Bronze reliefs, 1900–31

In April 1899, English-born sculptor Percival Ball, who was then living in Melbourne, suggested filling the empty spaces on the facade of Vernon’s recently constructed building with sculptural panels illustrating ‘the Arts and Industries’. The Gallery trustees approved of the proposal but decided that the six panels should illustrate ‘distinctive historical art periods’: namely the Assyrian, Egyptian, Grecian, Roman, Gothic and Renaissance. Only four of the six intended panels were completed. The subjects are from [left to right] Assyria, Egypt, Greece and Rome. The reliefs appear to relate to the names of artists above on the entablature, but there is no correspondence between the two.

Ball completed a plaster cast for the third panel in 1899. It shows the courtesan Phryne being sketched by Praxiteles, supposedly her lover at the time. Praxiteles used her as the model for his statue of the Aphrodite of Knidos, reputedly the first nude statue of a woman in ancient Greece. The plaster cast of the panel was trialled on the facade in November of 1899 and Ball was then commissioned to take it to England for casting. Bronze was chosen over marble, as the latter was thought to be too reflective in Sydney sunlight.

It was intended that Ball should complete all six of the reliefs, giving an artistic unity to the whole. However, he died in London before even the first panel could be cast. His brother supervised this in Somerset. At the dedication of this panel on 27 March 1903, Du Faur told those assembled that the trustees were considering commissioning a new panel each five years, drawing upon talent from an entire generation.

Instead, they called for competitive designs for the Assyrian and Egyptian panels on 23 October 1903. The conditions required ‘quarter size models’ to be sent to Alfred East in London. Four submissions were received from Australia and another three from London. The Egyptian panel was awarded to Countess Feodora Gleichen for Queen Hatasu, or Hatshepsut, giving directions for the construction of her famous avenue of ram-headed sphinxes. It was noted that as a female artist she had chosen a strong female subject.

The Assyrian panel was awarded to Gilbert Bayes for Assur Natsir Pal, King of Assyria. Reviewers got their Assyrian kings confused and instead of writing of Ashurnasirpal II (r 883–59) and his palace at Nimrud said that the panel represented Sennacherib (r 705–681) viewing the progress of his palace at Kouyunjik (Nineveh), despite Bayes’ clear inscription on the bottom of the work. Bayes was familiar with the sculptural reliefs and statues that had been brought from both sites to the British Museum in London and the legs of a winged bull-deity are just visible in his panel.

Both artists were asked to proceed with full plaster casts. A second prize was awarded to James White for Thothmes visiting the temple of Denderah. The unsuccessful competitors were Theo Cowan for an Egyptian panel and John Robertson Tranthim-Fryer for an Assyrian panel. The Sydney firm of Alex Sherriff & Sons in Annandale had also submitted designs for both panels.

Bayes and Gleichen modelled their full plaster casts in 1906. Bayes was cast and shipped in the same year and installed in February 1907. Gleichen’s was cast in 1907 and installed in 1908. The complexities of commissioning and then seeing works through to casting was time-consuming and expensive and so the trustees had little appetite for another competition to complete the final two panels. Artists, nonetheless, sent in submissions, including Harold Parker for a Roman panel in 1911, JA Wright (‘recently from Scotland’) for a Norman panel in 1912, Swiss-born Rosa Langenegger for a Romulus and Remus panel in 1914, and Theo Cowan for another Roman panel, Antonia and the sculptor, in the same year.

In the hope of seeing the facade panels completed, architect and the president of the trustees Sir John Sulman offered to finance the Roman relief in the sequence in February 1927. He hoped to secure Bertram Mackennal, but the offer of £50 for a plaster model and ‘a price not exceeding £1000’ for the full commission was not attractive enough. Mann suggested British sculptor Reid Dick instead. Sulman set the subject: ‘the influence of Roman Art as shown in the use of the Arch in architectural and other works of construction’.

The trustees were taken by surprise when their London agent wrote in November 1931 that the work was completed and ‘Mr Reid Dick seems to have little doubt about the acceptance of his panel’, adding that ‘the panel has been executed in the style of relief to which Sir John objected, both because he disliked the style and because it would not harmonise with the existing panels’. Nonetheless, the panel was completed as the artist wished and unveiled by the governor on 3 December 1931. Sulman died three years later and with him all drive to continue the external decoration of the building.