Darkness visible
Dec 9, 2008
Pandemonium by John Martin (1841).
Happy birthday to John Milton, 400-years-old today.
“High on a throne of a royal state, which far / Outshone the wealth of Ormus and of Ind” by Gustave Doré (1866).
Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The etching and engraving archive
Previously on { feuilleton }
• Chiaroscuro II: Joseph Wright of Derby, 1734–1797
• Angels 4: Fallen angels
• Death from above
• The apocalyptic art of Francis Danby
7 comments or trackbacks
#1 posted by Márcio Salerno
Dec 9th, 2008
“Better to be a master in Hell than a servant in Heaven”.
Yeah. Well, I’m not sure I want to sell my soul, but, probably, I wouldn’t mind renting it for a while, depending of ‘the piece of the action…’
Well, I don’t know. But Milton, 400 years, and we’re still thinking about some of his mottoes… and searching for a ‘Paradis Perdue’.
Hail…
#2 posted by Wiley
Dec 10th, 2008
The John Martin piece is gorgeous.
#3 posted by John
Dec 11th, 2008
Many art critics–and I believe people at the time–have pointed out that Martin’s infernal city bears a close resemblance to the Houses of Parliament when viewed from the south bank of the Thames. There’s a hint in the background of a vast dome whose presence is probably confirmed by another Martin painting. A shame there aren’t any decent reproductions of that one. I have one in a book but I’d have to damage the spine to scan it.
#4 posted by John
Dec 11th, 2008
Another thing worth pointing out about the “Thames” painting is that the big Wikipedia version allows you to get a sense of the outlandish scale of those infernal ramparts: just locate the crowd being hailed in the lake of fire then follow the train of tiny figures into the distance…
#5 posted by Wiley
Dec 11th, 2008
That latter one is among my favorites of his. Its reproduction adorns many items that are difficult to scan; a few fold-outs from John Zorn albums, old esoteric magazines and what have you. Some ‘old school’ black metal bands like Emperor made use of much of Dore’s work, but none that I know of touched Martin’s. It may be just as well, that is a genre littered with too many passable bands who seem to think the nature of the sound means you don’t have to have any talent (note, I most certainly don’t think that about Emperor).
Ideally interesting art should mean interesting music. This is too often not the case.