Eric Gill’s elegant and voluptuous engraving Eve (1926) is unambiguous in its erotic content, placing the snake (traditionally identified as Satan) directly between her legs. The exploits of women – as moral exemplar, feared aberration, fraught object of desire, and cautionary tale – are prominent in the exhibition. These particular characters, and the dramatic potential their lives encompassed, have inspired artists, appealed to their patrons, and captured the imagination of the wider public throughout the ages, resulting in a proliferation of interpretations. The emphasis is on controversial mythological, Biblical and historical figures whose (often invidious) exploits have challenged the status quo, and helped shape world events and perceptions across many centuries in the development of Western art and culture. It soon becomes apparent that may of the individuals depicted here transcend such terms and are complex in both context and perceptions”. She makes the point that the exhibition terminology is flexible, and will probably be determined by the attitude of the viewer, “…we have applied the categories of ‘radical’, ‘slayer’ and ‘villain’ loosely. Stone has brought together sixty-six works and twelve illustrated volumes replete with provocative scenes of degradation, revenge, despair, violence, institutionalised torture, corruption, heroism and a deeply ambivalent relationship on the part of the individual towards contemporary society. Orde Poynton, particularly the then-neglected areas of Greek and Roman classics. The book collection was the principal focus of J. (Arthur Mayger) Hind (1880-1957), Keeper of the Department of Prints (1933-45), whose specialty was in Italian engravings.
Many of the works were vetted by experts at the British Museum such as A.M. In seeking to build a collection in which all printing techniques would be exemplified, the majority of the works were purchased between 19, a proportion from well-known dealers in London. The elder Poynton was awarded the Dawson Williams Memorial Prize for founding the Heard Homes for convalescent rheumatic children in London, and maintained a first-class cricket career for Somerset County between 18. The donated prints are believed to have been the passion of his father, Frederic John Poynton (1869-1943), who was noted for his study of rheumatism in children, and was elected president of the British Paediatric Association (BPA) in 1931 (now the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health). Poynton reportedly packed up portions of his gift to the Baillieu in cartons intended for blood transfusion bottles, and that, coupled with his profession and experiences in the war, act as something of a metaphor for the often lurid and gruesome contents of the present exhibition. He became one of the many POWs incarcerated at the infamous Changi Prison, which led to him being brought to Australia to recover from its privations. Orde Poynton was a pathologist who joined the British Army in World War II, and was captured by the Japanese in 1942. It owes much of its scope to the English-born doctor (John) Orde Poynton, AO, CMG (1906-2001), who donated some 3,000 prints and 15,000 books from 1959 onwards, the year the library was completed. The Baillieu Library Print Collection has developed over time to comprise over 8,000 items dating from the late 15th century to the 21st century, and with a particular strength in European old masters. An integral part of this year’s program, Radicals, Slayers and Villains: Prints from the Baillieu Library at the Noel Shaw Gallery (until 3 August, 2014), is curated by Kerrianne Stone, the Curatorial Assistant of Special Collections (Prints).
Of great cultural significance and including individual heritage objects, the official number of University collections now stands at thirty, with a further eight sub-collections that are managed by other collections, or sit within ‘parent’ collections. The depth, diversity and size of the University of Melbourne’s museums and collections, some dating from the earliest years of the institution’s establishment in 1853, will be in focus during its biennial Cultural Treasures Festival (26 – 27 July, 2014).