Current exhibitions at the Nicholson Museum

50 Objects 50 Stories

It feels as if the ghosts of the past are telling you their stories. It’s sublime.
Nicholson Museum Visitor's Book, 4 January 2012.

50 Objects 50 Stories is not about the most important, or the most beautiful things in the Nicholson Museum. It is about objects with a story to tell. Beginning in 1860 with antiquities from the original donation of Sir Charles Nicholson, the exhibition journeys through to the present day. Along the way, the stories introduce us to a cast of characters, curators and collectors who have helped shape the museum and its collection.

Sir Charles Nicholson, founder of the museum, a man of dramatically humble origins, newspaper reporter Edward Reeve, the museum’s first curator (1860-1889 in three terms), Enoch Powell, eminent Greek scholar, later radical English right-wing politician (curator 1938-39) and James Stewart, Cypriot archaeologist, prisoner of war and cat lover (curator 1954-1962). There are adventurous women such as Agatha Christie and the intrepid Mary Woodhouse. There are famous archaeologists Sir Austen Henry Layard, Sir Henry Wellcome, Sir Flinders Petrie, Vere Gordon Childe, Dame Kathleen Kenyon, Sir Max Mallowan, Sir Mortimer Wheeler and some pretty dreadful ones like Luigi Palma di Cesnola. And there are famous men and women Sir William Hamilton and his scandalous wife Emma, Thomas Hope, Orson Welles and D.H. Lawrence. All have a part to play as these wonderful stories unfold.

Until June 2013

The Etruscans: A Classical Fantasy
Ongoing exhibition

In popular imagination the Etruscans are the very stuff of fantasy, myth and legend. Who are they, where did they come from, what does their language mean? In reality, although wiped out or assimilated by Rome, they have left us an extraordinarily rich heritage of art, jewellery, metal working, terracotta sculpture, urban planning, walls, and roads. Indeed, in the 6th century BC, the Etruscans were the most powerful people in the Mediterranean.

So what went wrong?


Image:
Details of a wall painting from the Tomb of the Leopards, Tarquinia, 5th century BC.

Classical Fantasies: Pompeii and the Art of South Italy
Ongoing Exhibition

In the late summer or autumn of AD79 Mt Vesuvius erupted and buried Pompeii, Herculaneum and the surrounding countryside. 30 kilometres away across the bay of Naples, Pliny the Elder watched in awe as the eruptive column rose 20-30 kilometres into the air. ‘The ashes were falling hotter and thicker … and the shore-line was blocked by debris from the volcano’.

With the re-discovery of Pompeii and Herculaneum in the 1730s and the subsequent rise of Neo-Classicism in the second half of the 18th century, Classical Fantasies: Pompeii and the Art of South Italy explores how the Classical past became a powerful influence on thought and the material appearance of the everyday world.

Xavier Della Gatta, Eruption of Vesuvius 1794 (detail).

©Bibliothèque Centrale Muséum National D’Historie Naturellele

The monumental Hathor column capital is the centrepiece of this exhibition

Egyptians, gods and mummies: Travels with Herodotus
Ongoing Exhibition

In about 450 BC the Greek travel writer Herodotus went to Egypt. He journeyed throughout the Delta, up the Nile as far as Elephantine, and headed into the desert towards Giza to see the Pyramids and the Sphinx. They were already, in his day, 2000 years old.

He also visited the Temple of Bastet at Bubastis. A granite column capital from this temple (pictured), weighing 3.4 metric tonnes, will be the centrepiece of the exhibition, on display in the Nicholson Museum for the first time. On either side of the Hathor capital is the carved head of the goddess Hathor.

The exhibition looks at Egypt through the eyes of Herodotus. Mummified cats, birds and crocodiles are on display, plus three of the Nicholson's mummies.

Sir Charles Nicholson was Chancellor at the University from 1854 to 1862.

Charles Nicholson: Man and Museum
Ongoing Exhibition

Sir Charles Nicholson (1808-1903) was both a man of his time, and in many ways, ahead of his time. Serving as Vice-Provost from 1851 to 1854 and Provost (Chancellor) from 1854 to 1862, he played an important role in establishing the University of Sydney and developing its cultural and artistic life.

This exhibition features a selection of his extraordinary benefaction of art and antiquities to the University. On the 200th anniversary of Nicholson's birth, Man and Museum celebrates his life and achievments, and the legacy he left for future generations in the shape of the Nicholson Museum.