Classical Collection

The Classical collection contains material from ancient Greece and Italy, and other parts of the Mediterranean influenced by those cultures. The display begins with artefacts from pre-Mycenaean Greece (c. 6,000-3,000 BC) and the Minoan and Mycenaean cultures (c. 1,550-1,050 BC). Developments in Greek art can be followed through the late Geometric period (c. 8th century BC) to Corinthian, Athenian and South Italian objects of the Archaic and Classical periods (c. 7th-4th centuries BC), especially figured pottery. Notable amongst these vases is the black figured amphora by the Antimenes Painter, and a Lucanian (South Italian) red figured skyphos of the late 5th century BC with the earliest known depiction in Greek art of the personification of the seabreeze, Aura. Sculpture is represented by a number of Roman 'portrait' heads and marble grave reliefs. A marble statue of the Greek messenger god Hermes, which was found near Smyrna in Turkey at the end of the 19th century, was presented by Nicholson's three sons in 1934 to commemorate the centenary of their father's arrival in Australia. As well as these more notable items, there are many smaller household artefacts, bronze implements, bronze and terracotta statuettes and figurines, terracotta lamps, and a fine display of early Greek and Roman glass.