Saturday, December 07, 2013

Domestic bliss


Évrart de Conty, Les Echecs amoureux, 1496-1498.

A comfy chair, children playing in the next room, some background music, a nice chat with the missus while the family dog keeps your feet warm. What more could a man wish for?
But seriously. I just stumbled upon this strikingly original picture of an OWL as the mouth of hell by a French contemporary of Hieronymous Bosch... Good stuff.

6 comments:

Human Mollusk said...

Cool! What's up with the cerberus? Is that a common topos in medieval illumination? Do you know what's being illustrated here? I reckon it's not greek mythology, although this might as well be Hades and Persephone.

Marcel Ruijters said...

It's actually Pluto and Persephone, and it is indeed the Greek underworld that's depicted here. Not that common. If you do a image seach on Évrart de Conty Les Echecs amoureux, you'll find more fine examples!

alkbazz said...

sometimes cerberus means the 3 false religion, sometimes it's the 3 cities of depravation (like babylon)... typic bourgeoise manuscript but really nice one!

Marcel Ruijters said...

In those days, it was cool to be bourgeois. ;-)

alkbazz said...

yep, my sentence wasn't political, i just thought how cute was this scene, like typical bourgeoise family around the hearth but with devils!

Marcel Ruijters said...

Indeed, i love the doll house quality of these medieval pictures.