“Moulding the Public Taste” – Casts in the NGV collection
(2017) Academia and Bohemia: New Perspectives on the National Gallery School — Location: Melbourne (21.June.2017)
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- Authors
Van de Ven, Annelies 
- Abstract
- Between 1859 and 1862 Melbourne based judge Sir Redmond Barry oversaw the acquisition of over 200 casts for the Melbourne Public Library and Art Gallery, the institutions that would later grow into the State Library and National Gallery of Victoria. His efforts to improve the aesthetic instruction in the newly founded colony did not exist in a vacuum, but rather formed part of a wider trend towards Classicism that extended across Europe, Britain and America. Like many of its foreign counterparts, the collection eventually fell out of favour, and it was dispersed across multiple institutions as originality became the new buzzword in artistic circles. However, with the rise of new materialism in artistic and educational theory has recently brought replicas back to the fore, shedding new light on how they can supplement or augment our experiences with the ‘originals’. This paper will place the history of Barry’s National Gallery cast collection within this wider framework and show how elements of his aesthetic philosophy live on in the NGV today.
- Affiliations
University of Melbourne
Citations
Van de Ven, A. (2017). “Moulding the Public Taste” – Casts in the NGV collection. Academia and Bohemia: New Perspectives on the National Gallery School, Melbourne. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/213671