Hellenic and Roman Societies' Sculpture Day

In honour of the Sculpture Day, held by the Societies on 28th June, our Deputy Librarian, Paul Jackson, raided the Rare Books collection and did a display of the library's sculpture-related treasures. Sadly such displays cannot become regular occurrences, as the cases were only loaned to us temporarily, so here are some highlights in case you missed the exhibition. Full details of what was shown can be found here.

One of the brightest treasures on display was this reconstruction of the Parthenon Frieze by Shirley Pickett (below), illustrating her theory that in ancient sculpture the male figures would be painted in darker colours and the female figures left pale.

Pickett, Shirley. The Elgin Marbles in Colour: a reconstruction of the Parthenon frieze (1997)

We were also very lucky to have two 17th century engravings on display, which form part of a recent bequest from Dr. P J Casey (1935-2016). The first shows the sculpture from the Arch of Septimius Severus, and the second from the Arch of Constantine.

Thank you to everyone who attended the Sculpture Day, and we hope you enjoyed looking at the displays as much as we enjoyed setting them out!

Deputy Librarian, Paul Jackson, setting out the first case!