Incredible Northern German Woodcuts of Peasants

July and August

I've never seen these woodcuts before, or heard of the artist. Hans Sebald Beham. He was a German engraver who lived between 1500 and 1550 CE. His subjects range from the super religious to the allegorical to the bawdy peasantry. His details are exquisite. It looks to me as though most of his work was produced in the final 10 years of his life.

What is incredible to me is that these engravings have not really been "recognized" by SCA people who make 16th C. Flemish or continental peasant garb. I was put on the trail of them from a random web posting about the subject. So all credit goes to Michaela de Bruce at http://glittersweet.com for her answer to someone else's inquiry. Check her site out, she's an excellent art resource and her personal work is spectacular.

The SCA is a very tradition oriented organization. While people are finding new things all the time, most people focus on what others have found and the "bigwigs" have "approved". Hopefully, a new generation of SCAdians can shake some of these notions. I know that I'll definitely take any research I can get as long as I can verify it..


SO anyway, on to these most excellent engravings. They are difficult to link to because the best versions are at a site that has incredibly long http's. But I'll give some instructions:

1.) Go to http://collectionsonline.lacma.org

2.) Search for "Hans Beham" or "Beham Peasants"

There are also several other places to find large collections of his work. A Google search should bring them up.



I love this print because it is so bawdy. You've got groping, puking, reveling. This just reminds me of what actually goes on at SCA events. I'm sure I'm not the only one to suspect that we're all much more peasant than our automatic nobility status confers. Americans especially have never really gotten on the "proper behavior" bandwagon.

I love the SCA.

YiStTD,

Gillian