{architecture} – Page 5 – { feuilleton }

Sanquirico’s theatrical settings

Work-related research over the past couple of weeks has had me looking for pictures of theatres in the 19th century, especially backstage views. The latter proved harder to find than I expected although I did turn up a few useful reference images after scouring the picture libraries. Nuova raccolta di scene teatrali (1828) by Alessandro Sanquirico is an Italian book that surfaced during the searches, not something I wanted but it’s another collection of imaginary architectural views which I always like to see. Sanquirico was set designer for La Scala in Milan so most of these designs are for opera sets, although several are labelled “ballo“, a type of theatrical dance which evidently required dramatic settings. As to the designs, there’s more variety than you find among earlier generations of theatrical designers like the Bibienas, a family of artists who specialised in very detailed Baroque interiors. The Romantic era demanded tempestuous drama and greater spectacle, hence Sanquirico’s views of castles, caves, prisons, conflagrations and fanciful depictions of the ancient world. The selection that follows is only a small sample; the book has 242 plates in all.

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Weekend links 781

Orphée aux Enfers (1896) by Jean Delville

• “Yes, there was a riot, but it was great”: Cabaret Voltaire on violent gigs, nuclear noise – and returning to mark 50 years.

• At Public Domain Review: Matthew Mullane on George Wightwick’s The Palace of Architecture (1840).

• New music: Dissever by Emptyset; Quiet Pieces by Abul Mogard; Analogues by Lawson & Merrill.

• At Spoon & Tamago: Artist Yukiko Suto finds beauty in Japanese residential neighbourhoods.

• At The Quietus: A Condition of the Space: Mary Anne Hobbs interviewed.

• At Baja el Signo de Libra: The homoerotic photography of Yves Paradis.

• Mix of the week: Bleep Mix #303 by Abul Mogard.

• At Dennis Cooper’s: Stan Brakhage Day.

• RIP Edmund White.

• Brakhage (1997) by Stereolab | Brakhage (2002) by Robert Poss | Barbican Brakhage (2009) by John Foxx

The art of Martin Monnickendam, 1874–1943

Gevel van de Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois.

Martin Monnickendam was a Dutch artist whose work caught my attention not for his paintings but for this series of etchings showing views of the streets and older buildings of Paris. The Rijksmuseum gives the series a date of 1896, when the artist was a mere 22 years of age but already working with a proficiency that makes me wish he’d done more in this style. Monnickendam’s subject and medium brings to mind Charles Méryon’s celebrated etchings of Paris but Méryon’s depictions of Notre-Dame and elsewhere generally place the buildings at a distance. Monnickendam fills his plates with closer views of architectural detail, showing how good the etching medium can be in capturing Gothic crenellations. All of which is of particular interest to me now that I’m working again on The Dunwich Horror. Lovecraft’s story doesn’t feature any specifically Gothic architecture but the detailed shading I’ve been doing is closer to etching than anything else.

Gezicht op de Saint-Gervais.

Impasse des Boeufs.

Marché des Carmes.

Notre-Dame van Moret-sur-Loing .

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Fantasie di architettura by Aldo Avati

Giving a small collection of architectural designs the label “fantasies” seems an odd thing when so many building designs don’t go further than the planning stage: Frank Lloyd Wright’s mile-high skyscraper is as much a fantasy as the unbuilt towers of London or any of the losing designs from the world’s many architectural competitions. Fantasie di architettura: schizze e prospettive (1920) is a portfolio of 60 plates by Aldo Avati, an architect and stage designer from Bologna whose designs are more fanciful than overtly fantastic. The introductory note refers to “the magician Piranesi” whose architectural caprices, especially his Carceri d’Invenzione, cast long shadows across all the arts. Piranesi’s influence is certainly evident here, in the views through huge ramparts and stone arches, the flights of stairs and dramatic lighting. Some of the views wouldn’t be out of place in this collection of drawings and paintings by an earlier generation of Italian stage designers.

Note: Although the book is titled “Part One” there doesn’t seem to have been a part two.

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The Twilight Magus

Presenting my latest cover for Aconyte’s Arkham Horror line, and the third and final book in a trilogy by Tim Pratt.

Carl Sanford, once the Silver Twilight Lodge’s great leader and now presumed dead, lives in anonymity in Spain, plotting revenge against those who betrayed him. Alone, he calculates his first move to achieve power abroad is by being initiated into the mysterious ancient society called the Red Coterie to secretly take it over. Despite Sanford’s reputation, the Red Coterie demands proof of his occult prowess, sending him on a quest to vanquish The Blood Moon, a reclusive blood magus manipulating humans and monsters alike to achieve their own ends. As Sanford uses every scrap of cunning he possesses to outwit his enemies and prove his worth, old foes from Arkham have discovered his existence and are coming to finish him off once and for all.

The brief for this one was for a design that would continue the form of the previous two volumes while incorporating details of Antoni Gaudí’s architecture, Barcelona being one of the story’s locations. I’ve admired Gaudí’s architecture for a long time but I’ve never had the opportunity to use any of it in an illustration before. Most of the details are tiny ones but the unfinished porch of the Sagrada Família is recognisable, as is the iron dragon from the entrance gate of the Park Güell. The windows behind Sarah van Shaw and Carl Sanford are also Gaudí designs.

Less recognisable, but also a Gaudí creation, is the background pattern which is more visible on the back cover of the book. My previous covers for Aconyte have all used Art Deco mofits to complement stories set in the 1920s, with several of them having elaborate background patterns. The Gaudí design was one I hadn’t seen before, a hexagonal tile in which portions of three organic forms—starfish, ammonite and algae—become whole when the tiles are placed together. It’s a beautifully simple and clever design with the additional bonus for this cover of creating a series of spirals and tendrils which suit the Lovecraftian nature of the story. If you search around you’ll find a number of places selling reproductions as either ceramic tiles or coasters in a variety of materials.

The Twilight Magus will be published in July.

Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The Lovecraft archive