship between colour and music? Is it possible that Bowring’s painting is a response to Dattilo-Rubbo’s talk? Given Bowring’s conservative opinions and the presence of a clown painting in the background of the cellist portrait, is the painting a gentle mocking of modernist ideas? The answer to any of these questions can only be speculative. However, whatever the context that led Bowring to create such a work, we are left with an intriguing image from a vibrant time for the arts in Sydney. In further speculation, the cellist who played the night of Dattilo-Rubbo’s talk was Solomon Julius van der Klei (1892-1960). A Dutch musician, van der Klei came to Australia in 1926, quickly becoming a feature of the Sydney classical music scene and played regularly at the Josef Kretschmann Club. Could he be the cellist in Bowring’s painting? A photograph of van der Klei published in the Queensland newspaper, Morning Bulletin, on 26 May 1933, bears a passing resemblance to the igure in the painting. Like the photograph, much of the information above was the result of searching digitised newspapers through Trove, which has proved to be an invaluable tool for uncovering the stories behind objects in our collections. Chris Jones is Assistant Collections Manager, Sydney University Museums. 28 Weapon of choice – A replica sword in the Nicholson Museum collection has an interesting history connected to ancient Cyprus and a Wiccan practitioner. Mitchell Barker uncovers the story. Fig 1: Gardner’s reproduction blade, scabbard and handle, purchased in 1951, NM51.296.1-3 29 A letter dated 1960 from the Western Australian Museum, now in the museum’s archives, records a former student’s interest in the sword (Fig 2). The student recalls Stewart referring to the sword in his undergraduate lectures. Stewart’s reply referenced an article written by a Mr Gerald Brosseau Gardner (1884–1964) in 1937 for the Société Préhistorique Française. The article features an image of our replica sword, the blade, handle and sheath that had been made by Gardner himself. Gardner writes how he had made the replica after an enthusiastic study of the bronze weaponry displayed in the Cyprus Museum. Fig. 2: Letter from C Halls to the Nicholson Museum, 1960 One of the highlights our education program for school students is the opportunity to handle genuine and replica items in the collection when we visit the museum’s ‘hands-on’ room. A replica bronze sword and sheath (Fig 1, previous page) in the Nicholson collection is one of the most favoured objects among students (and some of us guides too). While the sword enables us to teach students about ancient weaponry, manufacturing and trade, its origins and provenance have remained somewhat of a mystery. Some initial research has uncovered some interesting information about our sword’s origins. The sword itself is based on the types discovered from Early Bronze Age tombs at Bellapais Vounous in what is now northern Cyprus. These excavations were undertaken irst by a French-Cypriot team, then taken up by an Australian mission directed by James Stewart in 1936–7. Stewart would go on to become curator of the Nicholson Museum from 1954 until his untimely death in 1962. 30 A little further digging revealed that Gardner (Fig 3) was an English eccentric who was not only a history enthusiast and amateur archaeologist, but is also regarded as the founder of modern Wiccan practice. A proliic writer, he was instrumental in developing the contemporary pagan religion of Wicca and bringing it to a broader public attention in the mid-20th century (Fig 4). In 1936, Gardner travelled to Cyprus, where he believed he had lived in a previous life. While on the island he penned a semi-autobiographical novel, A Goddess Arrives (1939) about an Englishman who has recollections of a life in Bronze Age Cyprus where the local queen used sorcery to help her people defend themselves from invading Egyptians. Unsurprisingly, he spent a lot of time in the Cyprus Museum, fascinated by Bronze Age weapons. Gardner had previously turned his hand to archaeology, joining Sir Flinders Petrie at the excavations of Tell Al-Ajjul in Palestine. His historical interest in weaponry was not unprecedented: he had also written a book on the Malaysian Kris (dagger), published in 1939. The replica sword appears to be based on some of the bronze blades and ceramic pieces Fig 3 (far left): Portrait of Gerald Gardner (1884–1964), photograph courtesy of Janet Farrar Fig 4: Gerald Gardner at his writing desk, photograph courtesy of Janet Farrar being unearthed in the 1930s. The handle and sheath made by Gardner were inluenced by the ceremonial ceramic black polished ware sheaths unearthed from the excavations. By halving a blade onto a handle and taking the stylised stitching pattern on the artefacts to mean that the sheath was wrapped in animal skin or leather, Gardner then crafted a realistic version of his own. His study and experimentation was published in multiple languages as “The Problem of the Cypriot Bronze Dagger Hilt” and in French in the Bulletin de la Société Préhistorique Française. An offprint of Gardner’s article from Stewart’s personal papers is now in Fisher Library, and is signed by O. G. S. Crawford, “with the author’s compliment, G. B. Gardner”. Crawford (1886-1957) was a British archaeologist and a pioneer of aerial archaeology. He had bought a house in Cyprus in 1936, so may well have met Gardner on the island. 31 By 1951, Stewart was teaching archaeology in Australia and dramatically expanding the Nicholson Museum’s collection of Cypriot and Near Eastern antiquities. Some of Stewart’s private collection was also given to the Museum of Antiquities at the University of New England in Armidale, among other institutions in Australia. It is known that Stewart acquired some of this material directly from Gardner after it had been loaned to the British Museum. So, it is possible that Stewart purchased our sword from Gardner at the same time, some 14 years after Gardner’s experimental activities. Mitchell Barker is an Education Oficer with the Sydney University Museums Education program. Medicine meets museums – How can the study of art help medical students become better doctors? Catherine Hickson and Dr Craig Barker discuss groundbreaking Art+Med workshops. “I enjoyed working as a group and expanding collaboratively on ideas.” These are just some of the comments made by graduate medical students at the University of Sydney’s Central Clinical School who participated in Art+Med workshops at the Nicholson Museum in May and July. It was the irst visit to the Nicholson for some. “The application of these ideas to clinical medicine is clear.” Organised by Arterie at the Chris O’Brien Lifehouse, developed and facilitated by consultant artist and educator, Catherine Hickson, with valuable input from the museum’s Manager of Education Programs, Dr Craig Barker, the program is designed to hone visual diagnostic skills, communication skills, awareness and empathy in graduate medical students. “I can see how nuanced observation and thinking can be so important in diagnosis.” “I now understand how taking time increases the amount of information you can get from a situation.” Using unfamiliar artworks and objects from the Nicholson Museum and the University’s art collection, the program creates an opportunity for students to understand the importance of noticing and describing detail that can inluence assumptions and subjective interpretations in patient diagnosis. “I liked learning to observe and describe what I saw.” 32 The two-hour sessions include an object-handling exercise supervised by Craig. Students handle and observe some gems from the Nicholson’s education collection, including a European Neolithic spear head, the lid of an Egyptian canopic jar, and a Roman metal tap handle, all thousands of years old. Catherine then works with the students in front of paintings in the current exhibition, Alpha and Omega: Tales of Transformation, namely James Gleeson’s The Judgement of Paris and JW Power’s Apollon et Daphné. The students treat the artwork like a surrogate patient and as a group they scaffold their observations and learn from each other. The Gleeson work is fantastic for Art+Med because there are so many layers of nuanced detail and every student sees something new. The workshop inishes with a creative component where the students engage in blind contour drawing and drawing from the painting they have been observing. Although students initially complain that they cannot draw, Hickson makes it clear that this is a “no-experience-necessary” activity. Once their performance anxiety disappears, the students have fun and create amazing work. arts helps the students to develop critical thinking and relection that raises levels of empathy and self-awareness in the work environment. Teaching observational skills harnesses notions of ‘mindfulness’ and ‘collectivity’ that are replacing outdated interpretations of subjective engagement, focused on limited conceptions of the doctor-patient dyad. The idea originated at Yale University in the United States in 1995 when Professor of Dermatology Irwin Braverman became concerned about the rising rate of misdiagnoses from his students. He arrived at the idea of using artworks as unfamiliar data that allowed students to practise and improve their observation skills in a novel way removed from their scientiic study. Professor Braverman worked with the Curator of Education at the Yale Centre for British Art, and some decades later art observation is mandatory in more than 20 universities in the United States. Studies show that as students describe what they see, then draw what they see, they develop the ability to see more detail and articulate this more accurately. This interaction with the visual Opposite page: Artist and educator Catherine Hickson teaches with J W Power’s Apollon et Daphné Right: Students of the 2016 Art+Med program 33 The Art+Med program at Sydney aims to improve detailed observation capabilities to boost doctors’ visual diagnostic skills; strengthen communication skills between doctors and patients; develop problem-solving skills in a clinical team environment; heighten awareness of the importance of empathy in clinical practice; and increase recognition of the relevance of this sort of program to medical studies. The program also addresses issues that cannot be included in a regular medical curriculum. Students can sometimes feel overwhelmed with their workload, and can tend to overlook or take for granted the ‘soft skills’ such as observation, communication, awareness and empathy. Yet these skills are integral to doctor/patient consultation and diagnosis. Catherine Hickson is an artist and art educator working with Dr Craig Barker, Manager of Education and Public Programs, Sydney University Museums. Making history – 2 1 3 Please help us to conserve and grow Name: ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� Address: ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� Please accept my: £ Cheque £ Money order ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� £ Credit card (Please make payable to The University of Sydney) Phone: ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ Email: ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� Credit card details £ Visa £ MasterCard Please accept my gift of: £ $50 £ $100 £ $250 £ Other $ ������������������������������������������� Card No: ....................................................................................... Cardholder’s name: ...................................................................... (Donations of $2 or more are tax deductible) Expiry: .................... Signature: ..................................................... I would like to allocate my donation to: £ Digitisation Program £ Acquisitions £ Macleay Museum £ Conservation £ Nicholson Museum £ Research £ University Art Gallery £ Museums and Art Gallery priorities £ Please send me information about how I can remember the University of Sydney in my will. Sydney University Museums, A14/H120 University of Sydney NSW 2006 Australia university�museums@sydney�edu�au sydney�edu�au/museums £ I conirm that I have included the University of Sydney in my will� +61 2 9351 2274 +61 2 9351 2881 (fax) 34 ABN 15 211 513 464 CRICOS 00026A CFN 10369 4 5 6 7 1. Michael Mungula, brother of the late Dr Joe Neparrnga Gumbula leads Gupapuyngu clan warriors as part of Makarrata: bringing the past into the future, a meeting of heads of cultural institutions, held 11-14 August in Milingimbi, Arnhem Land, Northern Territory. The event was coordinated by the Yolngu of Milingimbi, the Australian National University and Museum Victoria. Photo: Rebecca Conway 2. Stars of the feature film Tanna paid a surprise visit to the Macleay. The film has been selected as Australia’s 2017 Foreign Language nomination for the Oscars. From left: Kirk Huffman, honorary associate Macleay Museum; Jimmy Joseph, cultural director; and actors Seline Kawia and Chief Lingai Kawia. 4. Macleay curator Rebecca Conway (far left) with some of the national and international Museum and Gallery representatives and artists of the Miligimbi Art and Culture Centre who attended Makarrata: bringing the past into the future held 11-14 August in Milingimbi, Arnhem Land, Northern Territory (see also image 1). Photo: Chris Durkin 3. The Oceanic Art Society met at the Macleay Gallery in September. Guest lecturer Jude Philp, Senior Curator at the Macleay, talked about the breadth of Pacific Islander cultural material that could be exhibited in the Chau Chak Wing Museum. 5. In August we said farewell to the Nicholson Museum’s Senior Curator, Michael Turner. Michael will be greatly missed by his colleagues and we wish Michael and his wife, Di, an amazing future. 35 6. This year the Macleay Museum hosted interns Abbey Liu and Kacey Ip from Hong Kong Baptist University. Pictured from left are Abbey, Kacey, Dr Jude Philp, and Rebecca Conway. 7. Sydney University Museums Director David Ellis (centre right), Dr Stephen Whiteman from the Department of Art History (kneeling), and Christine Yip, Special Adviser, Chau Chak Wing Museum (centre), examine ceramics with curators at the National Museum of China in Beijing. Find your muse at Sydney University Museums Whether you would like to view an exhibition or attend a talk, we have plenty on ofer. For further information and to view the latest timetable, visit sydney.edu.au/museums and click on ‘What’s on’. November – Wednesday 2 November, 6‑7pm Recent discoveries from Macleay’ priceless mammal collection Harry Parnaby, Macleay Miklouho-Maclay Fellow 2016 Cost: free Venue: Macleay Museum Saturday 5 November, 2‑3pm Pre‑Roman Italy, the Mountain Queen and the Tattoo Man* Dr Camilla Norman, Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens Cost: free Venue: Nicholson Museum Follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/sydneyunimuseum or ind us on Facebook by searching for ‘Sydney University Museums’. The Nicholson Museum, Macleay Museum and University Art Gallery have their own Facebook pages and Twitter feeds. Friday 25 November, 5pm Macleay Museum / University Art Gallery Farewell Party Help us say farewell to the current public galleries of the Macleay Museum and University Art Gallery as we begin preparations for the new exhibitions in the Chau Chak Wing Museum� Cost: free Tuesday 29 November, 6 for 6.30pm Plautus’s The Brothers Menaechmus Celebrate at the Friends of the Nicholson Museum Christmas Party and enjoy a performance of Plautus’s play The Brothers Menaechmus in Latin with English surtitles performed by Department of Classics and Ancient History students� Cost: $40, $30 for Friends and their guests, $10 for students Venue: Nicholson Museum December – *Sponsor of the 2016 series Classicism Ancient and Modern – how Rome transformed our world ^Sponsor of the 2017 series Postcards from the Past Saturday 3 December, 2‑3pm Recycling Rome* Candace Richards, Nicholson Museum Cost: free Venue: Nicholson Museum Please note the University of Sydney will be closed for the Christmas recess from 16 December 2016 until 3 January 2017. 36 January – Thursday 5 January, 10am–4pm Information Day The Nicholson Museum will be open for the University of Sydney’s annual Info Day� Wednesday 18 January, 10am‑4pm School Holiday Activity Day – Rascally Romans Explore the world of gladiators, senators, plebs, slaves and emperors in our fun-illed children’s day set in ancient Rome and Pompeii� Cost: free Venue: Nicholson Museum Current exhibitions – Macleay Museum – From the collection until Friday 25 November 2016 – Macleay re-worked until Friday 25 November 2016 – Outlines: Koori artefacts from the Macleay Museum until Friday 25 November 2016 Nicholson Museum Tuesday 24 January, 4pm Friends of the Nicholson Museum Cream Tea and Lecture Exclusive event for Friends of the Nicholson Museum� Cost: $30 for Friends and their guests Venue: Nicholson Museum – Alpha and Omega: tales of transformation – The sky and the sea: ancient Cypriot art – Lego Pompeii – Death Magic – Memento: remembering Roman lives February – All Nicholson Museum exhibitions are ongoing� Saturday 4 February, 2‑3pm Elephantine Island: 5000 Years of Egyptian History^ Dr Thomas Hikade,University of Sydney Cost: free Venue: Nicholson Museum University Art Gallery – Floating Time: Chinese prints 1954–2002 until Friday 25 November 2016 Wednesday 15 February, 6 for 6.30pm Friends of the Nicholson Museum AGM and Summer Party Artists and Archaeologists in the Paphos Ancient Theatre Emeritus Professor Diana Wood Conroy, University of Wollongong Cost: Exclusive Friends event: $50 for Friends and their guests Venue: Nicholson Museum All details are correct at the time of publication, but events may change due to circumstances beyond our control. If you wish to contact the Macleay Museum, the Nicholson Museum or the University Art Gallery, please see inside front cover for our details. 37 Image: Seastar, NHE.315, photographer: Stuart Humphreys From the collections Celebrating diversity in the Macleay Museum collections. 16 August – 25 November 2016 Free admission Macleay Museum Macleay Building, Gosper Lane (off Science Rd) The University of Sydney Opening hours: Monday to Friday, 10am to 4�30pm First Saturday of each month, 12 to 4pm Closed on public holidays� sydney.edu.au/museums