Deadstar0 @Deadstar01

Fossils

始祖鳥 #日本画　#絹本　#桃山朋々

That Muse cover I really like

海流

Egyptian-ish Pokémon (2022) I drew all the background hieroglyphs by hand so I'm attached to this one

by artist Max Murphy.

3500 Years of the Octopus in Six Civilizations

2500 Years of Crabs-12 Civilizations

Faces of the Ancient World: Masks Across 9,000 Years

To beat the robot vacuum cleaner, you have to think like the robot vacuum cleaner

Trees on a folding screen (right), by Tawaraya Sotatsu, late 16th-early 17th century

Illustration from the Herodias. Author: Stéphane Mallarmé; German translation: Stefan George; Illustration and book design: Melchior Lechter, Berlin, 1905. Collection: Württembergische Landesbibliothek, Stuttgart. This page is a hand-crafted illustration from the German translation of Hérodiade, a work that French Symbolist poet Stéphane Mallarmé spent over 30 years on, and which remained unfinished even after his death. The story behind the artwork is extraordinary: printed by the Berlin publisher Blätter für die Kunst, only seven copies of the book were ever produced worldwide. What's more, each one was printed on imperial Japanese paper and personally hand-painted and decorated by Melchior Lechter. The number seven is a deliberate symbol, since Lechter incorporated it throughout the design. In the illustration, seven intertwined serpent heads rise up, with an eight-pointed golden star shining around each one. Author Stéphane Mallarmé worked on the Herodias text for over thirty years, but he never managed to finish the story. On his deathbed in 1898, he hastily wrote a note to his wife and daughter, asking them to burn all his unpublished drafts. His family refused his final wish and decided against throwing the documents into the fire. Thanks to their decision, the text was saved from destruction and, years later, translated into German by writer Stefan George. Even though the work seems to focus on the biblical Herodias and her daughter Salome, Mallarmé tore these figures from history and gave them an entirely different meaning. In the poem, there's no severed head of John the Baptist; no dance; no bloody feast. Here, the figure is a princess who refuses to be touched, shuns human warmth, looks at no one but her mirror, and worships her own virginal beauty. One of the poem's most striking sequences says:Actually, at the book's core, Mallarmé deliberately merged Herodias and her mother. That means this figure is both Salome (the young virgin) and Herodias (the cold, manipulative mother).The cold distance and aloofness typical of the mother fused with the daughter's virginity. Ultimately, the character Mallarmé created represents three things at once: virginity (purity), narcissism (worshipping one's own beauty), and solitude (being closed off to others). "I love the horror of my virginity, and I want to live in the terror my hair awakens in me; at evening, withdrawing to my bed, like an untouched serpent, to feel upon my useless flesh the cold gleam of your pale light - you who are fading, you who burn with purity, white night composed of ice fragments and cruel snow!" Herodias isn't a person; she's an abstraction. She's the symbol of untouchable beauty, and of art and poetry isolating themselves from the world. John the Baptist's gaze is the only external element trying to penetrate her virginity, and according to Mallarmé, Herodias wants him dead because of this transgression. So, what does the seven- headed serpent symbolize here? The seven-headed serpent/dragon is one of the oldest known symbols of invincible power in history. In Sumerian texts and Ugaritic mythology, this creature represents an eternal and indestructible force that no hero can easily defeat - a beast where cutting off one head just causes another to emerge. In other words, the seven heads are saying: this entity isn't just one thing; you can't suppress it, and you can't destroy it. In Christian tradition, the seven-headed dragon in the Book of Revelation was identified with Satan. But the word "evil" shouldn't be interpreted too narrowly here. This dragon points to a power beyond human control that defies the cosmic and sacred order. In short, it's dangerous, but at the same time, fascinating. This is exactly what Lechter did - he took these layers and applied them to the character of Herodias. Because that's precisely what Herodias is in the poem: a cold, virginal beauty, frozen in her own world, whom no one can touch. Even when John the Baptist tries to approach her, this *untouchability* results in death. Herodias doesn't attack like a dragon, but just like that seven-headed serpent, she's an untouchable entity that rejects anyone who draws near.

koson ohara (1877-1945)

keyboard_arrow_left Previous keyboard_arrow_right Next

buggy faces

keyboard_arrow_left Previous keyboard_arrow_right Next

😥

@DCornog91346 @valentino_lasso Once found a couple in southern Spain, they are nocturnal though so you're more likely to hear them than see them. Apparently they live in the New Forest in the UK but never seen them there.

sneighbourhood, france, 15th century