Conserving Dürer’s woodcut “The Knight and the lansquenet”

Grimwade Senior Paper Conservator, Libby Melzer, with student conservator, Laura Daenke preparing the print for washing.
Grimwade Senior Paper Conservator, Libby Melzer, with student conservator, Laura Daenke preparing the print for washing.

The Poynton Collection forms part of the highly regarded Baillieu Library Print Collection, which over the years has invaluably contributed to the teaching of academic disciplines at the University of Melbourne (Anderson 2011, p. 5; Inglis 2011, p. 105). The collection is home to one of Albrecht Dürer’s enigmatic early woodcuts, The Knight and the lansquenet (c. 1496). This magnificent woodcut by the master printmaker depicts a knight on horseback and a lansquenet (foot soldier) in the woods. Unfortunately, a past attempt at repairing several prominent tears caused considerable aesthetic and physical damage. Consequently, the woodcut was deemed not suitable for exhibition without extensive conservation treatment.

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Horizon Lines: Copyright Infringement and Collaboration

The Baillieu Print Collection contains over 9,000 works of art including pieces by Rembrandt, Dürer and the Australian artist, Lionel Lindsay. Some of the highlights of the collection are shown in the newly opened exhibition Horizon Lines: The Ambitions of a Print Collection. Having visited the exhibition, I can thoroughly recommend it and thought I would share some of my thoughts.
The exhibition is being held to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Harold Wright and Sarah & William Holmes scholarships, which sponsor Australian and New Zealand scholars to go to the British Museum to study the print collection. The scholarships aim to promote collaboration between institutions in Britain and Australia and New Zealand. Notably, this latest exhibition features several replicas and drawings of objects from the British Museum collections.

Erin Holder visits Horizon lines exhibition.
Erin Holder visits Horizon lines exhibition.

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New exhibition and lightning talks: Horizon lines

View into the exhibition "Horizon lines" Noel Shaw Gallery
View into the exhibition “Horizon lines” Noel Shaw Gallery

Horizon lines: the ambitions of a print collection is a new exhibition in the Baillieu Library. It is staged as one of the activities to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Harold Wright and Sarah and William Holmes scholarships, awards enabling print scholars from Australia or New Zealand to examine prints at the British Museum. The exhibition begins on the ground floor with a display on Harold Wright, London print seller and connoisseur, and the etchings from his personal collection. In the Noel Shaw Gallery on the first floor, the main exhibition unfolds with works of art from the Baillieu Library Print Collection featuring Northern and Italian Renaissance printmakers, such as Albrecht Dürer, and Dutch Republic prints, including Rembrandt, as well as the etching revival.

Come along on Tuesday 20th of August at 12:00 noon to hear print room interns speak about their discoveries and insights into selected prints in the exhibition.

Inside the exhibition "Horizon lines" Noel Shaw Gallery
Inside the exhibition “Horizon lines” Noel Shaw Gallery

The peasants’ feast by Sebald Beham

The mid-16th century, marked by the beginning of the Protestant Reformation, was a challenging time for artists working in northern Europe. In January 1525, only 7 years after Martin Luther had nailed his 95 theses onto the door of a chapel in Wittenberg and thereby setting in motion the Protestant Reformation, three artists; the brothers Sebald and Barthel Beham, and Georg Pencz were trialled before the town council of Catholic Nuremberg. For months these ‘godless painters’ were banished from the city for claiming they did not believe in baptism, Christ or transubstantiation (the belief that bread and wine would become the physical body and blood of Christ at consecration) [1.].

Hans Sebald Beham, "The peasants' feast" from series "The country wedding" (1546), engraving
Hans Sebald Beham, “The peasants’ feast” from series “The country wedding” (1546), engraving

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The Spirit of England in Australia: Alan Bell’s Nightly Broadcasts

By Harshini Goonetilleke

“Lately, I have been strenuously ramming down Australian throats Britain’s efforts and burden – which swell impressively when you are so many thousand miles away.”[1] Alan Bell was indeed very far away from the wintery English landscape that he called home. May 1942 saw Bell make his way to the other side of the world on secondment to Melbourne radio station 3DB. The well-known Fleet Street journalist, who had made a name for himself through his work at the London Daily Mail and the BBC was now striving to serve his country in Australia, conveying England’s plight to her people in the Dominion.

Caricature of Bell by Herald cartoonist, “Wells”
Fig. 1. Cartoon of Alan Bell by the Melbourne Herald cartoonist, Wells. Image featured in Alan Bell’s second volume of broadcasts published in 1944 entitled Night In, Night Out. Accessed through the National Library of Victoria.

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