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The Ian
Potter Museum of Art promotes the research of key art
works and collections within the University of Melbourne
Art Collection through its Collections Management department.
Staff and volunteers have greatly contributed to our
understanding of collecting practices, art movements
and artists’ lives through on-going research. ‘Highlights’
provides on-line access to much of this research and
can be used as a valuable resource for visitors to the
museum, teachers and students.
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Napier Waller's Leckie window
The Leckie window was designed and created by Napier Waller in 1935 and erected in the original Wilson Hall at the university, set in the south wall of the southwest embrasure. The donor John E Leckie (1856–1942) was the managing director of Geelong firm RG Wilson & Co. The window was officially presented to the University of Melbourne as part of a conferring of degrees ceremony at Wilson Hall on 2nd September 1935, and became a much-loved feature of this hub of university life. After the destruction of the original Wilson Hall by fire in January 1952, the window that remained intact, (three of the Creation panels at the top were destroyed), was recovered and removed to storage. Following extensive cleaning and restoration in 1997 by stained glass expert Geoffrey Wallace, the window was installed in the new building in 1998 and is now a major feature of the Potter. It vertically unites all the gallery levels through the central atrium.
Napier Waller’s design, on which his first wife, Christian Yandell, undoubtedly collaborated, represents through the medium of biblical story and Greek mythology the growth of civilisation. Six small panels along the top represent the six days of Creation culminating in that of Adam and Eve. Three large panels running downwards on the right show Apollo (the sun god), Prometheus (who brought down the divine fire to man) and Pheidias (the master craftsman, receiver of the divine fire), engaged upon his statue of Athena, (goddess of wisdom). Three large panels running downwards on the left show Artemis (the moon goddess, representing the female principle in the Universe), Ceres (the goddess of fecundity) and Sappho (the great poetess, representing feminine genius and inspiration).
There are a number of other works by Napier Waller in the collection, including a stained glass window, Orchids c. 1940, acquired in memory of Alfred J Ewart the first Professor of Botany (1906–37), located in the main stairwell of the School of Botany; and the mural painting Australian symbolic figures, gift of the Royal Insurance Company, 1965, in the library of the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning.
The collection holds seventy stained glass designs which includes a window by John Trinick, a contemporary of Napier Waller, who has been relatively unknown in Australia until now. Trinick was prominent in England for his work in a style that reflected, in practice and spirit, the linear simplicity of Gothic stained glass.
The Leckie Window is located in the atrium of the entrance foyer of the Potter.
Related Collections:
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