In a trip to Bendigo last week, Victorian Premier Denis Napthine took time out to get up, close and personal with some heavenly Greek bodies.
Dr Napthine visited Bendigo Art Gallery to attend a preview of its latest exhibition The Body Beautiful in Ancient Greece – an exhibition which features more than 100 treasures from the British Museum’s world famous Greek and Roman collections, and explores the human body as seen through ancient Greek eyes.
Speaking at the show’s preview, the Premier said: “I urge people from the length and breadth of Australia to come along and see the exhibition. It’s absolutely breathtaking”.
Dr Napthine went on describe the show as a major coup for Victoria’s fourth most populated city.
Particularly taken with one exhibit – the Discobolus statue; an iconic marble of a discus thrower from the second century AD, the Premier said that he was “blown away” by the show, which features over 100 historical works.
The exhibition traces how Greek artists experimented – for more than 2000 years – with representing the human body; from abstract simplicity to the full-blown realism of the age of Alexander the Great.
Bendigo Art Gallery Director Karen Quinlan told Neos Kosmos that the Premier had been a long-standing supporter of the project:
“We were delighted to hear the opening remarks of the Hon. Denis Napthine, Premier of Victoria [at] our thank-you event.
“He was particularly keen to see the sculpture of the discus thrower, and keenly absorbed the curatorial descriptions presented to him by Dr Ian Jenkins from the British Museum.”
Dr Jenkins – who is responsible for the ancient Greek collection at the British Museum – curated The Body Beautiful in Ancient Greece with assistant curator Victoria Turner.
Touring venues in Europe, Asia and the Americas, Bendigo Art Gallery is the only Australian venue to host the exhibition.