Illustration inspired by Goethe’s Faust I’ve always preferred my devils civilised. Not the horned livestock of Sunday-school murals, nor the pantomime villain with a pitchfork and a contract written in sulphur. Those devils are easy to spot, which is why they’re mostly harmless. The devil that troubles me — the one who lingers — is … Continue reading The Smiling Corroder
Category: art-history
John Martin’s Pandemonium: A Sermon of Fire and Futility
John Martin (1789–1854), Pandemonium, 1841.Oil on canvas. Tate Britain, London. Public domain. There are certain paintings before which I feel less a viewer and more a trespasser — a mortal who has wandered into a divine quarrel. John Martin’s Pandemonium (1841) is one such work. One scarcely enters it so much as one plummets into … Continue reading John Martin’s Pandemonium: A Sermon of Fire and Futility
The Laughing Maw: A Fool, His Blind Eye, and the Human Condition
Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen (attributed), The Laughing Fool, c.1500–1510. Oil on panel. Rijksmuseum Twenthe, Enschede. In art some faces smile, and some rupture. Faces that split open into something older than laughter and far more dangerous. The Laughing Fool belongs among these ruptures. He greets the viewer not with the civility of portraiture but with … Continue reading The Laughing Maw: A Fool, His Blind Eye, and the Human Condition
The Ugly Duchess: A Comedy of Flesh and Folly
The Ugly Duchess (c. 1513) by Quinten Matsys. The National Gallery, London. Public domain image. When I first looked at Matsys’ An Allegory of Folly (see previous post), I remember thinking that the jester’s cap was the most honest crown mankind ever designed. A fool’s bauble, yes — but at least it declared what kings … Continue reading The Ugly Duchess: A Comedy of Flesh and Folly
An Allegory of Folly
Quentin Matsys, An Allegory of Folly (c.1510–1520, Musée du Louvre, Paris). Public domain. Folly, that eternal fool in mankind’s court, is rarely so vividly dressed as in Quentin Matsys’ An Allegory of Folly. Painted in the early sixteenth century, when Europe was still shaking off the medieval habit of believing its own sermons, this grotesque … Continue reading An Allegory of Folly
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