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See that each image has 3-4 elements: 1. Author, 2. Title, 3. Year, 4. Media (when needed)
Saturday, February 22, 2025
Your turn #5
Josephine Clofullia, the so-called "bearded lady of Ganeva"
Gosh, plenty to talk about 19th-century design:
Comics, political satire: Examiner and Puck, Caldecott's plates and frogs for Children books, Civil War reportage, Fashion!, Thomas Nast (the nasty), Mackmurdo's Chair (for the history of design), The Pre-raphaelite aesthetic revolution, Victorian design, chromolithography, Madox Brown's Work, Paxton's 1851 Crystal Palace, the great William Morris, Talbot's Pencil of Nature...
Go ahead!
Viva da freaks!
I find this display @ Buzzfeed... about "ridiculous monsters."
Let's forgive BF's lack of historical acumen by not mentioning its provenance!
My problem is that BF assumes these "monsters" did not exist.
Really?
Some of these "freaks" belong on a prominent list! (via the human marvels).
Some of these "freaks" belong on a prominent list! (via the human marvels).
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| Josephine Clofullia (the so-called "bearded lady of Geneva") |
It boils down to a distorted representation of the past or, else, blindspotting our present.
It happens by design.
That is, our present antiseptic idea of "normality."
Let's put on the lenses of the late Renaissance: This Swiss manuscript presents a rational treatment of the issue:
Let's put on the lenses of the late Renaissance: This Swiss manuscript presents a rational treatment of the issue:
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| Switzerland, 1557 |
The title reads: "Chronicle of Omens and Portents from the beginning of the world up to these our present times," (Switzerland, 1557).
The Chronicon is dramatic & naive in its quasi-scientific approach.
We are looking at early anthropology!
The shift in perception of how to understand these human types changes from 16th-century "portents" to 19th-century "freaks" (i.e., we find them as curiosities in the circuses of Europe and America).
Today's political correctness works perversely. Nowadays, we don't call these people "freaks."
In fact, we don't have a word for them. The euphemism "people with disabilities" doesn't work because today, people with disabilities (as much as they are willing to) can't find work in a circus!
We disagree that 16th-century illustrators were, as Buzzfeed calls them, "fucked up."
Presentists can not look beyond the obvious.
*****
How about John Merrick, i.e., Mr. "Elephant Man," who became famous in —of all places— Victorian England!
Or General Tom Thumb, a dwarf who worked for P.T. Barnum’s and perhaps one of 19th Century Circus' most famous performers by the mid-1800s.
Or Schlitzie, the microcephalic sideshow performer known for his role in Tod Browning's fantastic 1932 film Freaks.
Or Francesco Lentini, "Mr. Three-Legged Man," famous as a performer in the early 20th century.
Or John F. Kennedy Toole, who, while not a "freak" in the physical sense, was considered weird and "eccentric" (his posthumously published novel A Confederacy of Dunces made him legendary).
Circus freaks could negotiate lucrative contracts and achieve financial stability through their performances, sometimes even gaining more fame than the showmen. Freaks could shape their public image by crafting narratives around their conditions, choosing how to present themselves, and even developing unique acts to attract audiences (today, we call it performance art).
Within the traveling circus circuit, these performers, precisely because of their "physical differences," could form a sense of community, supporting each other and sharing strategies for navigating the challenges of their profession.
Isn't that an actual agency?
I don't feel one iota of sadness about their place in their respective epochs. They made the best of it!
Thursday, February 20, 2025
hereeeeere's honoré daumier (the political satirist)
this is a caricature of "Tragala" a character in the play Vingt ans plus tard ("twenty years later").
daumier is depicting the King Louis-Philippe as the actor emmanuel lepeintre in his role (Tragala) in the play. the big belly represented a perfect similarity to the king's own figure. the king wears the uniform of a police-officer (chef des alguazils).
study of faces (daumier would use these for his political lampooning)
daumier, past, present, future
daumier gets to the truth of the subject matter! just the exact amount of detail to get to the essence of character.
Daumier is part of the naturalist movement, which is a reaction against the idealized and stylized paintings of the Romantic era. naturalists were also about recording things as they are, but they paid more attention to getting the precise details just right.
there's a bit of pessimism reflected in the idea of man's futility against nature (some of daumier's religious paintings may suggest this).
Graphic design does................. Circus!
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Circus Poster, late 19th century     the boy with four legs (or six limbs)  martin laurello, the human owl (1918)       |
Here's why THE CIRCUS REALLY MATTERS! IT WAS COOL AND POPULAR
Mass entertainment
Reflection of societal values,
Symbol of technological and artistic innovation.
Popular Entertainment for All Classes The circus was one of the first genuinely mass entertainments, attracting audiences from working-class spectators to aristocrats.
It provided an affordable escape from industrial life, offering a mix of thrills, comedy, and spectacle. Circuses like P.T. Barnum’s and Ringling Bros. expanded through railroads, reaching rural and urban audiences across Europe and America.
The traveling big-top tent, introduced in the 1820s, allowed performances in towns without permanent venues.
Spectacle, Exoticism, and Imperialism IT WAS FUN! Circuses often showcased exotic animals and "curiosities." Performers worldwide, including Japanese acrobats and Indian fakirs, fascinated audiences and shaped perceptions of non-Western cultures.
Innovation in Performance and Physical Feats
Acrobats Included tightrope walkers, clowns, and trick riders, pushed the boundaries of human ability, inspiring later theatrical and cinematic stunt work.
The modern clown persona, developed by figures like Joseph Grimaldi, became a staple of popular culture. What would Picasso's Pink period be without clowns!
The circus influenced other art Forms, such as literature, painting, and later film Writers like Charles Dickens and Edgar Allan Poe referenced circus life in their works.
Artists such as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Pablo Picasso depicted circus performers, emphasizing its emotional and symbolic depth.
Why did it disappear? Concerns over animal welfare and the exploitation of "freak shows" began to emerge. Again. It's all social.
the daguerrotype
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| Edgar A. Poe's daguerrotype |
are you into edgar allan poe? how do you express poeian?
temporal loveliness approaches the perfection of eternal beauty, and theoretically at least the corpse of the dead woman briefly incarnates an ideality. but because death also entails physiological decay, the beauty of the just-departed implies a subsequent and inevitable mutation to loathsomeness….
daguerreotype is a unique photographic image allowing no reproduction of the picture. the image is formed by amalgam i.e. a combination of mercury and silver.
poe's last epitaph.
photo as anthropology: The Pencil of Nature
In The Pencil of Nature (1844–1846) Henry Fox Talbot, inventor of the negative-positive process, reflects on various applications of the new medium and presents them using photographic examples.
Check out this exhibit.
Check out this exhibit.
Issued in fascicles from June 1844 through April 1846, The Pencil of Nature contained twenty-four plates, a brief text for each, and an introduction that described the history and chemical principles of Talbot's invention.
The photographs and texts proposed, with extraordinary prescience, a wide array of applications for the medium that included 1. reproducing rare prints and manuscripts, 2. recording portraits, 3. inventorying possessions, 4. representing architecture, 5. tracing the form of botanical specimens, and 6. making art.
The publication, however, was not a commercial success, and as sales declined with each new fascicle, Talbot abandoned the project just before the seventh group of plates was made. Approximately forty complete or substantially complete copies survive; the Museum's example belonged to Talbot's daughter Mathilde.
William Morris: A pivotal figure in British mid and late 19th century design
1. Morris is probably the founder of the Arts and Crafts Movement, which emerged in response to the industrialization of the 19th century. He championed handcrafted, high-quality design, rejecting mass production and poor craftsmanship.Morris's Geoffrey Chaucer
2. Through his company Morris & Co., he created iconic patterns for wallpapers, textiles, and furniture, emphasizing natural forms, medieval aesthetics, and intricate detail.
His designs, such as Strawberry Thief and Trellis, remain some of the most recognizable in British decorative art.
3. Morris is an influence on Architecture and Interior Design
Advocated for Gothic Revival architecture alongside figures like Philip Webb (who designed the Red House, a landmark of Arts and Crafts design).
Promoted a holistic approach to design, where architecture, furniture, and decoration worked together harmoniously.
4. Morris was a utopian socialist, deeply involved in politics. He believed that art and labor should be fulfilling and that industrial capitalism degraded both workers and artistic quality.
His utopian novel News from Nowhere (1890) envisions a society where craftsmanship replaces industrial labor.
5. Morris founded the Kelmscott Press (1891), which revived medieval bookmaking techniques, creating exquisite hand-printed books like The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer (above).
His typography and layout designs influenced the Private Press Movement and later publishing aesthetics.
6. His emphasis on craftsmanship and beauty in everyday objects laid the groundwork for modern design movements, including Art Nouveau and modernist design.
His designs are still widely reproduced, and his philosophy continues to inspire artists, designers, and environmentalists.
Joseph Paxton's Crystal Palace (1851), a new kind of construction
the architect, Joseph Paxton was a famous gardener at the time and had experimented with glasshouse construction. by using combinations of prefabricated cast iron, laminated wood, and standard-sized glass sheets, Paxton created the “ridge-and-furrow” roof design.
nobody had seen anything like it.
it became a sort of museum of sorts.
here's the plan of both floors:
WHAT WAS THE IMPACT OF THE CRYSTAL PALACE?
2. Showcased Industrial progress: The Great Exhibition celebrated British and global industrial achievements, displaying cutting-edge inventions, machinery, and manufactured goods.
Promoted the Industrial Revolution's triumphs, reinforcing Britain's dominance in engineering and trade.
3. Economic and Commercial Influence: The CP encouraged international trade by introducing new products and materials.
Inspired advancements in mass production and consumer goods, helping shape the modern economy.
Generated huge revenue, demonstrating the power of world expos to boost national prestige and tourism.
4. Cultural and Global Exchange: Over six million visitors attended, including Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, and Queen Victoria.
Exposed people to art, textiles, and technologies from around the world, fostering cross-cultural appreciation.
Influenced Victorian aesthetics by popularizing exotic designs and materials.
5. Urban and Social Impact: The CP highlighted the potential of public exhibitions and museums, leading to the creation of institutions like the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Set a precedent for future World’s Fairs (e.g., Paris’s Eiffel Tower in 1889).
Ford Madox Brown's Work
Ford Madox Brown's most important painting was Work (1852-1965), which he showed at a special exhibition. It attempted to illustrate the totality of the mid-Victorian social experience in a single image, depicting 'navvies' digging up a road, and disrupting the old social hierarchies as they did so. The image erupts into proliferating details from the dynamic center of the action, as the workers tear a hole in the road – and, symbolically, in the social fabric. Each character represents a particular social class and role in the modern urban environment. Brown wrote a catalogue to accompany the special exhibition of Work.
this is a short and beautiful video about madox Brown's WORK,
pre-raphaelite aesthetics
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| John Everett Millais' Christ in the House of His Parents, 1850 (Millais' painting became the PR's manifesto) |
'Ricketty children, emaciation and deformity constitute their chief stock in trade ...the Pre-Raphaelites apparently select bad models, and then exaggerate their badness till it is out of all nature. We can hardly imagine anything more ugly, graceless, and unpleasant, as in Christ in the House of His Parent.-- Tom Taylor, review for "Exhibition of The Royal Academy", Times, 3 May 1851, p. 8.
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| Dante Rosetti's Beata Beatrix (1863) |
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| William Holman Hunt's The Scapegoat,1856 |
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| John Everett Millais, Ophelia, 1852 |
1- interest in the fashionable pseudo-sciences: crainology, physiology, pathognomy, and phrenology.
Instead of giving us figures with those fine conventional heads and regular oval faces and gracefully formed hands and feet which we like to see in albums, the Pre-Raphaelites appeared to take delight in figures with heads phrenologically clumsy, faces strongly marked and irregular, and very pronounced ankles and knuckles. -- David Masson in the British Quarterly Review.2- archaism: i.e., Medieval Gothic. so how far back? Pre-Raphaelites go for the English medieval Gothic period. And they "design" this period as they see fit within their worldview.
3- an aggressive realism, i.e, a- foreshortened perspective, airless atmosphere, and the cramped, almost hieratic postures of the principal figures (attributed variously to the influence of medieval Italian art).
4- morbidity, which gets the following reception in Punch:
...the interest of this work is purely pathological; the figures in it being simply illustrations of the scrofulous or strumous diathesis. Their emaciated bodies, their shrunken legs, and tumid ancles, are the well-known characteristics of this morbid state of system. The incipient oedema of the lower extremities is faithfully portrayed; though, in connection with this symptom, which indicates far-gone disease, the abdominal tension might have been more strongly marked.-- Punch, 18 (May 1850), p. 198.5- pro-Catholicism (of the Italian Quattrocento influence).
Now, the question is, WHY ALL THIS ATTITUDE?
PRERAPHAELITES ARE BASICALLY REJECTING MODERN INDUSTRIALIZATION AND RATIONALISM.
And does it not look a bit like us today?
"what's wrong with Victorian design? almost everything" - Alfred George Stevens
How could one define elements of Victorian design? ECLECTIC!
1- Excessive ornament (flowery, symmetric, etc.),
2- The exotic (amalgamation of Moorish, Japanese and Indian styles),
3- A Medieval revival
4- Celtic revival,
5- Fabrics: velvet, serge or damask curtains trimmed with ball fringes and tassels
6- Colors: Heavy flock wallpapers in deep red, dark green or blue, covered with exaggerated damask patterns and almost hidden by large realistic paintings in wide gilded frames,
which brings me to this gargantuan piece of furniture:
6- Colors: Heavy flock wallpapers in deep red, dark green or blue, covered with exaggerated damask patterns and almost hidden by large realistic paintings in wide gilded frames,
which brings me to this gargantuan piece of furniture:
michael jackson's commissioned victorian sofa
yet, today Victorian design is experiencing a comeback!
the miracle of chromolithography
Victorian chromolithography card, 1880's
chromolithography is a method for making multi-color prints.
(let's see this interesting short video on chromolithography)
(let's see this interesting short video on chromolithography)
chromolithography was a revelation! (from a private library):
let's begin with lithography, a mechanical planographic process in which the printing and non-printing areas of the plate are all at the same level, as opposed to intaglio and relief processes in which the design is cut into the printing block. lithography is based on the chemical repellence of oil and water.
designs are drawn or painted with greasy ink or crayons on specially prepared limestone. the stone is moistened with water, which the stone accepts in areas not covered by the crayon. an oily ink, applied with a roller, adheres only to the drawing and is repelled by the wet parts of the stone. the print is then made by pressing paper against the inked drawing.
the lithography process was refined over the next several decades to include color illustrations. now multiple stones were used, one for each color, and the print went through the press as many times as there were stones. the problem for the printers was keeping the image in register, making sure that the print would be lined up exactly each time it went through the press so that each color would be in the correct position and the overlaying colors would merge correctly.... overprinting. the use of silver and gold inks widened the range of color and design.
novelist Harriet Beecher Stowe called it "magic colouring."
illustrations like the one above were sold by the thousands and exhibited in the houses of America's middle class,
L. Prang & Co. sold cards like this by the millions,
even though chromolithographs served many uses within society at the time, many were opposed to the idea of them because of their perceived lack of authenticity. these new art forms were sometimes tagged as "bad art" because of their deceptive qualities.
many felt that it could not serve as a form of art at all since it was too mechanical and that the true spirit of a painter could never be captured in a printed version of a work.
what do we have here?
1- cheaper prints because of the simplification of the number of colors used,
2- popularization of a type of image,
3- the refinement in detail in the image.
3- the refinement in detail in the image.
What is the pre raphaelite credo?
look at some influences:
Veronese Lucretia, (1580)
ante Gabriel Rosetti's Veronica Veronese, (1872)
Jan Van Eyk's The Annunciation, (1434)
John Everett Millais' Mariana, (1851)
The group's early doctrine emphasized:
1. to have genuine ideas to express;
2. to study Nature attentively, so as to know how to express it;
3. to sympathize with what is direct and serious and heartfelt in previous art, to the exclusion of what is conventional and self-parading and learned by rote;
4. most indispensable of all, to produce thoroughly good pictures and statues.
A. H. Mackmurdo (arts and crafts)
a. h. mackmurdo's chair and the celebrated title page to (Mackmurdo's Wren's City Churches, 1883). observe plant forms stylized into flamelike, undulating rythms that compress the negative space between them. this established a positive and negative interplay between blak ink and white paper.
good things come in small bottles: mackmurdo's foliage is the first art nouveau design.
mackmurdo's house in london
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