The first one is mild enough, the second below the fold. Interestingly enough, the explicit one is from the 1500s. Click for full size.
Love In A Tub or A Cure for a Cold, Thomas Rowlandson, Etching, 1802. Subject: Foot Baths, Sexual Behaviour, Coryza.
All from George Cruikshank, Click for full size! (Most below the fold.)
Blue Devils, George Cruikshank, Etching. Subject: Depression, Suicide, Devils & Demons.
There will be much of George Cruikshank, caricaturist and printmaker coming up, but I felt this one deserved to be on its own, given the sheer amount of very weird detail. There seems to be an implication of witchery and/or paganism here. Interestingly, this one was one of the ones designed by Frederick Marryat, a British naval officer, and author. It’s interesting to note that In 1839, Marryat also published his Diary in America, a travelogue that reflects his criticisms of American culture and society. The book and the author were both subject to acts of violence, including the burning of the book and of Marryat’s effigy in public. It can be read for free at the link provided; I note that the e-books are also available through Barnes & Noble and Amazon.
There’s an astonishing amount of detail here. Note the painting hanging on the wall – an assault in progress. That earns a WTF? Then the Goddess detail on the mantel, with the dogs. Peacock feathers on the mantel, too. They were associated with witches, particularly those with healing arts. Then there’s the cat and dog, and screaming parrot, with the mouse in between. And what appears to be a Buddha on the mantel, and so. much. more. Click for full size!
The last of Louis-Léopold Boilly for now. The second month and the ninth month of pregnancy.
Reck / Reckon
Reck
Verb, Intransitive Verb.
1: Worry, Care. To have care, concern or regard. 1b: To take heed.
2: archaic: to be of account or interest: Matter.
Transitive Verb
1: archaic: to care for; regard.
2: archaic: to matter to: concern.
[Origin: Middle English, to take heed, from Old English reccan; akin to Old Norse roekja to have care, German (ge)ruhen to deign, akin to Old High German ruohhen to take heed.]
(Before 12th Century.)
Note: I grew up using reck and reckon. I still use reckon, because most people recognize it, but I had to give up reck, it’s unfortunately been lost to most people. I would say I don’t reck instead of I don’t care, and doesn’t reck rather than doesn’t matter.
Reckon
Verb, Transitive Verb
1a: count <reckon the days to Christmas> b: estimate, compute. c: to determine by reference to a fixed basis.
2: to regard or think of as: consider.
3: chiefly dialectal: think, suppose.
Intransitive Verb
1: to settle accounts.
2: to make a calculation.
3a: judge b: chiefly dialectal: suppose, think.
4: to accept something as certain: place reliance.
-reckon with: to take into consideration.
-reckon without: to fail to consider: ignore.
[Origin: Middle English rekenen, from Old English –recenian (as in gerecenian to narrate); akin to Old English reccan.]
(13th Century.)
The girl had the good grace to blush. “I came in to get a Valentine’s card,” she said, “only I can’t choose. Look.” She pointed to the display near the counter. “Funny, sexy, or romantic – what d’you reckon?” – The Witch’s Daughter, by Paula Brackston.
Still with Louis-Léopold Boilly. I know La Luxure is supposed to be creepy, but Boilly outdid himself there. :shudder: But I do love Le Lunettes. All images, click for full size.
Louis-Léopold Boilly, Les Mangeurs d’Huitres (aphrodisiacs), Lithograph, 1825.
Louis-Léopold Boilly, La Luxure (Lechery), Lithograph, 1824.
Louis-Léopold Boilly, Le Magnetisme (Hypnotism), Lithograph, 1826.
Louis-Léopold Boilly, Les Lunettes (Eyeglasses), Lithograph, undated.
Still with Louis-Léopold Boilly. Click for full size!
Les Sangsues, Louis-Léopold Boilly, Lithograph,1827.
La Gourmandise, Louis-Léopold Boilly, Lithograph,1824.
La Felicité Parfaite, Louis-Léopold Boilly, Lithograph.
Les Ivrognes, Louis-Léopold Boilly, Lithograph, 1828.
I’ll be indulging in a highlight of Louis-Léopold Boilly the next day or three. Boilly was an incredibly talented artist, with an extraordinary gift for portraiture. Looking at his paintings, you get a strong sense that you should not be staring in the window, looking at these people, because there is a profound intimacy in his paintings. The Geography Lesson (Portrait of Monsieur Gaudry and His Daughter) is a good example of this intimacy. I also think his portrait of Robespierre is the absolute best. Boilly was a prolific painter, producing a great many small portraits as well as full scale paintings. When it comes to Les Grimaces, I like Les Grimaces 3 best. I think. All images, click for full size!
Consultation de Medecins. 1760, Lithograph, Louis-Léopold Boilly.
Les Grimaces 1, Louis-Léopold Boilly, 1823.
Les Grimaces 3, Louis-Léopold Boilly, Lithograph, 1823.
Les Grimaces 8, Louis-Léopold Boilly, Lithograph, 1823.
A new series! The Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library has an absolutely astonishing collection of old prints and drawings, all to do with medical matters. There are exquisite anatomical drawings, drawings of hospitals, and the like, but I won’t be posting those. There are wonderfully satirical prints, interesting characters, and depictions of certain maladies, etc., of which, many tickle my fancy. We’ll start with Mary Tofts, who drew a great deal of attention, from on high to low in her day, for giving birth to rabbits. (All images, click for full size.)
Mary Tofts of Godelman the pretended Rabbit Breeder, mezzotint, John Laguerre, c. 1726.
Moving on to…head stones! :D
![Loopt loopt met groot... [Operation for Stones in the Head], Laid, Claes (Nicolas) Jansz Weydtmans.](https://i2.wp.com/freethoughtblogs.com/affinity/files/2018/05/HeadStones.jpg?ssl=1)
Loopt loopt met groot… [Operation for Stones in the Head], Laid, Claes (Nicolas) Jansz Weydtmans.
Finally, we have a scary look at Elephantiasis, [Warning: A very graphic photo at that link.] a most dread disease back in the day. Note that the woman depicted has 6 toes on each foot.
Woman with Elephantiasis, Laid, Anonymous, Italian, 18th Century.
StarkAdjective.
1 a: rigid in or as if in death. b: rigidly conforming (as to a pattern or doctrine): Absolute <stark discipline>
2: archaic: strong, robust.
3: utter, sheer <stark nonsense>
4 a: barren, desolate. b 1: having few or no ornaments, bare <a stark white room> 2: harsh, blunt <the stark realities of death>
5: sharply delineated <a stark contrast>
-starkly, adverb.
-starkness, noun.
[Origin: Middle English, stiff, strong, from Old English stearc; akin to Old High German starc strong, Lithuanian starinti to stiffen.]
(Before 12th Century)
²Stark
Adverb.
1: in a stark manner.
2: to an absolute or complete degree: Wholly <stark naked> <stark mad>
(13th Century)
“But someone had left the lights on active mode, and their reflections made the night simultaneously bright and spooky. Flashing off trees, creating gargoyles that lurked in the stark shadows of the underbrush, making people move in stylized slow motion all around me.” – In Dark Woods, Jeannette de Beauvoir.
“Going to the Dogs” Workshop #2 brought together scholars from England, Scotland, and Poland to discuss the various and complex intersections of disability- and animal-studies research. Discussions centred on talks delivered by Rachael Gillibrand (Institute for Medieval Studies, University of Leeds), Dr Ryan Sweet (School of English, University of Leeds), Dr Andy Flack (Department of History, University of Bristol), Dr Neil Pemberton (Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine, University of Manchester), and Dr Justyna Włodarczyk (Department of American Literature, University of Warsaw). The talks covered topics including the animal assistants of disabled people in the late-medieval West; nineteenth-century representations of animals with prostheses; connections between historical understandings of animals that live in darkness and vision-impaired people; the role of the caress in 1930s America human-guide-dog partnerships; and current controversies surrounding emotional-support animals in the US.
-Via Medievalists.
Silly / Thralldom / Sally
Silly.
Adjective.
1 archaic: Helpless, Weak.
2a: Rustic, Plain b obsolete: Lowly in station; humble.
3a: Weak in intellect: Foolish b: exhibiting or indicative of a lack of common sense or sound judgment.
4: Being stunned or dazed.
[Origin: Middle English sely, silly happy, innocent, pitiable, feeble, from Old English sælig, from sǣl happiness; akin to Old High German sālig happy.]
(14th Century).
“Don’t be sil—” began Jim; then he remembered just in time that the word “silly” had a very different meaning in the middle ages. It meant “innocent” or “blessed” — which was not what he meant at the moment.” – The Dragon at War, Gordon R. Dickson.
Thrall.
Noun.
1a: a servant slave: bondman, serf. b: a person in moral or mental servitude.
2a: a state of servitude or submission. b: a state of complete absorption.
–thrall, adjective.
–thralldom, noun.
[Origin: Middle English thral, from Old English thræl, from Old Norse thræll.]
(Before 12th century).
“Unhand, dog!” he snapped, in his best baronial manner. “Do you think I fear thralldom by any witch-device?” – The Dragon at War, Gordon R. Dickson.
Sally.
Noun.
1: an action of rushing or bursting forth; especially: a sortie of troops from a defensive position to attack the enemy.
2a: a brief outbreak: outburst. b: a witty or imaginative saying: quip.
3: a venture or excursion usually off the beaten track: jaunt.
[Origin: Middle French saillie, from Old French, from saillir to rush forward, from Latin salire to leap; akin to Greek hallesthai to leap.]
(1560)
“Ah, well, just a thought,” said Brian. “I’d been thinking – a quick sally to slash a few throats, then back through the gates and close them behind us.” – The Dragon at War, Gordon R. Dickson.
The Knight.
The Dance of Death by the German artist Hans Holbein (1497–1543) is a great, grim triumph of Renaissance woodblock printing. In a series of action-packed scenes Death intrudes on the everyday lives of thirty-four people from various levels of society — from pope to physician to ploughman. Death gives each a special treatment: skewering a knight through the midriff with a lance; dragging a duchess by the feet out of her opulent bed; snapping a sailor’s mast in two. Death, the great leveller, lets no one escape. In fact it tends to treat the rich and powerful with extra force. As such the series is a forerunner to the satirical paintings and political cartoons of the eighteenth century and beyond. For example, Death sneaks up behind the judge, who is ignoring a poor man to help a rich one, and snaps his staff, the symbol of his power, in two. A chain around Death’s neck suggests he is taking revenge on corrupt judges on behalf of those they have wrongfully imprisoned. In contrast, Death seems to come to the aid of the poor ploughman, by driving his horses for him and releasing him from a life of toil; the glowing church in the background implies this old man is on his way to heaven.
Holbein drew the woodcuts between 1523 and 1525, while in his twenties and based in the Swiss town of Basel.
The Miser.
The Monk.
These woodcuts are beautiful and highly detailed. In Holbein’s hands, Death makes its feelings known; Death is quite gentle in the cases of the old woman and old man, poor folk, and those of the peasant class. On the other side, Death is more than a little rude, as in the violin playing as Death drags the Duchess out of her bed. Death is not kind when it comes to the abbot, the abbess, or the monk.
One notable thing makes these beautiful woodcuts all the more astonishing, the size of them:
Holbein’s achievement is the greater because of the miniature scale he was drawing in. Reproductions obscure just how tiny the wooden blocks were — no bigger than four postage stamps arranged in a rectangle. The blocks were cut by Hans Lützelburger, a frequent and highly skilled collaborator of Holbein’s. Lützelburger had cut forty-one blocks and had ten remaining when Death surprised him too. The blocks were then sold to creditors, and eventually printed and published for the first time in Lyons in 1538 as Les simulachres and historiees faces de la mort.
You can read and see much more at The Public Domain.
