Phryne before Praxiteles by Percival Ball (1845-1900). Bronze bas relief. 2620 x 3440 cm. The commission for this was awarded to the British-born sculptor by the trustees of the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 1898. The plaque was cast in 1900, and installed on the gallery's façade in 1903. This is the work for which Ball is probably best remembered in Australia. More panels were later installed on the façade, but the series of six was never completed — one and perhaps the main reason being that Ball, who had proposed the project, died in London before he could even cast this first panel. It was left to his brother in Somerset to supervise the casting and shipping of the relief to Australia for installation on 27 March 1903.
Praxiteles was a Greek sculptor working in Athens in the fourth century BC. The relief effectively realises the scene in his gallery in Athens. To the left, posing for him, is the sensuous hetaira (courtesan), who rose from poverty to become one of the richest women in ancient Greece. Ball may well have intended to show Praxiteles sketching what would become his most famous work, the mid-fourth century life-sized nude, Aphrodite of Knidos, which is said to have established Western Civilisation's standard of perfection for the female form. Ball has captured precisely the sculptor's style in conveying the emotions of all the figures in their faces and postures: unabashed display on the one hand, concentration, admiration, assessment, even perhaps boredom in the case of the young woman on the far right.
Ball's delight in his subject is reflected in his animated figures of the artist and his subject. In contrast, the companion panel, Gilbert Bayes' Assur Natsir Pal, King of Assyria (1906) conveys a less sensuous and more sombre atmosphere of regal dominance and the monumental, to typify the art and culture of the Assyrians.
Photographs and text by Philip V. Allingham, with additional comments by Jacqueline Banerjee. [You may use the images without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the photographer and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]
Bibliography
"Bronze reliefs, 1900-31." Art Gallery NSW. Web. 9 March 2026. https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/about-us/history/history-of-the-building/the-unfinished-bronze-reliefs-on-the-exterior-of-the-building-1900-31/
Free, Renée. "Late Victorian, Edwardian and French Sculptures." Art Gallery of New South Wales Quarterly: 651 (January 1972).
Scarlett, Kenneth William. "Ball, Percival." Australian Sculptors. West Melbourne: Thomas Nelson Australia, 1980.
Scarlett, Kenneth William. "Percival Ball 1844-1900." Australian Dictionary of National Biography. Volume 7 (1979). Web. 9 March 2026. https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/ball-percival-5116/text8549.
Created 9 March 2026