Comments on: Of the Monstrous Pictures of Whales http://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/2009/08/09/of-the-monstrous-pictures-of-whales/ • • • Being a journal by artist and designer John Coulthart, cataloguing interests, obsessions and passing enthusiasms. Wed, 17 Mar 2010 14:12:09 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: Paul Rumsey http://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/2009/08/09/of-the-monstrous-pictures-of-whales/comment-page-1/#comment-118531 Paul Rumsey Sun, 16 Aug 2009 03:13:47 +0000 http://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/?p=5874#comment-118531 YES! - I was going to mention the Ballard story, and then I went looking for the Vivant Denon picture and forgot,- I knew that there was something else that I was going to connect the whale and its penis to! It was the line near the end of the story "As for the immense pizzle, this ends its days in the freak museum of a circus which travels up and down the north-west. This monumental apparatus, stunning in its proportions and sometime potency, occupies a complete booth to itself. The irony is that it is wrongly identified as that of a whale...." And I found the Dominique - Vivant Denon ... http://www.evene.fr/boutique/index.php?idp=973&strs=erotisme&idoeuv=375024 Paul YES! – I was going to mention the Ballard story, and then I went looking for the Vivant Denon picture and forgot,- I knew that there was something else that I was going to connect the whale and its penis to!
It was the line near the end of the story “As for the immense pizzle, this ends its days in the freak museum of a circus which travels up and down the north-west. This monumental apparatus, stunning in its proportions and sometime potency, occupies a complete booth to itself. The irony is that it is wrongly identified as that of a whale….”

And I found the Dominique – Vivant Denon …

http://www.evene.fr/boutique/index.php?idp=973&strs=erotisme&idoeuv=375024

Paul

]]> By: John http://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/2009/08/09/of-the-monstrous-pictures-of-whales/comment-page-1/#comment-118487 John Sat, 15 Aug 2009 14:05:50 +0000 http://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/?p=5874#comment-118487 Hi Paul. Those Maglioli prints are marvellous. Always fascinates me the way these rococo creatures seem to be floating across the water rather than swimming in it. Not seen the Dominique-Vivant Denon, a shame there isn't a decent version somewhere (one site has a very tiny image which may be it). Those stranded whales remind me of JG Ballard's short story 'The Drowned Giant', in which the whale is replaced by an enormous human figure treated to the same degree of curiosity by the people who discover it. Hi Paul. Those Maglioli prints are marvellous. Always fascinates me the way these rococo creatures seem to be floating across the water rather than swimming in it.

Not seen the Dominique-Vivant Denon, a shame there isn’t a decent version somewhere (one site has a very tiny image which may be it). Those stranded whales remind me of JG Ballard’s short story ‘The Drowned Giant’, in which the whale is replaced by an enormous human figure treated to the same degree of curiosity by the people who discover it.

]]> By: Paul Rumsey http://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/2009/08/09/of-the-monstrous-pictures-of-whales/comment-page-1/#comment-118404 Paul Rumsey Fri, 14 Aug 2009 14:54:37 +0000 http://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/?p=5874#comment-118404 I love these hybrid sea beasts, there is a good group of them by Andrea Maglioli (see google images), almost vegetable tails, muscular spiral bodies, front legs of a horse with great webbed feet and a variety of heads - stags, bulls, lions, elephants etc. But to get back to the salaciousness, it seems that the cock is the focal point of the Matham print in your Saenredam whale post. It is central to the composition and is also being examined and used as a ladder. Do you know the parody by Dominique Vivant, Baron de Denon, of these dead whale prints?. It is an etching called "The Phenomenal Phallus" from his series "Priapic" 1793. It depicts a vast penis lying flaccid on a beach surrounded by small figures. ( I have it in a book, could not find it on internet) I love these hybrid sea beasts, there is a good group of them by Andrea Maglioli (see google images), almost vegetable tails, muscular spiral bodies, front legs of a horse with great webbed feet and a variety of heads – stags, bulls, lions, elephants etc.
But to get back to the salaciousness, it seems that the cock is the focal point of the Matham print in your Saenredam whale post. It is central to the composition and is also being examined and used as a ladder.
Do you know the parody by Dominique Vivant, Baron de Denon, of these dead whale prints?.
It is an etching called “The Phenomenal Phallus” from his series “Priapic” 1793. It depicts a vast penis lying flaccid on a beach surrounded by small figures. ( I have it in a book, could not find it on internet)

]]> By: John http://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/2009/08/09/of-the-monstrous-pictures-of-whales/comment-page-1/#comment-118004 John Wed, 12 Aug 2009 02:59:22 +0000 http://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/?p=5874#comment-118004 Thanks Richard, that's a great beast and you've spared me adding another comment to the burgeoning salaciousness. And in case anyone thinks it's not very whale-like, Melville co-opts anything big enough into the class of whales, even arguing (unconvincingly) for the inclusion of the dragons. Thanks Richard, that’s a great beast and you’ve spared me adding another comment to the burgeoning salaciousness. And in case anyone thinks it’s not very whale-like, Melville co-opts anything big enough into the class of whales, even arguing (unconvincingly) for the inclusion of the dragons.

]]> By: Richard http://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/2009/08/09/of-the-monstrous-pictures-of-whales/comment-page-1/#comment-117963 Richard Tue, 11 Aug 2009 20:39:28 +0000 http://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/?p=5874#comment-117963 Hi John, You might like this example of whale art from a tomb in Poland: http://www.flickr.com/photos/castrovalva/3802938441/ Hi John,

You might like this example of whale art from a tomb in Poland:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/castrovalva/3802938441/

]]> By: Evan http://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/2009/08/09/of-the-monstrous-pictures-of-whales/comment-page-1/#comment-117750 Evan Mon, 10 Aug 2009 05:19:30 +0000 http://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/?p=5874#comment-117750 Many are the glory holes where one may find hieronymous cock. Many are the glory holes where one may find hieronymous cock.

]]> By: John http://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/2009/08/09/of-the-monstrous-pictures-of-whales/comment-page-1/#comment-117741 John Mon, 10 Aug 2009 01:54:40 +0000 http://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/?p=5874#comment-117741 Hieronymus Cock, <em>Moby Dick</em>, sperm whales... There's obviously a sub-text here. Hieronymus Cock, Moby Dick, sperm whales… There’s obviously a sub-text here.

]]> By: Sue http://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/2009/08/09/of-the-monstrous-pictures-of-whales/comment-page-1/#comment-117726 Sue Sun, 09 Aug 2009 20:37:17 +0000 http://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/?p=5874#comment-117726 No, I am sorry John, but that is exactly the sort of name to provoke sniggering. Marvellous engravings however. No, I am sorry John, but that is exactly the sort of name to provoke sniggering.
Marvellous engravings however.

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