Saints, Demons, Death, and the Devil for Metal Dudes, Part I

This post is dedicated to a friend who has been scrupulously studying the works of Albrecht Dürer to make a film for his compositions. I am lucky enough to be a sounding board for the script and process, which has been wildly inspiring.

First are some images by Dürer.

Knight, Death, and the Devil, 1513

Melancholia I, 1514

St. Jerome in his Study, 1514

These will be the main parts of the film, featuring the characters in various ways, often indirect, as well as common themes such as the hourglass. 

One of his earlier prints is also of note, since he had nearly perfected his ideas of proportion and plays with the idea of the humors. And who doesn't love that goat in the top right corner?

Adam and Eve, 1504

I should also note that there are some great bits about Dürer in THIS BOOK

Recently, this also led me to look further into the creative stylings in depictions of St. Anthony. He was tempted by demons, and since demons don't have a single face or type, it was an invitation for artists to be as inventive as possible. My favorite:

Martin Schöngauer, Temptation of St. Anthony, 1470s

The style here is amazing, and the creativity even more so.

And St. Anthony was also the namesake of an illness ("St. Anthony's Fire") now known as ergotism. Because of this, he was featured in a brilliant altarpiece by Matthias Grünewald:

Isenheim Altarpiece, 1512-1516

It depicts a Jesus covered in lacerations, skin affected similarly to those with the disease.

In the left-hand corner on the internal wing, St. Anthony is again tortured by demons.

HERE you can see the how the altarpiece opens.

In another altarpiece in Aachen, I found this little guy being very proud of doing his job next to St. Anthony.

And HERE is a funny rant on depictions of St. Anthony. 

More to come later!

"for months [I] had been dealing with cadavers of all sexes and all ages - I could even eat my lunch sitting with the dead limbs." 

- W.S. Heckscher, art historian

from The Life and Work of W. S. Heckscher

Putti Investigating Anatomy

From the Rijksmuseum

John Dee Painting Hiding Skulls

Read about it at THE GUARDIAN

And some more John Dee craziness: http://hyperallergic.com/267999/reassembling-the-lost-library-of-a-16th-century-magician-who-spoke-to-angels/

Another Forgotten Lady Surrealist

Leonor Fini

The History and Geography of Color

From Lapham's Quarterly

Images of Utagawa Kunisada

from here

From here

from here

Random Non-Kunisada found here

The Frau Welt, Ugliness, and Art

At kbvollmarblog via Morbid Anatomy

A taste here:

Sexy Northern Mannerism

Impossible bodies by Hendrick Goltzius and his student Joachim Wtewael [Oot-vayl]:

Mars and Venus Surprised by Vulcan, Getty Museum, c. 1601-1610

Mars and Venus Surprised by Vulcan, Mauritshuis, 1601

I have seen both of these in person and there are much smaller than you would expect. They are also incredibly vibrant because rather than painting on wood, he painted on copper, which better preserves the original color. 

Goltzius, Without Bacchus and Ceres, Venus Would Freeze (Sine Cerere et Libero friget Venus), c. 1600-1603

Also something that should be seen in person. Goltzius is known for having done engravings (e.g. below). Here, is is experimenting with pen and oil paint, creating the sinuous lines as if they were made by engraving. The oil is used to add color and highlights, washing most of the painting in blue to give it the feeling of freezing and allowing the warm glow of the fire to stand out. Venus's protruding nipples are echoed by her pearl necklace and she wakes up, giving and receiving various caresses--as the grapes touch her nipple, she strokes Cupid's wing and lightly touches Ceres's shoulder. 

Here are some details to show the cross-hatching:

More prints by Goltzius:

Josef Mattersberger (1754-1825), influenced by Dürer

New Game: Is That a Uterus?

Image from The New York Times, in an article on the book Cosmigraphics

Early Modern Fashionisto

A cool blog blending historical fashion with modern:

THE FIRST BOOK OF FASHION

Leonardo's Mystery Penis

It all starts with this little guy, found in one of Leonardo's notebooks:

Casual reminder that in one of Leonardo da Vinci’s many notebooks containing innumerable artistic and scientific sketches and notes of incomprehensible important, there is a sketch of two penises with legs and tails walking towards a crudely drawn anus. The sketch was most likely done by Leonardo’s apprentice Salai, who was not only very likely one of Leonardo’s lovers, but who was also infamously mischievous. Better yet, the anus is literally labeled “Salai.” So either Salai drew these while Leonardo wasn’t looking just to annoy his boyfriend, or Leonardo himself put actual time and energy into drawing these. Either way, the human race is truly blessed to have made such a discovery. There are dick drawings like the ones you see on desks in school in Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks. Please cherish this information.

Learn more at Dangerous Minds.

Krakatoa and Color in Painting

The orange skies above Europe from the eruption of Krakatoa most famously influenced Edvard Munch's The Scream:

Munch used the stratified azure-free skies as a metaphor for angst:

Munch, Angst

Almost like a scribble nimbus from Peanuts comics.

See more Krakatoa Sunsets from The Public Domain Review. Here's a taste:

Anamorphic skulls

For anyone who wants to be able to explain Holbein's The Ambassadors of 1533.

Or you could just get one of these: 

Learning the Basics About Art History Online

Check out the Khan Academy and Kenney Mencher

Pyrotechnics in art

More on Picturing Pyrotechnics from The Public Domain Review

Nurturing a Mimetic Vocabulary

Once upon a time, a friend and I would stay up late at the diner, drinking coffee, writing, and reading. Once we decided to find new words to use, looking through the dictionary until we found something interesting. My favorite find was "vermicular"--wormlike. I haven't used it much since, but I realized how functional and colorful descriptive words can be--especially in art history where mimesis is a key component preceding any argument.

The article 18 Fancy Words for Specific Shapes is a fantastic list of largely scientific words that can easily transcend their disciplinary confines.

"Kidney beans may be reniform, but actual kidneys are fabiform."

Action verbs provide another level of interest. Poetry and literature, of course, provide a parallel universe where nouns have been verbed since at least James Joyce. Billy Collins does not write that the dog jumps through the snow--he "porpoise[s]" through it.

An Art Historical Tour of Absinthe

On a trip to the Netherlands, I bought a tiny bottle of absinthe. My roommates and friends would have none of it. And honestly, I found it pretty foul. But I could no longer stand the taste of licorice after buying Dutch Drop Mentos--a compilation of mint and licorice that seems to be a regional delicacy:

Nonetheless, absinthe has always been advertised as an intoxicating and creativity-inspiring spirit due to its art historical past, especially with Van Gogh. It doesn't hurt that Poppy Z. Brite sprinkled references to it throughout her goth fiction anthology Wormwood and Nine Inch Nails featured it in their video for Perfect Drug.

Absinthe is distilled from wormwood, anise, fennel, and god knows what else. It's often green, which is why it (and/or its effects) are referred to as "the green fairy."

But much of the mythology started with painters. Which now leads to crap like this, obviously based on his most famous self portrait and reports of his imbibing:

But Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec, and Van Gogh, among others, depicted the beverage:

Toulouse-Lautrec

Van Gogh

Privat-Livemont

Oliva

Maignon

The Academic Obsession with Mad Men

First, I would like to point out that Mad Men has some amazing art historical conversations and images throughout. It's hard for an art historian to forget the scene when the underlings sneak in to Cooper's office to see the Rothko, when visitors catch sight of The Fisherman's Wife, etc. And the artworks themselves have spawned a blog just to keep track of them: http://artofmadmen.wordpress.com/

But both academics and libraries have combined a love of mad men with scholarly inquiry. Duke University Library's Rubenstein Rare Book Library has created Mad Men Mondays to use the show as a jumping off point for investigations into parts of collection that corroborate the ideas floating around in the 60s: http://blogs.library.duke.edu/rubenstein/tag/mad-men/

And Duke University Press came out recently with a volume called Mad Men, Mad World: Sex, Politics, Style and the 1960s, edited by Lauren M. E. Goodlad, Lilya Kaganovsky, and Robert A. Rushing