Seamen in great distress eat one another
Seamen in great distress eat one another (1685).
From Wonderful Prodigies of Judgement and Mercy by Robert Burton. One of those incidents, like witch burnings and other executions, whose quaint period depiction is at considerable odds with what would have been an appalling reality. This picture can’t help but bring to mind Théodore Géricault’s masterpiece, The Raft of the Medusa, based on a later occurrence of sea-faring cannibalism.
The Raft of the Medusa (1819).
I photographed Géricault’s grave when I was in Père Lachaise cemetery in September. As well as the statue of the artist lounging atop his monument, the tomb features panels at the front and sides with bronze reliefs of his most famous works. The Raft of the Medusa faces the path.
Previously on { feuilleton }
• Druillet meets Hodgson
• Rogue’s Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs, and Chanteys
• Davy Jones
4 comments or trackbacks
#1 posted by Eroom Nala
Feb 4th, 2007
The Asterix version
http://www.asterix.co.nz/take_a_look/legionary/pirates.jpg
Monty Python’s Lifeboat sketch
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifeboat_sketch
http://bau2.uibk.ac.at/sg/python/Scripts/TheLifeboatSketch
#2 posted by John
Feb 5th, 2007
Heh, I’d not seen the Asterix one before. Complete with one of their terrible puns.
#3 posted by Nathalie
Feb 5th, 2007
Great ! NOW I am going to go mad until I can find the original of that Asterix pun…
#4 posted by Eroom Nala
Feb 5th, 2007
“In the French, the pirate captain is exclaiming, ?Je suis médusé!? = ?dumbfounded? ? from the Gorgon Medusa whose gaze turned the beholder to stone, but with reference here to the ship called La Méduse whose raft and seamen were painted by Géricault.”
from
http://www.literarytranslation.com/workshops/asterix/pictorial/
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