Cover
art for Republic
of women
(UQP 1999, ISBN 0-7022-3078-2)
 The
cover of Republic
of Women (UQP 1999), the critically
acclaimed novel by Australian writer Merrill
Findlay, was designed by Kate Barry for University of Queensland Press, and features
a detail of School of Women by the Australian
artist, Megaera.
Megaera's
image, in ink and charcoal, was completed in 1992 while
she was a mature-age student at Ballarat University. It
is based on a section of Raphael's School
of Athens, which depicts male philosophers of
the ancient Mediterranean world, including Plato and Socrates
who are key characters in Republic of Women.
Raphael
used his contemporaries, including Leonardo da Vinci and
Michelangelo, as his models. Megaera used her own contemporaries,
the young women in her drawing class, as her models. Her
self-portrait can be seen at the bottom left of the image.
By
retaining the confident and vigorous postures of the male
originals, Megaera achieved an image of young women taking
themselves and their creative pursuits seriously.
Raphael's
famous image can be seen on the wall of one the Pope's
chambers in the Vatican, Rome. Megaera's School of
Women could once be seen on the wall of the YWCA
Hotel in Elizabeth Street, Melbourne. Visit http://megaerart.com/ for the latest on this artist's work.
Megaera
with her School of Women,
at an event hosted by the YWCA to launch Merrill Findlay's novel during the 1999 Melbourne
Writers Festival, at the Hotel Y in Elizabeth Street.
Photo by Merrill Findlay,
September 1999.
Content last revised January 2005. This page created 21 January 2008.. |
