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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Charles Meryon and the French etching revival

By the early 19th century in Europe, the intaglio technique of etching had fallen out of popularity in the graphic arts. Etching was a popular printmaking technique during the 16th and 17th centuries, with artists such as Rembrandt and Dürer regularly experimenting with the method. To create an etching, the printmaker coats a metal plate (traditionally copper) with an acid-resistant ‘ground’ before drawing their design through the ground with a sharp tool. Once the design is drawn, the plate is immersed in acid and the chemical reactions between the acid and the metal results in those areas unprotected by the ‘ground’ leaving behind clear lines. After cleaning the ‘ground’ off the plate, the printmaker applies ink to the incised lines and then transfer the design onto paper.

During the early 19th century, etching was employed as a reproductive process, and it consequently became closely associated with ideas of mass production and industry. In spite of this, a number of artists continued to pursue the medium. French artists and printmakers persevered with etching throughout the first half of the 19th century, and by the 1860s, a full-scale movement was underway that sought the contemporary revival of the technique [1].

Charles Meryon after Renier Zeeman, "Le Pavillon De Mademoiselle Et Une Partie Du Louvre", (1849), etching
Charles Meryon after Renier Zeeman, “Le Pavillon De Mademoiselle et une partie du Louvre”, (1849), etching.

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Archives of the disability rights movement

On 28 March, the University of Melbourne Archives with the Arts Faculty and Scope co-hosted the launch of the Geoffrey Bell Archive, with support from the State Trustees Australia Foundation.

The Geoffrey Bell Archive is a useful resource for researchers interested in the history of the disability rights movement in Australia and may prove a useful aid for future debates and discussions on disability rights issues. It is the first collection held at UMA that documents the disability rights movement and the lived experience of Australian’s with a disability.

At the launch, Geoff’s friend and fellow disability rights advocate, Maree Ireland gave a beautifully moving account of the contribution made by Geoff and the importance of his archive. We are delighted to be able to publish it. 

Maree Ireland speaks at the launch of the Geoffrey Bell Archive
Maree Ireland speaks at the launch of the Geoffrey Bell Archive, 28 March 2019

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The Great mirror of folly now digitised

Het Groote tafereel der dwaasheid or the ‘Great mirror of folly’ as it is known in English, is a unique Amsterdam publication complied around the year 1720, by an unnamed publisher, as a record of the aftermath of the West’s first stock market crash. No two volumes of this book are the same because different ephemeral items such as the prints, songs, poetry and broadsides which proliferated that year, were gathered up into bindings of varied arrangements and contents. The resulting book is something akin to a kaleidoscopic view of the financial misadventures of Europe in the 18th century.

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