Doctor Browne and the elephant

Elephants are mentioned in each of Doctor Thomas Browne's major literary works. A little-known notebook description highlights his zoological interest in elephants, while his proto-archaeological speculations on bones in Urn-Burial along with his notebook entry on Fossil remains in Norfolk casts new light on the skeleton of a prehistoric elephant excavated at West Runton in 1995.

The newly qualified physician first declared an admiration of elephants in his spiritual testament Religio Medici (1643) remarking - 'ruder heads stand amazed at those prodigious pieces of nature, Whales, Elephants, Dromedaries and Camels; these I confess are the Colossus and Majestick pieces of her hand'. Elsewhere the animal-loving doctor defends the elephant's appearance, objecting, 'I cannot tell by what Logick we call a Toad, a Bear, or an Elephant ugly'. [1]

In his subsequent publication, Pseudodoxia Epidemica (1646) Browne methodically refutes numerous folk-lore beliefs and superstitions, including the misapprehension that the elephant has no joints. Browne's encyclopaedic work of scientific journalism consists of seven books in total. Many of its individual chapters, in particular those on animals in book three, are among the most readable and entertaining of all the learned doctor's writings. Indeed, the Argentinean author Jorge Louis Borges (1899-1986) consulted book three of Pseudodoxia Epidemica extensively with its at turns erudite, pedantic and witty discussion on whether creatures such as the basilisk, salamander, unicorn, phoenix, gryphon and mermaid truly exist, when compiling his Book of Imaginary Creatures (1967).

Book three of Pseudodoxia titled Of divers popular and received Tenents concerning Animals, which examined, prove either false or dubious opens with a refutation of the belief that the elephant has no joints. Doctor Browne first calls upon his capacious and retentive memory, referencing the Roman historian Suetonius to inform his reader that-

‘Elephants have been instructed to walk on ropes, in public shows before the people’, as well as the historian's recording of  'that memorable show of Grammaticus wherein twelve Elephants danced unto the sound of music'. 

Following discussion of the mechanics of motion in two and four legged creatures, introducing the words 'cylindrical' and 'locomotion' into English language while doing so, and having argued of the necessity of joints from his anatomical studies, Browne credulously notes, 'some Elephants have not only written whole sentences,... but have also spoken'. He then proposes that because elephants possess the necessary organs for speech, namely lips, teeth and chops, they, ‘might not be taught to speak, or become imitators of speech like Birds’. [2]

A detail from Peter Rodulfo's As the elephant laughed 

Finally, and perhaps frustratingly to impatient readers, having consulted at great length two of his three determiners to acquire truth, namely, past authority and reason, Browne calls upon the primary source of his empirically-based science, 'occular observation', and remembers seeing an elephant in real life-

‘whereof not many years past, we have had the advantage in England, by an Elephant shewn in many parts thereof, not only in the posture of standing, but kneeling and lying down'. [3]

Browne's zoology, the study of animals, is exemplified in a little-known notebook description of an elephant in which he references his favourite zoologist of antiquity, Aristotle. Noting with a precise and extensive vocabulary the elephant's anatomy, age, emotions, welfare and diet he uses the sense of touch to describe its skin. The size and roundness of elephant dung reminds him of his favourite pastime, the game of bowls. Browne's notebook entry on the elephant is worthy of  full quotation.

'The trunck is lithe, tortil, flexible, extensible, contractile, butt when hee shrinks it up as in Anger, it becommeth short and as stiff and hard as a stake. 

The 2 nostrills are plaine, and there is a hard tip at the upper end of the extremity of his trunck which helps to hold the faster. 

Hee sleepes not with his trunck extended and hanging at length, butt bended & somewhat rolled about or neere his mouth, for the better security thereof from flies or anything that might gett into it. His tongue is short not large, & seemes as it were tongue tyed, so that hee cannot putt out the tongue. However when yong it makes a shift to suck, for it sucketh with the mouth not with the trunck. Hath very thinne & ill decernible lipps. 

The teeth are very large 4 in number. The two large teeth somewhat reflecting upward: these are for his armes of defense and offence and help him, when hee kneeles or ariseth. The females as Aristotle sayeth, have them straight or bending downward, which afford them the better help and support when they are great with yongue. 

Hayres under his chinne like a beard, some long black hayres about the ridge of his head and neck; about the bottom of his tayle which are bigge and harsh & stiffe like sticks. 2 Bunches like papps in the forepart of the breast by the arm pitts, and as Aristotle sayeth juxta pectus potius quam in pectore. Five kind of hoofes in each foot exceeding hard, but they pare them not. Hee riseth like a horse with his foreleggs first, not like a cowe. 

Hee breakes wind often backward; coughs sometimes, snorts not, vomits not, sweates much about the pappes upon travell. Sleepes about 5 howers in a night: hee lyeth upon strawe and in very cold wether they cover him up with it at night. Being butt 8 yeares old they allowed him a pecke & a quarter of oates every morning and evening besides haye and bread when they showed him, wch came to 3 or 4 penny loaves a daye. Dungs in roundish lumps about the bignesse of bowlls. 

He will take water sometimes & swimme, whereby hee refreseth and suppleyth his hard drye skinne and will suck up water in his trunck and spirt it about his body, and so moystens his skinne, wch is rugged and hard and as it were channel'd, and feels like rough tanned hides. [4] 

Elephants are mentioned in Browne's discourses Urn-Burial and The Garden of Cyrus (1658). Appropriate to its themes of Time and Death allusion is made in Urn-Burial to the elephant's graveyard and its ability for 'sepulture'. In The Garden of Cyrus the potency of the Quincunx pattern when employed in brick-wise formation (2:1:2) in ancient military strategy is such that the archetypal configuration effectively, 'defeated the mischief intended by the elephants'. The elephant may thus be considered as a 'conjoyning' symbol which unites the two discourses highly polarised themes, imagery and respective truth. 

Just as Urn-Burial features Browne's interest in archaeology and The Garden of Cyrus with its mention of bees and butterflies, fish, birds, snakes and whales his interest in zoology, so too his study of elephants was both zoological and archaeological, reflecting his enquiries in the divided worlds of the living and the dead.

The philosophical discourse Urn-Burial (1658) was initially inspired by an archaeological find, as its author informs his reader -

'In a Field of old Walsingham, not many months past, were digged up between forty and fifty Urns, deposited in a dry and sandy soil, not a yard deep, nor far from one another'. 

Its bones however which are alluded to most in Urn-Burial (over fifty times) including a remarkable passage which anticipates and influences archaeological interpretative insights to the present day. 

'It is no impossible Physiognomy to conjecture at fleshy appendencies; and after what shape the muscles and carnous parts might hang in their full consistences. A full spread Cariola shews a well-shaped horse behind, handsome formed sculls, give some analogie of fleshy resemblance. A criticall view of bones makes a good distinction of sexes....... Other parts make out their comproportions, and inferences upon whole or parts. And since the dimensions of the head measure the whole body, and the figure thereof gives conjecture of the principall faculties; Physiognomy outlives our selves, and ends not in our graves'. [5]

Browne's advocation of a forensic-like analysis of bones, of how they can be indicative of 'fleshy resemblance' in gender, ancestry and proportion, anticipates modern-day osteology (the study of bones) as well as modern-day illustrative realization of archaeological sites and artefacts. His proto-archaeological speculations acquire significance in light of the discovery and subsequent excavation of a near complete mammoth skeleton at West Runton on the Norfolk coast in 1995. 

Its worthwhile remembering that much of the Norfolk coastline was once part of a prehistoric forest bed which was formed between 780,000 to 450,000 years ago. Known as the geological era of the Cromerian Stage, during the last ice-age or Pleistocene, the Cromerian Interglacial is the benchmark that all European countries use when studying their own geological deposits. 

Browne's early account of coastal erosion and speculative analysis in Fossil Remains in Norfolk is significant in relation to archaeological discovery at West Runton. His description of 'one side of a lower jaw containing very large teeth petrified, far exceeding the teeth of the biggest ox' could be any number of prehistoric creatures including the Auroch, an extinct species of cattle, the last of which died in the early 17th century. 

'This bone was found, about 2 year past by Winterton, on the sea shore in Norfolk. The cliff had been much broken by high tides & the rage of the sea, many hundred loads falling down as it often doth upon this coast, the cliffs being not rock butt earth. Upon the same coast, butt at some miles distance, divers great bones are said to have been found, & I have seen one side of a lower jaw containing very large teeth petrified, far exceeding the teeth of the biggest ox. It was found after a great flood near to the cliff, some thousand loads of earth being broken down by the rage of the sea. That it came not out of the sea it might bee conjectured because it was found so far from it, & from the colour, for if out of the sea it would have been whiter. When the outward crust is taken of, it answers the graine of the bones of whales & other cetaceous animals, comparing it with a piece of whales scull which I have by mee'. [6]

The West Runton skeleton is part of the elephantidae family, which includes both elephants and mammoths. The expert ostologist and archaeological illustrator Ms. J. Curl helpfully explains the sometimes complicated classification which exists between elephants and mammoths thus -

"The West Runton Mammoth (c.800,000 BCE) was called an elephant originally, and was an ancestor to the Woolly Mammoth (c.50,000 BCE to 15,000 BCE here in UK). Both terms are correct and confusing, especially for those working on them. The West Runton Mammoth was mainly a warm phase beast and more likely to be like an elephant, but that individual  was close to a colder phase, so he was probably much hairier than most elephants today'.

Ms. J. Curl cleaning the molar teeth of the West Runton mammoth 1995

The West Runton mammoth skeleton is the best example of the species Mammuthus trogontherii to be unearthed so far, being 85% complete. Previous finds include two partial skeletons found in Germany and Russia, both of which were only about 10 to 15% complete. The mammoth was male, stood some 4 metres (13 ft) at the shoulder and would have weighed about 10 tonnes (11 short tons). This is twice the weight of the modern African elephant Loxodonta africana. [7]

Its recorded that at sometime or another Browne acquired an elephant's leg-bone for his anatomical studies and the largest of all land animals continued to interest him late in his life. His solitary work of fiction, Museum Clausum (circa 1673) a bizarre catalogue of imaginary, rumoured and lost books, pictures and rarities includes the landscape painting of - 

'A Snow Piece, of Land and Trees covered with Snow and Ice, and Mountains of Ice floating in the Sea, with Bears, Seals, Foxes and variety of rare Fowls upon them'. 

Also in Browne's surreal inventory Museum Clausum (the Closed Museum) perhaps inspired from an antique coin once in his collector's cabinet, there's the amusing thumb-nail sketch of-

'An Elephant dancing upon the Ropes with a Negro Dwarf upon his Back'. [9] 

Julius Caesar's coin issued in 49 BCE to commemorate his victory over Pompey.

See also

*  Browne's Zoology -  Spiders - Ostrich - Pelican - Vulture

* Thomas Browne's writings are on-line at the University of Chicago site maintained by James Eason including On the elephant and Museum Clausum.

 * Peter Rodulfo's 'As the elephant laughed'. A panorama of evolution

Notes

[1] Religio Medici Part 1: 15 and 16.

[2] Suetonius The Twelve Caesars trans. Robert Graves Penguin (Nero para. 11 and Galba para. 6)

[3]  Book 3 chapter 1 Pseudodoxia Epidemica ed. Robin Robbins pub. OUP 1981

[4] British Museum MS Sloane 1848 reproduced in Miscellaneous writings ed. Keynes 1946

[5] Urn-Burial Chapter 3

[6] British Museum Sloane MS 1882 reproduced in Miscellaneous writings ed. Keynes 1946

[7]  Ms. J. Curl to whom the author is indebted for her professional knowledge in relation to Browne.

[8] Larkin, Nigel. "The West Runton Elephant" Norfolk Museums & Archaeology Service.

[9] Miscellaneous Tract 13  reproduced in Miscellaneous writings ed. Keynes 1946

[10] Typically Browne has embellished an original image with his own imaginative addition, placing 'a Negro Dwarf' upon the back of a tight-rope walking elephant. Modern numismatic scholarship now believes that Caesar's coin which was minted in 49 BCE to celebrate his defeat of his political rival Pompey depicts an elephant trampling and crushing a snake underfoot.  Looking closely at this coin (above) it clearly does depict a snake, which is often likened symbolically to a treacherous enemy, and the true statement of Julius Caesar's coin. A tightrope walking elephant is simply too frivolous a subject for a dictator to identify with !

Books Consulted

*Jorge Luis Borges -The Book of Imaginary Creatures (1967) pub. Penguin 1974 

*Suetonius The Twelve Caesars trans. Robert Graves pub. Penguin 1976

* Pseudodoxia Epidemica ed. Robin Robbins pub. OUP 1981

* Miscellaneous writings  of Sir Thomas Browne  ed. Keynes pub. Faber and Faber 1946

Images 

From top to bottom -

*  Illustration - Weston Runton female mammoth with offspring by Ms. J. Curl.

* Painting - A detail from Peter Rodulfo's 'As the elephant laughed' (2012).

*  Artistic realization of the West Runton elephant by Ms. J. Curl.

*  Photo - Ms. J. Curl cleaning the West Runton mammoth 1995. Photo credit ITV News.

* Photo:  Roman coin reverse.

Dr. Browne's 'readie way to read the characters of Morpheus'.

                                                           
Thomas Browne's short tract On Dreams is exemplary of the seventeenth century physician-philosopher's deep learning and dedication to his medical profession. Furthermore, Browne's On Dreams  reveals him to be a pioneering psychologist, not least for anticipating concepts associated with the psychology of Carl Gustav Jung.

Its worthwhile reminding ourselves of the nature of dreams and the historical antecedents of their interpretation. Dreams can have a wide variety of moods and feelings, frightening or anxious, exciting and adventurous, sometimes with a magical content or empowering, sometimes with a sexual element and most often simply puzzling. Dreams can give a creative or inspiring thought, and in the past they've been viewed as a conduit of God-given revelation and prophecy. 

The ancient Sumerians of Mesopotamia left evidence of dream interpretation dating back to at least 2100 BCE. In one of the world's oldest literary works The Epic of Gilgamesh the hero Gilgamesh escapes the vengeance of the gods by paying attention to dreams which warn and show him how to overcome his enemy.  The Greek physician Hippocrates (469–399 BCE) had a simple dream theory: during the day, the soul receives images; during the night, it produces images, similarly, the Greek historian Herodotus in his Histories, wrote, "The visions that occur to us in dreams are, more often than not, the things we have been concerned about during the day".

Thomas Browne (1605-82) demonstrates his familiarity with Hippocrates' theory to the causes of dreams stating in accordance to the ancient Greek physician, 'the thoughts or actions or the day are acted over and echoed in the night'. Browne himself had an intimate relationship to the world of dreams. Living in an age of grim living conditions and little entertainment, dreaming was a welcome diversion in seventeenth century England.  Browne confesses of his enjoyment of dreaming in  Religio Medici (1643) thus-

'There is surely a nearer apprehension of any thing that delights us in our dreams, than in our waked senses........I thank God for my happy dreams, as I do for my good rest, for there is a satisfaction in them unto reasonable desires, and such as can be content with a fit of happiness; and surely it is not a melancholy conceit to think we are all asleep in this world, and that the conceits of this life are as mere dreams to those of the next, as the Phantasms of the night, to the conceit of the day'. [1]

Dreams were rich nourishment for Browne's imagination, not least because he was able to lucid dream, that is, to be conscious of oneself actually dreaming, and thus able to take an active instead of a passive role in the events occurring in a dream, effectively controlling the action of a dream. Browne  elucidates on  his rare gift in Religio Medici thus -

'yet in one dream I can compose a whole Comedy, behold the action, apprehend the jests, and laugh myself awake at the conceits thereof; were my memory as faithful as my reason is then fruitful, I would never study but in my dreams, and this time also would I choose for my devotions, but our grosser memories have then so little hold of our abstracted understandings, that they forget the story, and can only relate to our awaked souls, a confused and broken tale of that that hath passed'. [2]

On Dreams opens with fleeting allusion to night and sleep, themes which, together with dreams inspired some of the greatest passages of Browne's literary art. Citing the Old Testament book of Genesis and its story of Jacob's dream, Joseph's interpretation of the Egyptian pharaoh's dreams and Nebuchadnezzar's demand not only for the interpretation of his dream but of his dream itself, Browne in common with other Renaissance thinkers viewed dreams as God-given communications and their interpretation sanctioned in the Bible. 

Even as late as the seventeenth century the little-understood psychic phenomena of the dream was believed to be of either divine or diabolical origin. Browne's remark that, 'We have little doubt there be demoniacal dreams' seems  to be an observation based upon personal, first-hand experience. If there are demonic dreams Browne argues -

'Why may there not be Angelical ? If there be Guardian spirits, they may not be unactively about us in sleep, but may sometimes order our dreams, and many strange hints, instigations, or discoveries which are so amazing unto us, may arise from such foundations'.

And in fact a belief in Guardian angels as well as witches was integral to Thomas Browne's spiritual hierarchy. Its unsurprising therefore that the Christian in Browne is concerned  in On Dreams about the possibility of sinning in one's dreams. In his short tract he also condemns those who have paid too close attention to their dreams at the expense of common sense, stating, 'Yet he that should order his affairs by dreams, or make the night a rule unto the day, might be ridiculously deluded'.

On Dreams includes examples of Browne's 'dimensional imagery' in which the very large and very small are juxtaposed, noting that in dreams -

'the phantastical objects seem greater than they are, and being beheld in the vaporous state of sleep, enlarge their dimensions unto us; whereby it may prove easier to dream of Giants than pygmies'.

The very same juxtaposition of giant and pygmies, Browne's 'dimensional imagery' is featured in his late work Christian morals, in moralizing highly relevant to our own day.

'without which, though Giants in Wealth and Dignity, we are but Dwarfs and Pygmies in Humanity, and may hold a pitiful rank in that triple division of mankind into Heroes, Men and Beasts'.  (C.M. 3:14)

In the painting The Gentleman's Dream or Disillusion with the World (1655) by the Spanish Baroque-era artist Antonio de Peruda (c.1611-1678) a courtier sleeps and dreams beside a table displaying various vanitas objects. A guardian angel unfurls a scroll with the words, "Eternally it stings, swiftly it flies and it kills", inscribed upon it, a waspish allusion to the sting of Time.

Browne references both ancient and modern philosophers in On Dreams including the Greek philosopher Pythagoras, a big influence upon Browne who declared in Religio Medici - 'I have often admired the mystical way of Pythagoras' and a creative influence of the discourse The Garden of Cyrus. [3]

In addition to Pythagoras, the Italian physician, mathematician and general polymath Jerome Cardan  is also mentioned twice in the tract. Jerome Cardan (1501-76) was highly influential in various disciplines, writing over 200 works on science. His interests included medicine, biology, engineering, chemistry, astrology and astronomy and he's credited with inventing several mechanical devices including the combination lock and the Cardan shaft with its universal joints which allow for the transmission of rotary motion at various angles and used in car-motors to the present day.  He was often short of money and kept himself solvent by being an accomplished gambler and chess player. Cardan had a reoccurring dream which ordered him to write De subtilitate rerum (1550) a book which Thomas Browne was critical of when assessing Cardan in his encyclopedic endeavour  Pseudodoxia Epidemica (1646-72) -

'We had almost forgot Jeronymus Cardanus that famous Physician of Milan, a great Enquirer of Truth, but too greedy a Receiver of it. He hath left many excellent Discourses, Medical, Natural, and Astrological; the most suspicious are those two he wrote by admonition in a dream, that is De Subtilitate & Varietate Rerum. Assuredly this learned man hath taken many things on trust, and although examined some, hath let slip many others. He is of singular use unto a prudent reader but to him that desireth hoties, or to replenish his head with varieties, like many others before related, either in the original or confirmation, he may become no small occasion of error'. [4]

Browne's judgement of Jerome Cardan didn't prevent him from acquiring sometime in 1663 or shortly after (he often purchased books upon notification of their publication by book-dealers) an edition of Jerome Cardan's complete works which included Somniorum Synesiorum, omnis generis insomnia explicantes, libri IIII (Synesian dreams, dreams of all kinds set forth, in four books). [5]

Jerome Cardan's work on the interpretation of dreams is partly inspired by Synesius of Cyrene (c.370-c.413 CE) a Greek bishop of ancient Libya and author of  De insomniis (On dreams). Cardan divided dreams into four categories based on their causes: digestive dreams caused by food and drink; humoural caused by imbalances in the four humours; anamnestic caused by passions or changes in emotion; and finally prophetic dreams of a supernatural or divine origin. Jerome Cardan viewed the first three categories as natural and ordinary bodily processes. Most of this work however, is devoted to a discussion of prophetic dreams which he views from a philosophical perspective.

Jerome Cardan is one of several independent-minded figures from Renaissance intellectual history whom Browne was highly critical of, yet read closely. Other notable candidates of similar critical influence upon Browne include Cardan's countryman, the polymath Giambattista della Porta (1538-1615) the Belgian scientist Van Helmont (1577-1644) the Swiss physician Paracelsus (1494-1541) and the German scholar of comparative religion Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680). 

Browne sometimes wrote with his most recent reading in mind. From his mention of the Italian polymath and physician Jerome Cardan twice in On Dreams its possible to tentatively date On Dreams as written circa 1663 from two facts. According to the 1711 Auction Sales Catalogue an edition of Jerome Cardan's Opera (Complete works) dated 1663 is listed as once in Browne's library. [5]. Coincidentally, almost half of Browne's eldest son  Edward Browne's dissertation for his bachelor of medicine degree, on the use of dreams to the physician, was written in 1663.[6] Its therefore possible to speculate that Browne may have composed On Dreams to assist his son. In any event the short tract On Dreams isn't dissimilar in either its literary style or subject-matter to Browne's  A Letter to a Friend  (circa 1656) in which dreams as experienced by the dying are commented upon. As such On Dreams may be read as an appendage to A Letter to a Friend, Browne's major medical writing.

There's a fascinating relationship between Thomas Browne to the Swiss psychologist  Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961). For example, both men were physicians who took their psychiatric responsibilities seriously, both studied comparative religion and alchemical literature in depth and both had a big  interest in their own and others' dreams. I've written at length about this fascinating relationship  elsewhere on this blog. [7] 

C.G.Jung's Memories, Dreams, Reflections (1963) like Browne's Religio Medici (1643) is an autobiographical account and spiritual testament which includes many philosophical digressions. The biggest difference between the two autobiographies being whilst Religio Medici was penned before its author embarked upon a medical career, C.G. Jung's Memories, Dreams, Reflections was written after a long medical career, shortly before the author's death. It includes recollections of some of the many dreams Jung had, of digging up the bones of prehistoric animals, of kneeling to hand a girl an umbrella, of a tree transformed by frost, of his father reading a fish-skin bound Bible and many equally bizarre others. According to Jung-

'The dream is a little hidden door in the innermost and most secret recesses of the psyche, opening into that cosmic night which was psyche long before there was any ego consciousness....All consciousness separates; but in dreams we put on the likeness of the more universal, truer, more eternal man dwelling in the darkness of primordial night. [8]

In On Dreams Browne declares- 'We owe unto dreams that Galen was a physician, Dion an historian, and that the world hath seen some notable pieces of Cardan' to which one might add we owe unto dreams that the Swiss psychologist C.G. Jung embarked upon a long study of alchemy.

Jung's dream which heralded his encounter with alchemy occurred in 1926 when he dreamt he was travelling through the Lombardy plain in Northern Italy. Upon viewing a large manor house located near Verona he entered its courtyard. Suddenly its gates slammed shut and he thought to himself, 'Now, we are caught in the seventeenth century'. Only much later did Jung come to realize that his dream alluded to his many years of studying alchemy, the golden age of alchemy being the seventeenth century.

Amazingly, Memories, Dreams, Reflections includes an endorsement of Browne as a psychologist. Jung's autobiography is prefaced by a verse chosen by his secretary Aniela Jaffe to describe the psychologist, but the author of the verse, the English romantic poet Samuel Coleridge is eulogizing upon Thomas Browne, not C.G. Jung. This verse is notable for its early usage of the word 'consciousness' which the Oxford English Dictionary attributes to the poet William Wordsworth, Coleridge's sometime mentor as the first to use and in all probability was 'borrowed' from him. Coleridge's enthusiastic response to Browne focuses upon the self-analytical and mind-expanding qualities of the physician-philosopher.

He looked at his own Soul
With a Telescope. What seemed
all irregular he saw and
shewed to be beautiful
Constellations: and he added
to the Consciousness hidden
worlds within worlds.

Thomas Browne's anticipation of a Jungian interpretation of dreams is boldly declared in On Dreams -

Many dreams are made out by sagacious exposition from the signature of their subjects; carrying their interpretation in their fundamental sense & mysterie of similitude, whereby he that understands upon what natural fundamental every notional depends, may by symbolical adaptation hold a readie way to read the characters of Morpheus.

Browne's proposal of 'symbolical adaptation' as 'a readie way to read the characters of Morpheus' (the god of sleep is known as 'Fashioner' in Ancient Greek: μορφή meaning 'form, shape') requires elaboration.

Its worth remembering first that the word 'symbol'  derives from the Greek σύμβολον symbolon, meaning "token, watchword" from σύν syn "together" and βάλλω bállō " "I throw, put". The meaning of symbol as "something which stands for something else" was first recorded  in Edmund Spenser's epic poem The Faerie Queene (1596). 

According to C.G Jung - 'Symbols are never simple - only signs and allegories are simple. The symbol always covers a complicated situation which is so far beyond the grasp of language that it cannot be expressed at all in any unambiguous manner. [ 9]

'If symbols mean anything at all, they are tendencies which pursue a definite but not yet recognisable goal and consequently can express themselves only in analogies.' [10]

The Renaissance study of nature included the study of human nature. It was the radical 'Luther of Medicine' the Swiss physician-alchemist Paracelsus who first encouraged and urged the physician to take dreams and seriously, declaring-

"The interpretation of dreams is a great art. Dreams are not without meaning wherever they may come from - from fantasy, from the elements, or from another inspiration". [11]

Orthodox Christian theology did not however always possess a clear-cut view or answer to the new spiritual and psychological concerns experienced by many during the Renaissance, an age of great change. The effects of urbanization for example increased interaction between widely differing social, cultural, moral and religious perspectives and increased awareness of sexuality. 

From their close understanding of the human condition and dissatisfied with Christian dogma alchemist-physicians  as diverse as Paracelsus, John Dee, Van Helmont, Jerome Cardan and Thomas Browne either augmented concepts originating from the western esoteric traditions or coined home-grown neologisms and symbols in order to describe their understanding of the psyche.  Each of these aforenamed alchemist-physicians took their own dreams far more seriously than most in contemporary society today; each recognized their dream-lives to be of great importance to their self-development or individuation process in Jungian terms. From alchemist-physicians analysis of their dreams there emerged the beginnings of the modern-day science of psychology. Their rudimentary and tentative understanding of the self and unconscious psyche  several of whom C.G. Jung found confirmation of his psychology, in particular Gerard Dorn, were the fruits of the Renaissance spirit of enquiry into nature, which includes human nature. As C.G.Jung explains-

'the language of the alchemists is at first sight very different from our psychological terminology and way of thinking. But if we treat their symbols in the same way as we treat modern fantasies, they yield a meaning - even in the Middle Ages confessed alchemists interpreted their symbols in a moral and philosophical sense, their "philosophy" was, indeed, nothing but projected psychology'. [12]

Thomas Browne's fascination with symbols is writ large throughout his oeuvre. Allusion to symbolism involving the alphabets of various languages, numbers, Egyptian hieroglyphs, Mercurial characters, kabbalistic signs and geometric symbols as well as metaphors, allegories, anagrams and  riddles can be found in his writings, not least in his highly hermetic discourse  The Garden of  Cyrus (1658) a literary work densely packed with symbolism. Not only is the ubiquity of the number five in art and nature prominent in The Garden of Cyrus but also its many closely-associated extensions including the V shape and the Latin numeral for 5, which by mirror doubling becomes the figure X, significant  to Christians as the first letter of the name of Christ in Greek, the ten commandments as well as the Pythagorean tetraktys, which by multiplication (X) becomes the reticulated network, as seen illustrated on the discourse's frontispiece. (Below)

The literary critic Peter Green recognized- 'there is nothing vague or woolly about Browne's mysticism...Every symbol is interrelated with the over-all pattern'. [13]

Crucially, in relation to Jungian psychology, Browne not only employs one of the earliest usages of the very word 'archetype' in The Garden of Cyrus  but even attempts to delineate the archetype of the 'wise ruler' through utilizing highly-original proper name symbolism, alluding to Solomon, Moses, Alexander the Great, Augustus and of course the titular hero of the discourse, Cyrus. Browne's proper-name symbolism also alludes to the archetypal figure of the ‘Great Mother' as a symbol of fertility and fruitfulness with mention of Sarah, Isis, Juno, Cleopatra and Venus. But if ever there were a sly, Royalist supporter's opposition to Cromwell's rule of England (1650-1658), its surely in Browne's repeated citing of examples of the 'Wise ruler' from history in  The Garden of Cyrus.

The religious mystic and symbol go together hand in glove. For most Christian mystics the inexhaustible symbolism of the Cross was sufficient for expression of their spiritual thought. The Elizabethan mathematician and hermetic philosopher John Dee (1527-1608) however devised his very own mystical symbol, the Monas Hieroglyphica a complex, metaphysical 'explanation' of the cosmos. Dee's Monas symbol became a printer's colophon which was avidly reproduced by various alchemystical philosophers in their publications. John Dee's eldest son Arthur Dee became a friend of Browne's upon his return from Russia and retirement to what was at the time, England's second city in terms of prosperity and population, Norwich.

Peter French  speculates- 'Little is known of this son of Dee's; one cannot help but wonder however, how much he may have influenced Browne, who was one of the seventeenth century's greatest literary exponents of the type of occult philosophy in which both the Dee's were immersed'.[14]

On Dreams is not Browne's only literary work in which the psychological is prominent. His two closely-related discourses of 1658 Urn-Burial and The Garden of Cyrus are a portrait of the human condition and psyche, depicting humanity as simultaneously irrational and rational, fearful of death, yet forever with the future in mind, serious and merry, enduring pain and illness as well as enjoying health and pleasure. Imagery involving Light and Darkness permeates the diptych discourses, as does the dominant themes of Time (Urn-Burial) and Space (The Garden of Cyrus) the basic framework of  the Mandala. Most often a circular visual image, but conceivable as a literary structure, in Jungian psychology the meditative image of the mandala symbolically represents the dreamer's search for completeness and self-unity; its function is to assist with healing and to help transform ordinary minds into enlightened ones. Plexiformed in their polarity, themes and imagery, Browne's diptych discourses are capable of achieving such a transformation to the receptive mind.  By focusing his reader's attention to the discourses primary symbols of Urn and Quincunx, Thomas  Browne  -

'by concentrating, almost like a hypnotist, on this pair of unfamiliar symbols, paradoxically releases the reader's mind into an infinite number of associative levels of awareness, without preconception to give shape and substance to quite literally cosmic generalizations...............Mystical symbolism is woven throughout the texture of Browne's work and adds, often subconsciously, to its associative power of impact. [15]

C.G.Jung, recognizing the enduring continuity of symbolism in the collective unconscious psyche throughout long stretches of time perceptively observes-

'The symbolic statements of the old alchemists issue from the same unconscious as modern dreams and are just as much the voice of nature'. [16] 

Browne concludes his short tract On Dreams refuting that children don't dream under six months old, that men don't dream in some countries by supplying a footnote upon the difference between false and true dreams in the form of the Ivory gate and the polished horn gate as mentioned in Homer's Odyssey, in which Penelope the hero's wife says of dreams-

"Ah my friend," seasoned Penelope dissented
"dreams are hard to unravel, wayward, drifting things-
not all we glimpse in them will come to pass...
Two gates there are for our evanescent dreams,
one is made of ivory, the other made of horn.
Those that pass through the ivory cleanly carved
are will-o'-the-wisps, their message bears no fruit.
The dreams that pass through the gates of polished horn
are fraught with truth, for the dreamer who can see them. [17]

Conclusion

In addition to being a superb introduction to Browne's literary style, On Dreams includes a number of highly original speculations on the psyche's relationship to dreams, 'the Theatre of Ourselves', as the physician-philosopher memorably defines the psyche. 

Link to full text of  On Dreams

Books consulted

* Patrides C. A. ed. and with an introduction The Major Works of Sir Thomas Browne pub. Penguin  1977 includes On Dreams
* Finch J. S - A Catalogue of the Libraries of Sir Thomas Browne and Dr Edward Browne, his son. A Facsimile Reproduction with an Introduction, Notes and Index.  E. J .Brill    1986
* Jung C. G.  Memories, Dreams, Reflections trans. R & C Winston London 1979
* Jung C.G. Psychology and Religion Vol. 11 Collected works pub. RKP 1958
* Green, P. Sir Thomas Browne  pub. 1959 Longmans, Green & Co (Writers and Work, No.108).
* The Odyssey Homer translated by Robert Fagles 1996 Viking Penguin

Notes

[1] Religio Medici Part 2  Section 11
[2] Ibid.
[3] R.M. Part 1:12
[4] Pseudodoxia Epidemica Bk 1:18 no.13
[5] Sales Catalogue p.19 no 96  Opera Omnia 10 vol. Lyon 1663
[6] I am indebted to Ms. A. Wyatt for information about Edward Browne's bachelor of medicine dissertation and indeed on all matters relating to Thomas Browne's eldest son, Edward Browne (1644-1708).
[7]  Carl Jung and Sir Thomas Browne
[8]  Glossary  of  Memories, Dreams, Reflections.
[9] Carl Jung Complete Works  Vol:11 paragraph 385
[10] CW 14: paragraph 667
[11] Paracelsus: Selected Writings edited by Jolande Jacobi pub. Princeton University Press 1951
[12] CW 14: paragraph 737
[13] Green, P. Sir Thomas Browne pub. 1959 Longmans, Green & Co (Writers and Work, No.108)
[14] John Dee: The World of an Elizabethan Magus, by Peter J. French Pub. Routledge and Kegan Paul, London 1972
[15] Green, P. Sir Thomas Browne  pub. 1959 Longmans, Green & Co (Writers and Work, No.108)
[16] Collected Works vol. 11: paragraph 105
[17] Book 19 lines 560-565 The Odyssey Homer by Robert Fagles pub. 1996 Viking Penguin

Paintings

'Before Waking'  40 x 50 cm. (2015) by Peter Rodulfo.









The Knight's Dream by Antonio de Peruda. (1655)









Henri Rousseau Le Rêve (The Dream) 1909. Rousseau's last painting.

'Dreaming Fisherman' by Peter Rodulfo

See  also-

Link to Peter Rodulfo's art 

See also -

Rodulfo's quadriptych of Loving-Kindness

Rodulfo's 'As the elephant laughed'. A panorama of evolution

Paracelsus on the interpretation of dreams

Paracelsus and Sir Thomas Browne

Carl Jung and Sir Thomas Browne

North Sea Magic Realism: The art of Guy Richardson

'In seventy or eighty years a Man may have a deep Gust of the World, Know what it is, what it can afford, and what ’tis to have been a Man'. [1]

Guy Richardson (1933 - 2021) was a British artist and sculptor who exhibited his art for over six decades. He was also the senior member of the North Sea Magic Realism art-movement.

Early in his long and varied life, Guy attended Dartmouth Naval College and later studied at Chelsea School of Art for his National Diploma in Design, along with fellow-artist Prunella Clough and the sculptor Elizabeth Frink. He attended UEA as a mature student reading European Art History. For many years Guy combined art with puppetry including a one-man show of Orpheus in the Underworld which was performed at the National Theatre in London. Richardson's influence upon his contemporaries is reflected in the British puppeteer and environmental artist Meg Amsden's  (b. 1948) reminiscence -

'There were so many artists around that I knew and worked with that it was possible to learn things. With a little touring dance and education company we went into schools and did shows and through that I met someone called Guy Richardson, who did Punch and Judy shows on Yarmouth beach.' 

Guy showed Meg how to make masks for dance productions and, almost immediately, she started making puppets too. Amsden recollects on her apprenticeship with Richardson-

'Guy had a way of working that was experimental. All the time we were trying things out,” she says. “I think you learn by doing that. I have the sort of mind that likes problem solving so that worked well. I worked with him for four of five years altogether but gradually started setting up my own ideas too.' [2]

Richardson has held exhibitions of his art at Covent Garden and Hampstead in London, at Norwich, and Halesworth and Southwold in Suffolk. Three examples of his medallic work are currently held at the British Museum. 

Its beyond the confines of this post to recollect in detail Guy's long and extensive biography, besides, as C.G. Jung reminds us-  

'The personal life of the artist is at most a help or a hindrance, but is never essential to his creative task. He may go the way of the Philistine, a good citizen, a fool, or a criminal. His personal career may be interesting and inevitable, but it does not explain his art'. [3] 

Working mostly in ceramics, primarily in grogged clay, Richardson's pieces are painted or sponged with underglaze paints before biscuit firing, creating sculptures which are at turns humorous and erotic, often featuring people in unusual situations. His amusing and intriguing sculptures echo the humour and salaciousness of 'What the Butler Saw' peep-shows with a Jack-in-the-box inventiveness. With an extensive knowledge of world art, Richardson's 'Back-stage' (top of post) depicts the behind-the-scenes operations of stage-hands whilst an opera singer performs to an audience. His 'Shark-wrestler' (above) is influenced by the artist Rene Magritte, whilst his 'Bluebeard's Larder' (below) is inspired by Charles Perrault's sinister fairy-tale.

Richardson's art possesses all the sophistication of Czech animator Jan Svankmajer or the Brothers Quay with their imaginative automatons, while retaining his own quite unique vision.

The psychologist C.G. Jung reminds us that- 'Every creative person is a duality or a synthesis of contradictory qualities. On the one side he is a human being with a personal life, while on the other he is an impersonal creative process. As a human being he may be sound or morbid, and his personal psychology can and should be explained in personal terms. But he can be understood as an artist only in terms of his creative achievement'. [4]

Peter Rodulfo and Mark Burrell both acknowledge Richardson's influence upon  their own personal artistic development. Rodulfo recollects - 

'I first met Guy in 1980. At the time I was exhibiting at Norwich Castle Museum. Guy had  seen my work there and got in touch  with me so as to see more of my art. In due course Guy showed me his work which greatly impressed me. For some time I had been making ever more encrusted collages, and seeing Guy's work gave me the courage and inspiration to take my collages a big step forwards, in the form of three-dimensional constructions and assemblages,which in turn led on to free standing sculptures'. 

Mark Burrell, a Lowestoft neighbour of Richardson, states-

'I first saw Guy's work over 30 years ago when I was lucky enough to see a one man show by him. I was utterly spell bound by the sheer imagination of his 3D pieces, many were ornate boxes with spy-holes to peer into; within these he created great depth and all kind of imaginings. His themes over the years are many and varied, but his frank, honest and quirky depiction of human sexuality, playful and uncensored make me smile and think. 30 years later I still get a feeling of excitement when I pop round to see him and his unique work.'

Guy Richardson exhibited with Peter Rodulfo and Mark Burrell at the Tripp Gallery, London, in November 2017, attending the opening preview of the first collective North Sea Magical Realism exhibition. 

Notes

[1] Sir Thomas Browne Christian Morals Part 3:22

[2] The Puppet Master: Interview with Meg Amsden East Anglian Daily Times 8th July  2013

[3] CW 15:157

[4]  CW 15:162

                        Photo of Guy Richardson circa 1980

'Walk through Walls' - Rodulfo's Yarmouth Collection

Within a few years of relocating his home and studio the visionary artist Peter Rodulfo (b.1958) has assembled an extraordinary portfolio of artwork which focuses upon the architecture and landmarks, street-life and social activities of Great Yarmouth. Rodulfo's Yarmouth Collection was exhibited at Skippings Gallery in Great Yarmouth  from April 14th until the 20th April 2018.

The Yarmouth Collection takes as its springboard observations made by the artist on walks throughout the town. Rodulfo's paintings depict the coastal town in both well-known and little-known guises. The walls which the artist invites the viewer to walk through are those of indifference and inattentiveness to one's everyday environment. Viewing the many gems of Rodulfo's Yarmouth Collection one not only acquires a new awareness of the sights and attractions of Great Yarmouth but also a deepened appreciation of the technical brilliance, wide stylistic diversity and protean imagination which the artist now commands, Rodulfo himself stating -‘Looking is like a language. The best art doesn't need a dictionary, but for general usage a context is needed’.

The attractions and architectural treasures of Great Yarmouth are the context of the Yarmouth Collection - its Marketplace, Regent Road, King Street, the Star hotel, St. George's Park, the Hippodrome Circus, Atlantis Tower, Nelson's Monument, Britannia and Wellington Piers all feature in the Yarmouth Collection.

The chequered fortunes of what geographically speaking was once little more than a narrow peninsula of shingle sandwiched between the North Sea and the River Yare, is clearly visible in Great Yarmouth’s  varied architecture. On  South Quay there's a 13th c.Tollhouse and  a 17th-century Merchant's House, as well as Tudor, Georgian and Victorian buildings. Behind South Quay there’s a maze of alleys and lanes known as "The Rows" while Yarmouth’s medieval wall is the second most complete Medieval town wall in the country. With eleven of  its eighteen original turrets still standing, its more extant than nearby Norwich's surviving medieval city walls.  

Rodulfo shares with fellow leading member of North Sea Magical Realism, Mark Burrell (b. 1957) an interest in the interaction between architecture and social activities; the townscape of Burrell’s hometown of Lowestoft  is often the setting of his luminescent paintings. As with Burrell however, its the overall ambience and mood of a location rather than meticulously reproducing architectural detail which interests Rodulfo. 

An ambiguous, even unsettling atmosphere is evoked in Approach to the Pleasure-Beach (below).  In equal measure of light and dark, cheer and gloom, an overcrowded boat is seen ferrying people to a Pleasure-Beach, some of which resembles the Bolton bros. fun-fair. With its sombre sky and churning water along with overcrowded boat, the viewer is left to wonder about the lengths people will go to in their pursuit of pleasure. The painting's background includes Yarmouth's 'Golden Mile' complete with the Atlantis Tower, Waterways boating-lake, windmill and approaching train.

Portraiture of Yarmouth’s leading cultural figures also occurs in the Yarmouth Collection. The proprietor of the Hippodrome Circus, Peter Jay, along with his bearded and bespectacled son Jack Jay, the current Ringmaster, can be seen mingling among the performing clowns and trapeze artists of The Day the Clowns Left (77 x 61 cm ) (below) as well as a pair of giraffes who rubberneck into the frame.

Great Yarmouth Hippodrome was built in 1903 by the legendary Circus showman George Gilbert. Its Britain's only surviving total circus building, one of only three in the world. The painting's title alludes to the fact that clowns are to be dropped from the performing artists of the Hippodrome Circus, because they are now considered to be too scary for a family audience.

Another leading figure in Yarmouth's cultural life, the artist John Kiki, a founding member of the 'Yarmouth six’ art-group is portrayed in On the Corner (below) with its grinning coffee-cup faces, vertical word COLUMBIA and surly-looking seagull peering from behind it.  John Kiki can be seen standing beside a yellow van in the lower right corner of the canvas, while in the lower left  corner stands a hill-top Greek village, a visual reference to Yarmouth’s long-established Cypriot-Greek community.

Rodulfo’s Quayside view of Yarmouth (below) far from either a pastiche or homage to Jan Vermeer’s famous View of Delft (1661) simply highlights an intuitive artistic perception - that Vermeer’s Delft and Yarmouth town share distinctive qualities of light, as well as cloud formations; both towns being situated on low land encompassed by water with a  full hemisphere of sky above (major contributing factors for Norfolk’s famed sunsets).

The skilful reproduction of cloud and sky reflected in the river Yare in Quayside view of Yarmouth is of particular note. The artist  himself stating of this  quayside view -

'I just thought the view is beautiful, but most people would walk by without a glance, as I am sure Vermeer’s contemporaries did, when walking past his view of Delft'.

Great Yarmouth itself is no back-water in British art history. Almost every major artist of the Norwich School of Painters which flourished exactly two centuries ago has an association with Yarmouth. Many Norwich School artists visited Yarmouth in order to paint beach and marine subjects; others, such as J.S.Cotman, resided in the Town attempting to make a precarious living, other Norwich School artists such as Joseph Stannard embarked from Yarmouth in order to view major art-collections such as the ‘Golden Age’ Dutch masters on display in Amsterdam; later in his short life the tubercular Stannard was sent to Yarmouth by family and friends in hope that the salubrious sea-air would restore his health. For many years John Crome visited Yarmouth weekly as an art- teacher, he also sailed from the sea-port in order to view the art-treasures newly on display in Paris which had been plundered by Napoleon in his military victories.

Another allusion to European art-styles occurs in a painting which features two of Yarmouth's tallest landmarks, the Britannia Monument (44 metres in height) and the Atlantis Tower (56 metres in height). A naval Admiral's hat, a crane stacking container cargo, seagull and traffic cone can also be seen in this relatively small painting sized 36 x  49 cm. (Top of this post). 

The Britannia Monument is a tribute to Lord Nelson (1758-1805) which was completed in 1819, some 24 years before the completion of Nelson's Column in London. The Monument shows Britannia standing atop a globe, holding an olive branch in her right hand and a trident in her left. Originally planned to mark Nelson's victory at the Battle of the Nile, its installation was delayed due to insufficient fundraising which resulted in it not being completed until after the Naval hero's death. Now surrounded by an industrial estate, Rodulfo links the monument's current environ to the settings of the paintings of Giorgio De Chirico (1888 -1978) who greatly influenced the Surrealists and whose paintings often included arcades and towers, stating- 'When thinking of monumental surrealism of course De Chirico springs to mind’. This being the primary reason why the painting references the  distinctive style of the Italian metaphysical artist.

In Yarmouth Market Place (148 x 117 cm)(below) the vibrancy of one of England's oldest and largest marketplaces is represented through swirling activity and a cheerful and pleasing tonal palette. Market produce of fruit and vegetables, flowers and clothes, along with  gangways and shoppers, are all depicted in what may be termed Rodulfo's multi-layered perspective. Gate-crashing into the picture are two seagulls, near ubiquitous to Yarmouth town, one humorous, the other slightly threatening. They also contribute to the general hustle and bustle of Yarmouth Market Place, and can be seen in various other paintings of Peter Rodulfo's wholly original Yarmouth Collection.

'Rainy Bank Holiday' (with Atlantis Tower)

Four 'Rarities in Pictures' from Dr. Browne's Musaeum Clausum

When the artists Peter Rodulfo and Mark Burrell, the two leading exponents of North Sea magical realism were introduced to Thomas Browne’s Musaeum Clausum they instantly recognised the seventeenth century physician-philosopher as one possessing an inventive imagination; the paintings listed as  'Rarities in Pictures' in Browne's imaginary art-gallery in particular, attracted their interest. Subsequently, during the summer of 2016, both artists set to work, inspired by the novel idea of bringing to life a picture from Browne's bizarre art-gallery.

Musaeum Clausum (The closed or Sealed museum) is an inventory of lost, rumoured and imaginary books, pictures and objects conjured up by Thomas Browne (1605-82) quite late in his life (an event from 1673 is mentioned), several of which represent pre-occupations which fascinated the Norwich doctor throughout his life. Ever the literary showman with a flair for the theatrical and with subtle humour, Browne declares his inventory to be ‘Containing some remarkable Books, Antiquities, Pictures and Rarities of several kinds, scarce or never seen by any man now living’. 

In recent times Browne's writings in general have attracted the attention of many artists, not least his Musaeum Clausum for its anticipation of modern modes of artistic expression [1]. Indeed, the Argentinian author Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1996) a life-long admirer of Browne who alluded to him throughout his literary career, and the writer most often associated with the literary origins of magical realism once stated, as if with Browne’s Musaeum Clausum in mind  - 

"To write vast books is a laborious nonsense, much better is to offer a summary as if those books actually existed."

Musaeum Clausum's art-gallery of 'Rarities in pictures’ succinctly describes paintings roughly sketched out in a few brush-stroke sentences; some are located in exotic settings such as moonlight, the polar regions and underwater, others depict historical events such as sea-battles, amongst a variety of fancies from the Norwich philosopher-physician's imagination.

The artist Mark Burrell (b. 1957) selected the item entitled ‘A vestal sinner in the cave with a candle’ from 'Rarities in Pictures' as raw material to work on. Burrell’s Sacred Presence (detail above, oil and alkyd resin on board 19 x 19 3/4 inches) depicts a cave in which a young girl with a questioning and slightly defiant expression, stands beside a table on which several candles are lit. A highly-charged and numinous atmosphere is evoked through the lapsed virgin's encounter with a supernatural apparition. A floating, genie-like torso faces her, ambiguous in facial features, the apparition is simultaneously erotic and scary. A ghostly visage can also be seen looking on. As often in Burrell’s art, a numinous atmosphere is enhanced through highly-charged colouration along with skilful portraiture and exquisite detail. 

Candles and the magical light which they create can be seen in several of Burrell’s paintings. Exercising his artistic license Burrell has chosen to paint several lit candles, heightening the drama of the numinous moment. Until relatively recently candles were a primary source of light. In the modern age with its demand for eyes to constantly focus upon the artificial light of the phone, computer and television screen, candle-light is a relaxing and soothing balm to the eyes. Candle light retains its spiritual significance from mankind's very earliest religious experiences to the present-day. 

In  Mark Burrell’s Sacred Presence the torso of a hybrid creature, like a genie released from a bottle, hovers bare-breasted and quivers with secret Freudian allusions, the artist subtly inviting the viewer to project their own unconscious psychological contents onto its presence. From the bare skeletal frame-work of a single sentence description, Burrell has fleshed-out and conjured up a dark and mysterious, and ultimately inexplicable, fairy-tale narrative in his own unique and inimitable style. 

Burrell's Sacred Presence may poetically be described as an Hallucination gothique. It should be noted that the word 'Gothic’ in its original meaning is descriptive of the marvellous and amazing, such as found in Burrell's paintings of fair-grounds, sun-sets, bonfires and fireworks, along with the wonders of childhood, as much as the darker and gloomier associations of the word, while the word 'hallucination' here simply means a vivid, yet controlled, visual imagination, without any association of chemical inducement whatsoever. 

The setting of the cave invites exploration. In the ancient Greek philosopher Plato's famous allegory of the cave, found in book 7 of his discourse The Republic, the human condition is described as one in which unenlightened people forever mistake the fleeting and insubstantial shadows they see projected onto a cave wall for the reality of the Eternal Platonic forms. 

In the cave paintings at Lascaux in France, estimated to be 20,000 years old, various animals can be seen. First discovered in 1940, the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) after visiting the paleolithic caves remarked, 'They've invented everything'. Picasso subsequently incorporated imagery found in the caves of Lascaux in his own paintings. Indeed its no exaggeration to state, as Picasso realized, that the cave was in fact the setting of mankind’s very first art gallery. 

The subject-matter of Browne’s ‘vestal sinner’ originates from Roman antiquity. The Vestal virgins were entrusted to the task of keeping the sacred flame of the temple dedicated to Vesta permanently alight. A supreme importance was attached to the purity of the Vestal virgins, and a terrible punishment awaited her who violated her vow of chastity. If a Vestal virgin broke her vows she was punished by being entombed alive with a solitary candle in the certainty of death.  

There’s a casual, though entirely coincidental similarity to Burrell's Sacred Presence to a scene in the Mexican-American film director Guillermo del Toro’s cinematic masterpiece of magical realism, Pan’s Labyrinth (2006). Early in the film, the heroine Ofelia who loves reading fairy-tales, descends the steps of a  labyrinth to enter a cavernous space where she encounters a faun who sets her three tasks to complete by full moon. 

The faun in Pan's Labyrinth not unlike the spectral apparition of Sacred Presence is strongly imbued with the daemonic, that is, a benevolent nature spirit, which though seemingly scary, more often than not, is helpful to mortals. The daemonische also describes the particular genius or spirit of a place, something which Burrell expresses vividly in paintings of his home-town of Lowestoft, the sea-town possessing a distinctive character in his art.

Its important here to distinguish between the word daemonic with the much latter word 'demonic' and not to confuse the daemonic with the demonic. The Greek word daimōn was applied to the Judeo-Christian concept of an evil spirit by the early second century CE. Just how the original Greek word 'daemonic' alluding to the Spirits inhabiting Nature transformed to become 'demonic' is a good example of how the prejudices and hostilities of the Judeo-Christian world towards the Greek civilization  condemned Greek nature worship and labelled all such Nature-spirits originating from Greek civilization as pagan. [2]

There are many accounts in Greek mythology of mortals who encounter supernatural beings. In ancient Greek myth, the hero Oedipus challenges the female Sphinx who devoured all travelers who could not answer her riddle. When Oedipus gave her the correct answer he caused the Sphinx's death.

The Greek hero Oedipus is the subject of an early work of  portraiture by Mark Burrell. Painted over twenty years ago and measuring 6" x 9", Burrell’s portrait through sheer serendipity corresponds well to Browne's interest in the esoteric art of physiognomy as represented in the 'Rarities in Pictures' item - 

Three Draughts of passionate Looks; .............of Oedipus when he first came to know that he had killed his Father, and married his own Mother. 

This early work of Burrell's is a fine anticipation of what is now a highly-developed feature of his mature work, namely, portraiture involving great psychological insight.

* * * *

The artist Peter Rodulfo (b. 1958) is a star of equal brilliance in the celestial firmament of North Sea magical realism. Mercurial in subject-matter, style, dimensions and the medium of his art (Rodulfo is a sculptor as well as a painter) he is now clocking up forty-plus years of industrious creativity. However, one never gets the impression of any Sisyphean effort to Rodulfo’s art, even though he confesses his paintings are problems which he only sometimes solves. Most often, a joyful delight in productive, often experimental creativity weaves throughout Rodulfo's varied and wide-ranging art-works, like a silken golden thread in finely-woven tapestry .

Peter Rodulfo also selected an item from Browne’s Museum Clausum during the summer of 2016, his painting Dr. Browne  goes Submarining originating from the 'Rarities in Pictures'  item of -

Large Submarine Pieces, well delineating the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea, the Prairie or large Sea-meadow upon the Coast of Provence, the Coral Fishing, the gathering of Sponges, the Mountains, Valleys and Deserts, the Subterraneous Vents and Passages at the bottom of that Sea .... Together with a lively Draught of Cola Pesce, or the famous Sicilian Swimmer, diving into the Vorago's and broken Rocks by Charybdis, to fetch up the golden Cup, which Frederick, King of Sicily, had purposely thrown into that Sea.

Adhering closely to Browne’s description, Rodulfo’s giant-sized (180 x 220 cm) oil on canvas displays the artist's masterful utilization of a strong blue pigment, in conjunction with skilful perspective and an exuberant delight in marine-life. In fact there are now many art-works by Rodulfo in which marine life is a primary feature. Three paintings by the artist focus upon the stages and symbolism of the Night Sea Voyage, for example. 

An attentive viewing of Rodulfo’s 'Large submarine Piece' reveals not only the silhouetted figure of a diver, but also,‘the golden Cup, which Frederick, King of Sicily, had purposely thrown into that Sea’.  The deep fathoms of water from the golden cup resting upon seabed to surface is effectively conveyed through a shaft of hazy sunlight at the top left of the painting. A platypus with its wide, flat bill can be seen diving headlong in its top right. The viscous nature of the sea is hinted through various pieces of flotsam and jetsam floating in the water. There's also a skillful use of perspective in the outlines of rock formations, along with finely-worked frottage which enhances the depth of Rodulfo's aquatic vision.  

Digital photography can never fully reproduce an original art-work, especially one which is so large in its dimensions. Nevertheless, a detail from Rodulfo’s jumbo-sized painting (above) goes some way towards highlighting the fantastic detail of its imagery. 

In Rodulfo’s submarine fantasy, with its hints of civilizations such as Atlantis as recounted in Plato’s Timaeus, the gods of a distant time, far from being stern and implacable, are portrayed as approachable and cheerful and above all, not necessarily patriarchal whatsoever. Male and Female together, they suggest some long-lost civilization celebrating the Hieros Gamos or 'Sacred Marriage' when men and women were co-equal in a meaningful way, long since forgotten.  

Its interesting to note that both Burrell and Rodulfo were attracted to paint items allusive to the hidden in nature. For whilst Burrell selected an item featuring the subterranean, that is, under the earth, Rodulfo opted for the submarine, that is, under the sea. These settings may be considered as allusive in symbolism to the subconscious of the human psyche. Its a moot point in terminology between the difference of subconscious and unconscious, it being far easier for an artist to depict examples from under nature than the unnatural and 'not of nature'. Of  far greater importance is the fact that both Rodulfo and Burrell are well aware that much in human relationships and affairs is influenced and driven by the hidden, subconscious psyche. 

It would be a daunting task to even begin naming the numerous influences of Rodulfo’s and Burrell’s art. Both artists live and work in historic North Sea ports which for centuries have been vigorous conduits, not only of travel, trade and commerce, but also of cultures, fashions, ideas and  art. Nevertheless, above all others it's the Swiss artist Paul Klee whom Peter Rodulfo admits to admiring most, while for Mark Burrell the English artist Stanley Spencer is held in the highest regard. Both artists also take a casual interest in the psychology of C.G. Jung and the psychological element is evident in both artist's work, consciously and unconsciously, as the shared symbolism of their respective paintings suggests, the subterranean setting of Mark Burrell's Sacred Presence harmoniously matching the submarine setting of  Peter Rodulfo's Dr. Browne goes Submarining.

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In the nineteenth century Russian artist Ilya Repin's scene from the medieval Russian fairy-tale of  the minstrel singer and sailor Sadko, the hero is seen visiting a submarine kingdom. Repin's fanciful painting entitled Sadko visiting the Underwater Kingdom (1876) alludes to lost civilizations, along with depiction of a wide variety of  marine-creatures. One wonders if the Russian composer Rimsky-Korsakov ever viewed Repin's painting, the subject of Sadko and his fairy-tale adventures are the plot of Rimsky-Korsakov's triumph of national opera, Sadko (1889). Rimsky-Korsakov's contemporary and great rival, Peter Tchaikovsky also found Russian fairy-tales to be inspiring. The music of Tchaikovsky's world-famous and well-loved ballets Swan Lake (1875-77) and The Sleeping Beauty (1890) along with Igor Stravinsky's  ballet The Firebird (1911) are all structured in plot and narrative upon fairy-tales. 

In the sixth scene of Rimsky-Korsakov's opera Sadko the minstrel Sadko descends to the Sea-Tsar's kingdom in order to win his daughter's hand in marriage. 

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Cheerfulness, along with humour and wit are prominent characteristics of much of  Peter Rodulfo's art, not least in his choosing to realize one of the funniest of all the items in Browne’s 'Rarities in Pictures' namely, An Elephant dancing upon the Ropes with a Negro Dwarf upon his Back.

Painted sometime late 2016/early 2017, in addition to an elephant dancing upon a tight-rope with a gyrating liveried flunky upon his back, a lobster, butterfly, tortoise, starfish, seagull and the tail of a large cetaceous creature can be seen, all of which are visible evidence of Rodulfo's great love of animals. Elephants in particular can be found lumbering about in several of Rodulfo's paintings, including his key-signature art-work As the Elephant Laughed (2012). Elephants feature in Rodulfo's art perhaps because their colossal size and docile intelligence impressed strongly upon the artist's memory when resident in India as a young boy. 

In Rodulfo's Elephant Dancing on the Ropes the rough hide of an elephant has been imitated with a thick, heavy layering of paint worked onto the canvas with a spatula. The elephant's hide is strongly lit by moonlight shining  upon its back. The drama of the moment is further enhanced by the setting rays of the sun catching the tail of a large cetaceous creature about to dive, along with the strobing beams of a lighthouse on the distant horizon. The swell of the sea in its foreground, complete with ripples and bubbles are also skillfully delineated. 

Its interesting to note that although they are quite different in mood, Rodulfo's highly amusing painting of an elephant lolloping along a rope and Burrell's sombre Sacred Presence nevertheless share imagery involving moonlight and candles. 

There are two possible sources from which Thomas Browne may have been informed about tightrope-walking elephants. As an antiquarian and a keen numismatist he may have seen ancient Roman coins which appear to depict tight-rope walking elephants, but alas, such coins are in fact of elephants treading upon serpents, with the attendant symbolism of such an act, and not tight-rope walking at all. 

A far more reliable source for tight-rope walking elephants occurs in the historian Suetonius' Lives of the Caesars who records that it was the Roman emperor Galba (3 BCE - 69 CE) who introduced the spectacular novelty of tight-rope walking elephants at the festival of Floralia [3]. Perhaps Browne, who owned a copy of Suetonius' Lives of the Caesars read of tight-rope walking elephants there. However, what can be of little doubt is that Browne, who candidly confesses in Religio Medici that-

 'I can look a whole day with delight upon a handsome Picture though it be but of an Horse'. [4] 

he would have immensely enjoyed viewing Rodulfo's mirth-inducing realisation of An Elephant dancing upon the Ropes with a Negro Dwarf upon his Back.

Incidentally,  imagery involving elephants as well as the bottom of the sea occurs in Sir Thomas Browne's phantasmagorical discourse The Garden of Cyrus (1658) while the physician-philosopher's vigorous introduction of new words into the English language includes the words 'hallucination' as well as 'submarine'.

Rodulfo and Burrell first became aware of each other through fellow artist Guy Richardson (b. 1933) though in the eventuality they first met at a New York bar while exhibiting their art in America. As the senior member of North Sea magical realism  Guy Richardson has influenced both Rodulfo and Burrell at various stages of their artistic careers. His mixed media artwork, A Shark-wrestler in a bottle is related to themes and preoccupations encountered in both artist's work, it being a fusion of Rodulfo’s wit and humour and Burrell’s intensity of expression. 

This post is dedicated to Ms. Katerina Mayfaire  - perhaps America's biggest fan of North Sea Magical Realism, with many thanks for her inspiration.

Notes

[1] The German photographer Klaus Wehner and his art-project entitled Museum Clausum  from 2001 Link here.
The avant-garde composer Eve Beglarian and her electronic music piece entitled the Garden of Cyrus  and an American rock-band naming themselves The Garden of Cyrus spring to mind.
[2] Thanking  Ms. Clair Papillion for bringing this distinction to attention.
[3]  Suetonius Lives of the Caesars Galba section 6.
[4] Religio Medici Part II. Section 9.