The Bell #1

Although R. S. Austin has been criticized for his "cold angularity," "diagnostic attitude," and "chilly meticulous classicism," his skill at printmaking is beyond doubt. With his use of a monogram (seen just to the right of center at the top edge) and certain emphatic forms such as the semicircle and the triangle, Austin was almost certainly alluding to the sixteenth-century printmaking master Albrecht Dürer—in particular his celebrated engraving Melencolia I. In place of Dürer’s winged personification of Melancholy, Austin has wittily put two pigeons (one preening itself), which help to mitigate the "cold" or "chilly" potential of this engraving masquerading as an etching. The scene of the bell and broken wheel must have exerted a strong impression on Austin, for he made another engraving of the same subject the following year, from a different angle and with a less detailed background.