LECTURE: On the beauty of Hellenistic Gold Jewellery from the Benaki Museum

The Consulate General of Greece in Sydney and the Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens are proud to host on online lecture by Dr Monica Jackson, entitled “Aspects of Beauty: Hellenistic Gold Jewellery in the Benaki Museum Collections”. The event, taking place from the University of Sydney on Thursday, February 2^nd at 06.00 pm is available online for all to enjoy.

Click HERE to register and view event.

This lecture reflects upon Dr Jackson’s research in the Benaki Museum, culminating in a book published in 2017. The story begins in the cosmopolitan city of Alexandria Egypt during the late 19th - early 20th centuries, where the collecting instincts of Antonis Benakis (1873-1954) the founder of the Benaki Museum were shaped.

Selected pieces examined in the Museum’s laboratory under the optical microscope, provide compelling evidence that individual jewellers may be identified by certain idiosyncrasies of technique. Ancient jewels individually conceived and meticulously crafted have stories to tell and layers of meaning previously unobserved and unsuspected.

About the speaker

Dr Monica Jackson is an expert on ancient Greek jewellery and a lecturer specialising in the Mediterranean, Aegean and Black Sea areas. She has participated in excavations in Greece, Cyprus and further east, with a particular area of research in Hellenistic gold jewellery. Dr Jackson has lectured extensively about this topic in Australia, the USA and England.

Her latest work is a book on the jewellery housed in the famous Benaki Museum in Athens, “Hellenistic Gold Jewellery in the Benaki Museum, Athens” which contains 130 beautiful photographs which accompany Dr Jackson’s analysis. The book is a complete presentation of the entire Hellenistic jewellery of the Benaki Museum. Jewellery is tested both in typology and in complex construction techniques. In a separate chapter, is developed the historical context in which the goldsmith of the period grew.

Dr Jackson will not only talk of pieces from the collection but will also give an insight into the Benaki family itself.