Thursday, September 29, 2011

The Temple of Muses

Mythological Figures and Fables



engraving of astrological zodiac figures emerging from conflagration at the beginning of the universe
The Chaos or the Origin of the World



human trees in back of reclining chimeric beast-humans : 17th c. engraving
Transformation of Cyguns into a Swan and Phaeton's Sisters into poplar trees



engraved battle between swordsman on flying horse and chimeric lion - book illustration
Bellerophon fights the Chimaera



engraved mythological person holds bull's head to the ground
Achelous in the shape of a Bull is vanquished by Hercules



Bernard Picart engraving of seated person playing violin (+ ornate baroque border)
Amphion builds the walls of Thebes by the Music of his Lyre



lyre-playing person rides on stylised fish in the ocean (engraving)
Arion preserved by a Dolphin



book illustration engraving by Bernard Picart of the mythological figure Atlas supporting the starry heavens on his shoulders
Atlas supports the Heavens on his shoulders



b&w figure of winged icarus from mythology plummets out of control to earth
The Fall of Icarus



18th c engraving of bearded merman in the ocean
Glaucus changed into a Sea-God



book illustration of human seated in moonlit clouds above a sleeping human on land
The Moon and Endymion



illustration of stylised ancient sailboat in trouble in big seas
The Dioscuri or Castor and Pollux the Guardians of Mariners



engraving of mythical Ulysses in a ship passes the sirens calling from the shallows
Ulysses and his companions avoid the charms of the Sirens



mythical Hercules wields club against 7-headed hydra beast
Hercules' Combat with the Hydra



man pushes rock up hill while winged monsters impedes the progress (mythological engraving)
Sisyphus's stone



In mythical hell scene, human is bound and rotated on a punishment wheel
Ixion's wheel



Bernard Picart's engraved mythological scene of hell with human misery all around
Hell



Bernard Picart (or Picard) (1673-1733) was a French book illustrator and one of the outstanding engravers from the first decades of the 18th century. His most famous work - see: Designer Religion - was an enormous compendium of the world's religions.

In 'Neueröffneter Musen-Tempel', a collection of mythological fables and stories (most notably from Ovid's 'Metamorphoses') is presented, accompanied by sixty copperplate engravings by Picart. The illustrations are superior in quality, even as they appeared in 1733 in the fading light of the Baroque tradition. The fabulous ornate border patterns lend the compositions something of a formal quality like framed paintings; indeed, Picart drew inspiration for a number of his engravings from mid-17th century works by the Rubens student, Abraham van Diepenbeeck. But the majority of the designs are by Picart himself.

Motives listed for Picart's illustration include: Alcyone, Alpheus, Andromeda, Apollo, Arethusa, Argonauts, Argus, Aristaeus, Artemis, Calais, Cassandra, Castor, Ceyx, Cycnus, Deucalion, Dioscuri, Echo, Enceladus, Endymion, Eos, Eurynome, Giants, Glaucus, Harpies, Heliades, Hera, Hermaphroditus, Hermes, House of Hypnos, Io, Iphis, Leander, Leucothoe, Lycaon, Memnon, Niobe, Niobids, Oeneus, Palladium, Pan, Perseus, Phaethon, Phineus, Polydeuces, Proteus, Pygmalion, Pyrrha, River Gods, Salmacis, Selene, Semele, Syrinx, Tantalus, The Flood, Tithonus, Trojan War, Troy, Underworld, Zetes, Zeus [source]

'The Temple of Muses' was published in France and Germany simultaneously in 1733 and includes captions in English, French, German and Dutch below each illustration. The images above are from a 1754 edition published in Amsterdam.

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Crustacean Atlas

hand-coloured engravings of crabs



Versuch einer Naturgeschichte der Krabben und Krebse e



Versuch einer Naturgeschichte der Krabben und Krebse a



Versuch einer Naturgeschichte der Krabben und Krebse j



Versuch einer Naturgeschichte der Krabben und Krebse g



Versuch einer Naturgeschichte der Krabben und Krebse



Versuch einer Naturgeschichte der Krabben und Krebse b



18th c. hand-coloured engravings of crustacea



Versuch einer Naturgeschichte der Krabben und Krebse d



Herbst - 18th c engravings crustacea



Versuch einer Naturgeschichte der Krabben und Krebse h



Versuch einer Naturgeschichte der Krabben und Krebse k



hand-coloured engraving of a crab from the 1700s by jfw herbst


Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Herbst (1743-1807) was a German naturalist and entomologist as well as a theologian and chaplain for the Prussian army.

Herbst was best known for helping Carl Jablonsky attempt to survey all known beetles (Order Colyoptera). The effort resulted in the massive, but still incomplete 'Naturgeschichte der in-und Ausländischen Insekten' (1785-1806) (see: i, ii)

The title of present interest - 'Versuch einer Naturgeschichte der Krabben und Krebse' ([An attempt at] The Natural History of Crabs and Lobsters) - was released in instalments between about 1782 and the mid-1790s. There were three volumes of text and an atlas consisting of more than sixty hand-coloured engravings. It appears various editions were issued before 1800, some coloured, some not and some coloured later : all having an impact on the auction price today (ranging from, say, $6K to $18K).

Herbst's crab and lobster book was - as far as I can tell - the first comprehensive work on the crustaceans and definitely included descriptions and illustrations of previously unknown species. It is still regarded as a primary source in the field.
JFW Herbst titles on Amazon

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Lear's Parrots - The Prequel

Edward Lear Sketches of Parrots Relating to 'Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots' (1832), ca. 1830 (MS Typ 55.9). Houghton Library, Harvard University.

A selection of plates from Lear's published book can be seen in the following post from 2008: The Parrots.

That book is definitely one of my all-time favourite natural history publications; so I was particularly happy to discover Harvard's intriguing collection of preliminary sketches and practice lithographs by Lear.

To quote myself:
"The balance of critical opinion regards Lear's book on parrots to be the finest ever published on that bird family and among the greatest ornithological works ever produced.

It's not just because such an audacious project was successfully completed by so young a character, or that the subject matter was drawn so sensitively and with great scientific accuracy and naturalistic detail, but because the exceptional quality of Lear's plates - drawn, wherever possible, from living specimens - would significantly influence the work of two contemporary artists, John James Audubon and John Gould, perhaps the greatest ornithological illustrators of all time.

Both Audubon and Gould would employ Lear during the 1830s to assist in their projects and it was only failing eyesight that foreshortened Lear's bird illustrating career."
Note: Edward Lear was TWENTY YEARS OLD when his Parrot book was published!!



Lesser sulphur-crested cockatoo --  ink, graphite and watercolour drawing (15)
Lesser sulphur-crested cockatoo : ink, graphite and watercolour drawing. 45 x 30.9 cm.

Drawing cut-out and pasted on leaf.

Inscribed upper left:
"September 1830. Plyctolophus Sulphureus. from a living specimen at Bruton Street."



Two small green birds  hand - coloured lithograph
Two small green birds : hand-coloured lithograph




Macaw -- graphite and watercolour drawing (18)
Macaw : graphite and watercolour drawing. 35.4 x 25.7 cm.




Two small parrots in foliage - ink and watercolour drawing (63)
Two small parrots in foliage : ink and watercolour drawing. 37.2 x 55 cm.




Parrot head (red and yellow macaw) - graphite and watercolour drawing (68)
Parrot head [red and yellow macaw] : graphite and watercolour drawing. 36.5 x 37 cm



Gray cockatoo - graphite and watercolour drawing (57)
Grey cockatoo : graphite and watercolour drawing. 42.8 x 31.6 cm.




Salmon-crested cockatoo -- graphite and watercolour drawing (25)
Salmon-crested cockatoo : graphite and watercolour drawing. 54.7 x 36.6 cm.

Drawing for plate 2 in 'Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots' , 1832.

[Two supplemental pieces of paper [MS Typ 55.9 (22/25a), MS Typ 55.9 (22/25b)] were detached from the sheet for drawing 22 by Lear himself and affixed to drawing 25. One, with colour samples, overlaid the lower right corner of drawing 25; the other was used to extend the feathered crest of the cockatoo beyond the upper edge of the main sheet of drawing 25.]



End 6. Small parrot --  hand-coloured lithograph. drawing (85)
Small parrot : hand-coloured lithograph. drawing. 55.4 x 36.4 cm.




Green parrot - ink, graphite and watercolour drawing (31)
Green parrot : ink, graphite and watercolour drawing. 33.7 x 29.2 cm.

Inscribed:
"Palaeornis Torquatus. Leila: living at Mr. Vigor’s – Chester Terrace. drawn February 1831."




Parrot - graphite and watercolour on lithograph (8)
Parrot : graphite and watercolour on lithograph. 54.2 x 36.6 cm.

Inscribed upper left:
"Intended for P. Obscurus, alive at Bruton St. June 1830."




Blue parrot (Lear’s macaw) - graphite and watercolour drawing (22)
Blue parrot [Lear’s macaw] : graphite and watercolour drawing. 54.3 x 37.3 cm.




Green parrot - graphite and watercolour drawing (14)
Green parrot : graphite and watercolour drawing. 54.8 x 27 cm.




Tabuan parakeet (lithograph)
Tabuan parakeet : lithograph. 55.6 x 37 cm.

Inscribed at top of leaf:
"Pattern for Printing. E. Lear."



Barnard's parakeet - graphite and watercolour drawing (32)
Barnard's parakeet : graphite and watercolour drawing. 37.5 x 28.4 cm.

Drawing for plate 18 in the 'Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots', 1832.




Dark blue parrot, hand-coloured lithograph
Dark blue parrot : hand-coloured lithograph. 55.5 x 37.2 cm.




Black-capped lory, hand-coloured lithograph
Black-capped lory : hand-coloured lithograph. 55.3 x 37.2 cm.

Inscribed on top portion of leaf:
"drawn from the living Lorius Domicella at Bruton St. my first lithographic failure."



Two parrots  - ink, graphite and watercolour drawing (13)
Two parrots : ink, graphite and watercolour drawing. 55.7 x 37 cm.

One drawing cut-out and pasted on composite leaf.

Inscribed upper center:
September. 1830. "Macrocercus - ? – from living bird at the gardens."




Green and red parrot - ink, graphite and watercolour drawing (28)
Green and red parrot : ink, graphite and watercolour drawing. 34.3 x 27.4 cm.




Sulphur-crested cockatoo sketch
Sulphur-crested cockatoo : graphite and watercolor drawing. 51.2 x 36.2 cm.

Drawing for plate 3 in 'Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots', 1832.



Lear, Edward, 1812-1888. Edward Lear sketches of parrots relating to 'Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots' (1832), ca. 1830: Guide. Houghton Library, Harvard College Library.

Monday, September 12, 2011

Sedam Linoreza

abstract self portrait by Michael S. Peter, Serbia 1921



abstract linocut, serbia




linocut print by михаило с петров




b&w linocut : михаило с петров




михаило с петров linocut




abstract linocut print by Mihaila S. Petrova




Serbian abstract black and white linocut print




Mihailo S. Petrov [Michael S Peter or Mihaila S. Petrova or михаило с петров] (1902 – 1983) was a Serbian graphic artist, painter, illustrator, poet and critic, professor, book and poster designer and typographer.

Petrov was a leading graphic protagonist of the Yugoslav anti-war, anti-bourgeois and anti-nationalist Avant-Garde movement known as Zenitism, that flourished in the 1920s.
"The international review of new art and culture Zenit (1921-1926) enjoyed a reputation in the world as the only Yugoslav Avant-Garde journal, which was included in the international Avant-Garde scene at the beginning of the 1920s. Zenit was launched by Avant-Garde artist Ljubomir Micic in February 1921 in Zagreb."