The Wedding Feast of Cupid and Psyche

The Wedding-Feast of Cupid and Psyche by Guilio Romano.

All the evidence suggests the Italian painter Guilano Romano (1499-1546) was one the earliest artists who can be defined as Mannerist in creative outlook. Romano's The Wedding-Feast of Cupid and Psyche (1532) includes subject-matter of a mythological nature, its staged in a highly theatrical setting and uses unusual perspective as well as eroticism; all of which are characteristics associated with Mannerist art.

The Wedding-Feast of Cupid and Psyche was also painted by Romano's teacher, Raphael. It is however only one of several fresco's painted by Romano on the walls on the Palazzo del Te at Mantua in Italy. The lively and highly-stylized marriage-feast includes nymphs, fauns, satyrs, a drunken Silenus figure and what were at the time, rare and exotic animals, namely a camel and an elephant, both of which are centre-stage in Romano's fresco.

During the Renaissance new sources of myth such as Ovid's Metamorphoses and Hygenius' Fabulae became available to artists. It’s in the The Golden Ass by Apulieus, the sole surviving novel of the Roman-era, that the earliest literary source of the marriage of Cupid and Psyche can be found. Written sometime during the 2nd century C.E. the protagonist in The Golden Ass narrates upon his transformation into a donkey. The reader subsequently shares a donkey’s tribulations and perspective upon life which culminates during a ceremony of the cult of Isis, in which the donkey-narrator eats a bunch of roses, resulting in his becoming human once more.

Sun enters Aquarius

Celebrating the Sun entering the zodiac sign of Aquarius for the fifth billionth time. 

It was the Swiss psychologist C. G. Jung  who stated -  'As we all know, science began with the stars, and mankind discovered in them the dominants of the unconscious, the "gods," as well as the curious psychological qualities of the zodiac: a complete projected theory of human character'.  [1]

The archetype of  the zodiac sign of Aquarius the Water-Bearer is said to symbolize humanitarian idealism, self-sacrifice and service to others. However, C. G. Jung  chose to devote several years study on its adjacent sign Pisces and its relationship to Christianity,.

Aquarius is one of the four signs of the Fixed Cross of astrology; the other three being Leo the Lion, Taurus the Bull, and the Scorpion (substituted with an Eagle, perhaps because the insect was unknown outside of Europe). These zodiac signs were adopted by Christianity, perhaps as early as 400 CE by Saint Jerome as emblems of the four evangelists with Christ's sacrificial role represented by Taurus, Royalty by Leo, an all-encompassing view of humanity from a great height by Eagle/Scorpio and the combined human and angelic form of Aquarius. The Christian tetramorph is a superb example of how symbols can drastically change over long stretches of time.

In his essay on the Paracelsus, C.G. Jung sketched the psychological element of the Zodiac thus-

'He beholds the darksome psyche as a star-strewn night sky, whose planets and fixed constellations represent the archetypes in all their luminosity and numinosity. The starry vault of heaven is in truth the open book of cosmic projection, in which are reflected the mythologems i.e. the archetypes. In this vision alchemy and astrology the two classical functionaries of the psychology of the collective unconscious, join hands'. [3]

Jung was a learned and erudite scholar of comparative religion who, far from debunking astrology observed- 

The sought-for Mercurius is the spiritus vegetavius , a living planet, whose nature it is to run through all the houses of the planets i.e., the Zodiac. We could just as well say through the entire horoscope, or, since the horoscope is the chronometric equivalent of individual character, through all the characterological components of the personality. [4]

 Jung interpreted the human psyche's relationship to nature thus-

'All the mythologized processes of nature, such as summer and winter, the phases of the moon, the rainy season, and so forth, are in no sense allegories of these objective occurrences; rather they are symbolic expressions of the inner, unconscious drama of the psyche which becomes accessible to man's consciousness by way of projection - that is, mirrored in the events of nature'. [5]

In Nature, the water-bearing cloud and the magical transformation of water into frost, snow and ice can be considered as representing Aquarius. 

In the arts, numerous writers, often with a humanitarian and social reforming agenda, such as Charles Dickens for example, are represented by the sign, as well as the downright eccentric, such as Lewis Carroll, also exhibit Aquarian traits. The music of the composers Mozart, Schubert and Delius, along with Philip Glass and Frank Zappa all have strong Aquarian traits, as do the curious triumvirate, all of whom were born on January 27th, each possessing strong positive and negative Aquarian psychological traits, namely, Lewis Carroll, Mozart and Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. 

Due to its ethereal nature, Aquarius is said to be as much prone to mental illness as experiencing flashes of inspirational genius. Aquarian interests may be said to include anything unusual or odd, such as electronic music, for example. Humanitarian and secret societies are also said to be under the domain of Aquarius, as is the central nervous system, along with the realm of psychic phenomena and the esoteric in general.

One dictionary of symbols defines Aquarius as follows-

All Eastern and Western traditions relate this archetype to the symbolic flood which stands not only for the end of a formal universe but also for the completion of any cycle by the destruction of the power which held the components together.....Consequently, Aquarius symbolizes the dissolution and decomposition of the forms existing within any process, cycle or period; the loosening of bonds; the imminence of liberation through the destruction of the world of phenomena. [6]

Another source defines Aquarius thus-

The inner substance of this zodiac type is fluid, light. ethereal, volatile, limpid, transparently spiritual and, so to say, angelic. It comprises the gift of indifference to self together with serenity and self-sacrifice, friendship and concern for others. [7]

In world political affairs it is also often when the sun is in the zodiac-sign of Aquarius that the Presidential Inauguration of the American President, as well as the delivery of the President's State of the Union Address occurs, along with World Holocaust Memorial Day on January 27th.

The archetype of Aquarius is that of the herald who proclaims a new world order based upon the principle of a united humanity. The best and worst aspects of Soviet communism can be seen in introducing and implementing such an idealized society. In modern times the archetype of Aquarius continues to exert a living influence upon the human psyche in new forms of communication in mass society. Television and the computer-age are good examples of Aquarian developments of science and technology. Nuclear and Atomic energy may also be interpreted as resultant of the Aquarian archetype.

A fine example of religious symbolism and the study of comparative religion, in conjunction with a description of the glyph for Aquarius, occurs in Sir Thomas Browne's highly-compressed essay of hermetic phantasmagoria, The Garden of Cyrus.

he that considereth the plain cross upon the head of the Owl in the Lateran Obelisk, or the cross erected upon a pitcher diffusing streams of water into two basins, with sprinkling branches in them, and all described upon a two-footed Altar, as in the Hieroglyphics of the brazen Table of Bembus; will hardly decline all thought of Christian signality in them. [8]

It is of course impossible to definitively list all the psychological traits and characteristics associated with each of 12 quite distinct zodiac archetypes of the human personality. Perhaps in the future, the zodiac sign of Aquarius will revert to a mundane, rather than an esoteric meaning. If, or more likely when, the world's resources are even less secure than at present, maybe the simple act of freely sharing the life-giving element of water, without discrimination towards unknown others, viewing all life-forms as complete equals, may  hopefully be realized in this archetype.  

Notes

[1] C. G. Jung Collected Works vol 12. 246

[2] Aion : Researches into the phenomenology of the self - C.G.Jung  Vol. 9 i pub. 1959 RKP  

includes-

VI.    The Sign of the fishes p. 72 -95

VIII.  The Historical Significance of the Fish p.103

XI.    The Ambivalence of the Fish Symbol p.118

X.     The Fish in Alchemy p. 126

XI.    The Alchemical  Interpretation of the Fish  p.154

[3]    Essay on Paracelsus CW 15

[4]   CW 14: 298

[5]   CW 9  i  7 

[6]  A Dictionary of symbols   J.E. Cirlot

[7]  Dictionary of symbols Penguin  ed. Chevalier

[8] Athanasius Kircher's Oedipus Egypticus 3 vols. 1652-56 includes an engraving of the Bembine Tablet of Isis is alluded to twice in The Garden of Cyrus  pub. 1658 .

Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time

                               

Bronzino's masterpiece Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time is archetypal in its subject-matter and style to the art movement of Mannerism.
  

Mannerism originated in Rome about 1520. The style continued with undiminished vigour and conviction in secular and decorative works in Italy until about 1600, and in the Northern courts of Paris, Munich and Prague until about 1620. The last truly vigorous manifestations of Mannerism in art were in a group of Dutch artists from the schools of Haarlem and Utrecht.

The Florentine artist Agnolo di Cosmi (1503-72) also known as Il Bronzino, depicts in Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time  a quartet of allegorical personifications enacting a drama of the psyche. While Cupid, Venus and Time are easily identifiable from their attributes, the personifications of the three characters in the background to the main action are more ambiguous in their identity; it has been proposed they may represent Despair, Pleasure and Jealousy. 

Typically of Mannerist artists, Bronzino employs a complex symbolism taken from classical mythology in order to make an intriguing psychological statement. Nor can one easily overlook the erotic content of Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time another frequently encountered focus of Mannerist art.

Mannerism has been defined as an artificial style, a style of excess and as an art for connoisseurs. Its main thematic concerns, as in Bronzino's work, often feature the infinite varieties of antiquity, in particular, Roman antiquity, with its refinement, elegance and grace. Mannerist art is also characterised by hidden classical references, interlacing of forms, unexpected departures from common usage and symbolism of an esoteric or mythological nature.

According to critic Arnold Hauser, Mannerism was a refined and exclusive style, intellectually sophisticated and even surrealistic in its outlook, it catered for an essentially pan-European cultured class. Bronzino's Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time c.1547) certainly fits Hauser's definition. It was commissioned by a member of the Medici family as a present for King Francis of France. Bronzino's masterpiece has been at the National Gallery, London since 1860.

Mannerist art  is now recognised as having influenced stylistic effects of the modern art movement of surrealism. In a series of paintings Archimboldo (1527-1593) ingeniously exploited the optical trickery of multiple images, a device copied centuries later, in the artist Salvador Dali's own double-images; the unusual perspective of Joachim Wtewael's Perseus and Andromeda is echoed in Max Ernst's Temptation of Saint Anthony, while the receding horizon and vast urban spaces of Mannerist artist Antoine Caron is imitated in Italian Futurist artist De Chirico's eerie cityscapes.

Arnold Hauser noted of  Mannerist art -

'At one time it is the deepening and spiritualizing of religious experience and a vision of a new spiritual content in life; at another, an exaggerated intellectualism, consciously and deliberately deforming reality, with a tinge of the bizarre and the abstruse.'

                              

Although differing in medium, the quaternity of statuettes upon the Layer monument share a number of thematic concerns and stylistic traits to Bronzino's masterpiece. Both art-works allude to the antiquity of the classical era, both involve the interplay of a quartet of allegorical personifications, indeed there's more than a little shared symbolism between Folly, Venus and Time to Vanitas, Gloria and Labor respectively on the Layer Monument. Both artworks are boldly coloured and exhibit lively, if stylized movement and nudity. They even have a near-identical object in colour and geometric shape in common. Crucially, both Renaissance artworks utilize a complex inter-related symbolism of an esoteric nature to make a profound observation upon the human psyche, which ultimately is unfathomable in depth. 

It's often stated that the left foot of Cupid in the lower left corner of Bronzino's work can be seen  in the opening credits of the  British comedy-sketch TV series Monty Python's Flying Circus. However, a closer inspection reveals the left foot on Bronzino's Cupid doesn't exactly match up with animator and film-director Terry Gilliam's trademark image .

  

Footnotes

Wiki-Links   Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time  -  The Foot of Cupid

An essay on Bronzino's painting  here

Books quoted

John Shearman –Mannerism - pub. Penguin 1967

Arnold Hauser -Social History of Art, Volume 2: Renaissance, Mannerism, Baroque: pub. Routledge 1951

Augustus consulting the Tiburtine Sibyl

The French artist Antoine Caron's  Augustus consulting the Tiburtine Sibyl (c.1578) exhibits notable characteristics associated with Northern Mannerist art including- a frequent recourse in subject-matter to allegory and mythology and depiction of animated figures, utilizing theatrical staging which is often heightened by an unusual perspective. Today the Sibylline oracle  most likely to be consulted would be Wikipedia which informs us that -

To the classical sibyls of the Greeks, the Romans added a tenth, the Tiburtine Sibyl, whose seat was the ancient Etruscan town of Tibur (modern-day Tivoli). At the mythic meeting of Augustus with the Sibyl, Augustus inquired whether he should be worshipped as a god.

Whether the Roman Emperor Augustus ( 63 BCE - 14 CE) was ever guided to Christ as a spiritual teacher by an ancient Roman oracle pointing heavenwards towards Mother and Child is, of course, highly improbable. Such recasting of mythology in religion was, however, a prime concern of early Church Fathers such as Saint Augustine (354 CE - 430 CE) and Eusebius of Caesarea (263 CE - 339 CE) both of whom wrote of sibyls who 'prophesied' the coming of Christ.

During the Renaissance philosophers such as Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499) and Pico della Mirandola (1463-1493) as well as late Northern Mannerist artists such as Caron, sought to re-integrate pagan antiquity by suggesting it pre-figured and 'anticipated'  Christianity. Most striking in Antoine Caron's painting is the depth of field conveyed by its perspective, drawing the eye deeper and further into a far distant infinity; an effect which is heightened by placing architecture at varied intervals to enhance its depth of space.  It's an effect similar to the early paintings of Giorgio de Chirico (1888-1978) which often feature desolate streets in shadowy cityscapes to create an unsettling effect.

As ever there's a Sir T. Browne connection to this post for he wrote a chapter entitled On the picture of the Sibyls in Pseudodoxia Epidemica  in which he ponders why various ancient sources number and name different sibyls. With characteristic humour Browne discusses artistic licence along with revealing  his access to reproductions of major western art-works stating -

Which duly perpended, the licentia pictoria is very large; with the same reason they may delineate old  Nestor  like Adonis, Hecuba with Helen's face, and time with Absolom's head. But this absurdity that eminent artist, Michael Angelo, hath avoided, in the pictures of the Cumean and Persian Sibyls, as they stand described from the printed sculptures of Adam Mantuanus.[1]

Michaelangelo's Cumean Sibyl

The veracity of pagan oracles must have been of particular interest to Browne for he's also the author of a miscellaneous writing entitled  - Of the answers of the Oracle of Apollo at Delphos to Croesus, King of Lydia. (Tract XI.) .


Notes
[1]   P.E. Bk 5 chapter 11
Wikilink -   Sibyl  -   De Chirico

The Triumph of Winter

January 27th is the birth anniversary of the immortal Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, composer of Don Giovanni, 27 sublime piano concerto's and many other monumental classical works. Its also the birth-date anniversary of Lewis Carroll, an Oxford professor, author of Alice in Wonderland (1865) and Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, author of Venus in Furs (1870). It is also World Holocaust Memorial Day. These are the main historical characters and events associated with my birthday.

Because this morning is frosty, with a return to real Winter temperatures, The Triumph of Winter (1568) by Antoine Caron (1521-1599) seems a fitting selection. Caron was a French painter of the Northern Mannerist school, an art movement sandwiched somewhere between the Renaissance and Baroque (c.1560-1610) which delighted in unusual perspectives, animated movement and scenes allegorical and mythological. The figure of Mercurius, a god closely associated with the art of alchemy, can be seen holding his Caduceus wand. Standing next to him is a dancing Bacchanalian violinist. Winter, sitting upon a chariot, drawn in procession by storks in harness, is Triumphant. Any of the four statuettes of the Layer monument would, dare I suggest it, not be incongruous or out of place in this decorative and theatrical winter scene. 

Rudolf and the Rulands

The Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II (1552-1612) was an avid collector of art and a devotee of alchemy. When he relocated the Hapsburg court from Vienna to Prague he attracted many talents both scientific and artistic, including the Elizabethan mathematician John Dee, the astronomers Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler and skilled painters such as Bartholomeus Spranger, Adrian de Vries and Giuseppe Archimboldo.

Among the most original of artists at Rudolf II's court was the Milan-born Giuseppe Archimboldo (1527-1593). Rudolph II commissioned Archimboldo to paint what are probably his best-known works, a series of Four Seasons using his 'double meaning' technique. Archimboldo even applied his 'double meaning' technique to a portrait of his patron, painting the Holy Roman Emperor as Autumn, rich with the abundance of the fruits of the harvest (Above). Often afflicted with profound depression, the solitary-inclined Rudolf must have had a strange but confident perception of himself to allow such an experimental portrait. Archimboldo's 'double meaning' technique was imitated centuries later by Surrealist artists, notably by Salvador Dali.

Although nowadays Emperor Rudolf II is credited as being a major patron of the arts, in particular of Northern Mannerist art (one suspects that the four intriguing statuettes of the Layer Monument with their hidden esoteric symbolism would have appealed to Rudolf's taste) it's also been argued that his life-long collecting of art combined with his complete disinterest in politics and diplomacy contributed towards the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire and European political instability during the thirty years war (1618 -1648). A more positive interpretation of Rudolf II views him a major sponsor of the scientific revolution and an aspirant towards a united, polemic-free Europe.

Rudolf II also kept a menagerie of exotic animals, cultivated a botanical garden and collected a variety of curio's in what was to become Europe's most extensive 'cabinet of curiosities' or Kunstkammer. Rudolf's primary preoccupation however was the fabled philosophers stone of alchemy and he commissioned both scholars and alchemists in his quest. Foremost among scholars at the Prague court were the Paracelsian physician-alchemists Martin Rulands, the name of both father and son. Martin Ruland the elder (1532 -1602 ) compiled a dictionary of alchemical terminology, primarily orientated towards a Paracelsian and metallurgic nature. It must have been held in high esteem by Emperor Rudolf  for he conferred the status of nobility upon Martin Ruland junior (1569-1611) in 1608. Martin Ruland's definition of meditatio is a good example of how devout Hermetic philosophers such as John Dee and Sir Thomas Browne augmented their Christian spirituality.

MEDITATIO - The name of an Internal Talk of one person with another who is invisible, as in the invocation of the Deity, or communion with one's self, or with one's good angel.

In  Religio Medici (1643) Browne declared -

Therefore I am so far from denying their existence, that I could easily believe, that not only whole Countries, but particular persons have their Tutelary, and Guardian Angels: It is not a new opinion of the Church of Rome, but an old one of Pythagoras and Plato; - R.M. Part 1:33

Incontrovertible evidence that Browne consulted  Ruland's dictionary can be found in his allusion to Ruland's entry -

QUANDROS -   a Stone or Jewel which is found in the brain and head of the Vulture, and is said to be a bright white colour. It fills the breasts with milk, and is said to be a safeguard against dangerous accidents. 

In Museum Clausum, Browne's bizarre inventory of lost, imagined and rumoured books, pictures and objects there can be found -

A noble Quandros  or Stone taken out of a Vulture's Head.

Although I've written on this before there's now the possibility of offering a link to the complete text of   Rulands Dictionary of Alchemy.

Andromeda and Perseus

            Joachim Wtewael - Andromeda and Perseus (1611)

Recently, while looking at  late 1500's / early 1600's art-work of  illustrations relating to alchemy, I  discovered Joachim Wtewael's painting of Perseus and Andromeda. Wtewael's Perseus and Andromeda  is strong evidence that throughout the centuries, the myths of ancient Greece, with their many tales of transformation of mortal to immortal, love-intrigues between goddesses and heroes, and inter-action between gods and man, were a potent force upon the Western artistic imagination.

Joachim Wtewael of Utrecht (1566-1638) was a Northern Mannerist painter who stylistically adopted formal devices such as brilliant and decorative colour, contrived spatial design and contorted poses to great effect, as in his Perseus and Andromeda. Wtewael is also known for combining artifice with naturalism in his paintings and an ability to integrate two contrary aesthetics of Dutch 16th and 17th century painting, uyt den geest (from the imagination) and naer t leven (after life). He painted contrasting works such as Momento Mori,  a naturalistic domestic Kitchen scene, as well as a highly-formalised treatment of the myth of Vulcan surprising the lovers Venus and Mars, a popular myth throughout the Renaissance.

The Greek myth of Andromeda and Perseus tells of how Andromeda was chained to a rock on the shore as a sacrifice to the sea-monster Cetus. The sea-god Poseidon had sent the monster Cetus as a punishment for Andromeda's mother Cassiopeia's claim that she was more beautiful than the Nereid's. However, as soon as the hero Perseus, on his journey from the Gorgon saw Andromeda, he fell in love with her and petitioned  Cepheus her father that if he could destroy the monster he would give him the rescued girl as a wife. After oaths were sworn, Perseus confronted the monster, killed it and set Andromeda free. The myth is immortalized in the constellations of Draco, Perseus and Andromeda clustered together in the northern quarter of the night sky.

The Greek myth of Andromeda and Perseus, that of the damsel in distress saved by a knight in shining armour is an archetypal  myth which has inspired numerous painters throughout history as a subject worthy of artistic expression. Artists have responded to the myth of Andromeda and Perseus from either a conscious or unconscious need to express the freeing of the feminine, or perhaps in recognition of the repression and suppression of the feminine in their respective society, or even simply as a pliable and exciting love and action  story. It's a true roll-call of the Western artistic tradition how many famous artists have been inspired to devote their creativity to this myth.

Beginning with Italian Renaissance artists Piero di Cosimo (1462-1521) and Varsari (1511-74) to Dutch artists Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), Rembrandt (1606-69) to the Neo-classical artists Tiepolo (1696-1770), Ingres (1780-1867) and in the 19th century to Romantic, Pre-Raphaelite and Decadent artists, Delacroix (1798- 1863), Burne-Jones (1833-1898) and Gustav Dore (1832-1883) there seems to have been no artistic era which has not been attracted to this most archetypal of myths; that of entrapped beauty and a hero who comes from the sky and kills the beast and wins her love. 

Greek myths in general have been a constant source of inspiration to artists and thinkers throughout the centuries. It's interesting to note in passing that these include German alchemist Count Michael Maier (1568 -1622) who based  much of his spiritual alchemy upon Greek myth. While  the founder of psychology, Sigismund Freud named his first psychological theory after a hero of Greek mythology, Oedipus.

As Christianity developed it created its own mythology, often borrowed and adapted from ancient myth. The story of  Saint George and the Dragon has many striking similarities in theme to Perseus and Andromeda, and in all probability the Greek myth is the archetypal model for the Christian legend of Saint George. Examples of differing cultures and belief-systems distant in time to each other yet sharing similar myths hint  ultimately of the syncretic nature of myth, and are, as Jung realised in his long study of mythology, fairly frequent coincidences in comparative religion.

Remembering that myths originate from the earliest dawn of memory and consciousness and have been  elaborated upon throughout the generations; the myth of Perseus and Andromeda, essentially that of the hero rescuing the  'fair prize' of  a damsel in distress from the monster is in Jung's study of the archetypes, none other than a recognising of, integration and winning of the lesser known, 'undeveloped' or  'other' half' of the psyche, the anima by the Hero.

Jung argues that throughout western history, the male psyche has often belittled or even ignored, often to his detriment, qualities such as passivity, the skill of listening, empathy, sensitivity of feeling and capacity for intuition. Such mental qualities are often considered as somehow 'lesser' or 'feminine' qualities. However, in Jungian psychology, the feminine, the anima in a man and animus in women, are the very prizes which are 'hard to obtain'. Realization of the anima is the goal of the seeking Hero in his perilous quest of individuation, totality and psychic wholeness. 

What's most notable in Joachim Wtewael's canvas, besides its overt eroticism, is its near hallucinatory luminescence in colouration and unusual perspective; these qualities remind one of other artists who were conjurers of magical, fantastic elements in their paintings.

Wtewael's Perseus and Andromeda  reminds one of  both the Flemish painter Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516)  and of the Spanish surrealist Salvador Dali (1904-1989). Though centuries apart both these painters possessed a highly polished technique, as well as an inclination towards mysticism. Indeed, both Bosch and Dali painted The Temptations of Saint Anthony (1946) both contributing to Christian mythology, developing the early Christian legend that Saint Anthony, the early desert Father experienced mystical visions during his long solitary desert sojourns.

In their respective paintings of The Temptations of Saint Anthony  Dali and Bosch share a fantastic imagination and a brush-stroke technique able to make manifest  the creatures from their imagination . Their message is that the real monsters which beleaguer humanity are far more likely to be engendered from an inner spiritual conflict of the individual than from any external reality. 

Hieronymus Bosch - A detail from the left panel of the triptych
- The Temptations of Saint Anthony c.1500

The highly spiritual landscape of the desert, a place of solitude, meeting of God, temptation and devilry has become in both Bosch's and Dali's  Temptations of Saint Anthony  crowded  and  populated  with bizarre creatures of fantasy, many  of a flying or air-borne nature.  The monsters in Bosch and Dali are far more numerous and scary than anything in Greek myth,  perhaps because the temptations of  the Christian Saint Anthony involves temptations  of sexuality. Both works are heightened  by an intensity of religious fervour. In Bosch's work one's eye is drawn to the close proximity of  optical tricks and the grotesques which surround the suffering Saint. Above him the sky is teeming with flying demon creatures. In a detail from the triptych  the Desert Father is praying while seemingly helpless in flight astride a flying creature.

In  Dali's painting  the eye is drawn away from the tormented Saint into a deep, seemingly infinite background  in which a procession of  improbably spindle-legged, almost floating elephants emerge to totter through the desert.  Carried upon the back of one elephant is a closet-like Ark enclosing the bare breasted torso of  a female nude. An extremely tortured  image, quite esoteric in its symbolism and almost revelling in its sexual neurosis. The fantastic landscape and drama of Wtewael's Andromeda, with its untroubled and unashamedly sexual  female nude is  no less surreal in perspective and imagery.

The Librarian

Finished reading, 'The Magic Circle of Rudolph II , Alchemy and Astrology in Renaissance Prague', by Peter Marshall recently. Rudolph II was a great patron of the arts, including the painter Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1527-1593); who in turn was an influence upon the Czech animation film-maker Jan Svankmajer; nor forgetting the great Quay brothers and their fabulous film, The Piano-tuner of Earthquakes. Perhaps you get to look like this from reading just a few too many books!