Light of the World
The Beatles came along at a propitious time. Copyright existed,
royalties existed and they were able to reap the fair share of the
earnings from their creative efforts. True, the cassette recorder was
arriving on the scene but the sound quality was nothing like the real
thing. Had they come along ten years later they would probably be out on
the circuit again faking enthusiasm for a geriatric crowd who would not
let them alter a note of what they created in the audience�s youth. That
is because the mass media of the internet and pirate downloads dried up
the royalties so you had to pull yourself out of a well-earned
retirement to earn money from your creative work by ticket sales and
merchandising. Copyright laws allowed creative people to earn a living
from their work for a good part of last century. But things are much
harder now.
Back in the nineteenth century, painters could do little to protect
or earn from the images they created unless they also had some skills in
marketing. Holman Hunt was a talented English painter working in the
Pre-Raphaelite style. One of his paintings captured the public
imagination in a big way. Called Light of the World it showed Jesus
with a lantern in a dark landscape about to knock on a door. The image
was soon copied by the mass image reproduction tool of the day � the
black and white engraving - and in this form it spread across the world
with no recompense to its original creator. There was something about
this image that gave it both a high-culture and a mass-culture appeal.
Before long there was hardly a vestry or Sunday School in the civilized
world that didn�t have a bootleg copy of The Light of the World hanging
on the wall. And, of course, as any good British subject of the time
would tell you, the civilized world was restricted to those communities
that had vestries. Holman Hunt reworked his painting and finally made a
third version. It was this third version that was sent on a tour of the
colonies. Canada was lukewarm, but Australia was different � and
particularly Melbourne. Most people knew of the painting from pale
reproductions but none had seen it in its full colours. Exhibitions were
set up in a darkened room with a bright light emphasizing Christ�s
lantern. Expectations were carefully built until the time of arrival.
The viewing was subtly promoted as much as a spiritual experience as an
artistic one.
In Melbourne people broke through the barriers and women fainted.
That may sound familiar. However it is worth remembering that when The
Beatles visited Melbourne, a tiny proportion of the population greeted
them at the airport or cheered them in Exhibition Street. By the time
�The Light of the World Tour� had finished it is estimated that 4
million people had come to see it and most declared to have been
profoundly affected by it At that stage, Australia�s population was 5
million which must give that tour some credentials as being bigger than
The Beatles.
The ecstatic reception from Australia, but Melbourne in particular
helped restore Holman Hunt�s waning status in Britain. In fact it could
perhaps be argued that it is because of Melbourne that both the third
version of The Light of the World and Holman Hunt himself can now be
found in London�s St Paul�s Cathedral � the former above ground, the
latter
below.
- Light of the World
- Gallery crowds
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No.1 -
The Light of the World
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