A Dore
It is Gustave Dore’s birthday. It is of an interesting note, that Dore had no formal training in art. To look at his engravings, you’d be shocked.
It is Gustave Dore’s birthday. It is of an interesting note, that Dore had no formal training in art. To look at his engravings, you’d be shocked.
Hmm, heard of St. George & the Dragon, but not St. Mike…
LOL, today’s cartoon is a classic! I love the way you integrated a local news story into this strip to good effect. And it’s another example of why Squid Row needs to be in the local paper.
P.S. I’m sending a letter to the Herald mentioning Squid Row in the larger context of how the newspaper has lost its community spirit. Watch for it. They have published 95% of the letters I’ve sent, so I’m hopeful it will get published. If it doesn’t, I’ll just send it to the Pine Cone!
Patrick and I are great admirers of Gustave Dore’s work.
Another brilliant artist who worked in Biblical themes was the 18th century Brazilian Antonio Francisco Lisboa, better known as Aleijadinho (“Little Cripple”). He created a series of magnificent soapstone sculptures of the Old Testament Prophets which must be seen to be appreciated. The amazing thing is that he accomplished this after losing his hands to a debilitating disease. Each day he would have assistant literally strap his sculpting tools to his hand stumps, and he would chip away. We have visited Ouro Preto, Brazil and seen them. They truly are impressive in every way. You can read about Aleijadinho here: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/13709/Aleijadinho
Albrecht Dürer did a fairly famous woodcut as an illustration for the Apocalypse in Revalations Ca. 1500…. Allow me to Google for a moment….
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:D%C3%BCrer_-_Michaels_Kampf_mit_dem_Drachen.jpg
“And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven” (Rev. 12:7)
St. Michael doing battle with that old wyrm, the Devil is a fairly common theme.
Dragons and the Devil were interchangeable for quite some time – the name Dracula can be translated as either Son of the Dragon or as Son of the Devil. (Dragul made his son look like a piker….)
For that matter, if you enjoy oddities… Pendragon also means Son of the Dragon (in this case the Red Dragon of Britain).
I used that illustration in a RPG scenario a few years ago, so it was in my head….
The Auld Grump
Neighbor could also have opted for St. Margaret or St. Martha, both of whom legendarily killed dragons. St. Michael’s probably easier to comprehend, though, for bystanders.
Albrecht Dürer’s name is a lot of fun to say out loud. “A-DURRRRRer!”
i would go in the fight fire with fire direction with dore’s woodcut of geryon from inferno.
Hi y’all … Just got back from a whirlwind trip to SoCal… Three days Lompoc to Chino Hills and back… Whew!
My favorite fountain in Paris is St. Michel slaying the Devil (dragon) in the Latin Quartier…
Jim ( Bonjour)… I am so glad you recognized that story of the dinosaur statue in Carmel! Haha! I am sad to no longer be in my local paper, but am so grateful for fans like you! Thank you for your support!
You all have wonderful insights and links!
EofO… I had no idea …the stump for hands artist ….you talk about driven! Not even having no hands!!! That’s a miracle!
Grump… Nice lesson there… How Drac got in there is really interesting, non?
Mary… I had no idea! I learn so much in this comments section!
Dada… I love his work, too…. Deeeeeeruuuuurrrrrr!
Anatman…. Love!
@ Brig – Sorry about that….
I posted while working on my RPG stuff (I am thinking about releasing some PDF material) and my mind wandered while my fingers typed.
Oddly enough St. Michael, Dracula, and King Arthur had NOTHING to do with what I was supposed to be working on…..
At least Dürer did – I have been going over some of his art to use as clips in the PDF. (It will likely come to nothing – I absolutely HATED the business end of having my own business before – and I see no reason to think that I will like the business end of things any better now….)
The Auld Grump – the IRS HATES people that are self employed….