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Meller (Peter) papers
UArch FacP 55
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Title: Peter Meller papers
Identifier/Call Number: UArch FacP 55
Language of Material:
English,
German,
Italian,
Hungarian.
Contributing Institution:
UC Santa Barbara Library, Department of Special Research Collections
Physical Description:
76 Linear Feet
(76 cartons)
Creator:
Meller, Péter, 1923-2008
Date (inclusive): approximately 1923-2008
Abstract: Career files of University of California, Santa Barbara, Professor of Art History emeritus Peter Meller (1923-2008).
Physical Location: The collection is located at the Southern Regional Library Facility (SRLF).
The collection is open for research. The collection is stored offsite. Advance notice is required for retrieval.
All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Research
Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Department of Special Research Collections as the owner
of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder where the UC Regents do not
hold copyright. For copyright status contact the Department of Special Research Collections.
Bequest, 2012, 2013.
[Identification of Item], Peter Meller papers, UArch FacP 55. Department of Special Research Collections, UC Santa Barbara
Library, University of California, Santa Barbara.
Peter [Meller] was born in Budapest in 1923. Growing up in a privileged and cultured environment, he was encouraged in his
pursuit of creative interests. At school he excelled in the study of Greek and Latin. Although his father was Jewish, his
mother was Catholic, so he was able to continue his education until the occupation of Hungary by German troops in the spring
of 1944, when he had to go into hiding. He and his immediate family escaped the deportations, but 17 members of his father's
extended family perished in the Holocaust. After the war, he completed his degree in the history of art and began his academic
career, teaching but also serving as a curator at the Museum of Fine Arts. Sympathetic to the aims of the Hungarian Revolution
of 1956, he fled with his wife and daughter across the border into Austria to escape the brutal Soviet suppression. He worked
in Italy for a decade before accepting a permanent position at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he remained
for the rest of his life, frequently visiting Europe in connection with his scholarly work.
Excerpted from the book
The Zodiac of Wit: Peter Meller and the Graphic Imagination, by Robert Williams, (Regents of the University of California, 2012).
The collection contains notes, notices, drafts of essays related to Italian and German Renaissance art, correspondence, sketches,
and photographs. Material in the collection spans the course of Meller's professional career, and covers both his scholarly
and artistic output.
PDF scans of a portion of this material are available through the Meller Project of the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, as
part of a project undertaken in 2016 at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Department of Special Collections by
Miriam Szőcs, Andrea Rózsavölgyi of the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, and Robert Williams, of the University of California
Santa Barbara.(http://meller.szepmuveszeti.hu/)
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Art, Renaissance -- Germany
Art, Renaissance -- Italy
Correspondence
Drafts (documents)
Essays
Notes (documents)
Photographs
Sketches
Meller, Péter, 1923-2008 -- Archives
University of California, Santa Barbara. Faculty
University of California, Santa Barbara. Department of History of Art & Architecture