The Offerings of Peace and The Offerings of War
The Offerings of Peace and The Offerings of War are a pair of bronze allegorical equestrian statues by Gilbert Bayes commissioned for the entrance of the Art Gallery of New South Wales. They have been on permanent display since their installation in 1926. Description Peace (on the left of the Gallery entrance) and War (on the right) each show a male rider astride a horse. The models for the works are the Elgin Marbles and the riders carry symbolic items as their "offerings". Peace carries the Greek theatre masks of Tragedy and Comedy representing "the arts" and "plenty", while War holds a staff, a bundle of swords and broken spear shafts. Artistically, they "make no concession to the twentieth century" and are "...completely at one with the neo-classical Victorian facade [of the gallery], which is in itself allegorical." Commission In 1903 Bayes was commissioned to design a bronze relief panel for the façade of the New South Wales Art Gallery. "Subjects typical of Assyrian or Egyptian art were required." His design depicting Assur-Natsir-Pal, King of Assyria, was produced in 1906 and in 1907 became the first panel to be installed on the façade. In 1915, after the outbreak of World