The Drolatic Dreams of Pantagruel, Woodcuts by François Desprez from 1565
Here are amazing woodcuts of various bizarre characters from “Les songes drolatiques de Pantagruel” translated into English as “The Drolatic Dreams of Pantagruel” published in 1565. Continue reading »
Franz Joachim Brechtel’s Musical and Calligraphic Contributions From The 16th Century
A 24-page manuscript dominates Middle German blackletter scripts with extravagant embellishment, and a minority of the pages contain ‘less’ ornamental writing in Latin. The manuscript appears to be a compilation of calligraphic examples by one of the originators of early fraktur scripts, Johann Neudörffer the Elder (1497-1563), to whom this album is dedicated. Continue reading »
Earliest Man-Made Mirrors Discovered in Modern-Day Turkey, Estimated 8000 Years Old
Initially, people used pools of water to observe their reflections and viewed it as a magical experience. The first man-made mirrors were created from polished stones like black volcanic glass obsidian, and examples of such mirrors were discovered in Anatolia (modern-day Turkey), dating back to approximately 6000 BC.
Prior to the development of glass mirrors, ancient Egyptians crafted metal mirrors using materials such as copper, bronze, silver, and tin. They flattened sheets of metal and polished them until they could be used as mirrors. These mirrors had rounded shapes, ornamentation on the backside, and handles for ease of use. Continue reading »
40 Times Medieval Painters Had No Idea How Something Looked And Created “Weird Medieval Guys”, As Shared On This Twitter Page
possibly the cutest ever rendition of a bat, england, 13th century
From illuminated manuscripts to tapestries, mosaics and stained glass, the medieval period is known for its many art forms and its miscellaneous executions. Continue reading »
Vintage Japanese Watercolor Sketches of Toy Designs
The Ningyo-Do Bunko database features thousands of late 19th and early 20th Century watercolor sketches of Japanese toy designs. More can be seen at Japan’s Akita Prefectural Library, which holds a series of six toy design illustration books produced between 1891 and 1913 by Yamada of Kyoto. Continue reading »
The Ruins of a Lovely World: Art by David Orellana
David Orellana is a Spanish artist and author of the LDOM series of mini-comics. Orellana draws a bizarre world imbued with alien shamanism and mythic aesthetics, as if descended from ancient frescoes and propelled into the future by ayahuasca fuel. Continue reading »
Beautiful Illustrations of Ancient Towns in China by Yukai Du
Originally from China, the illustrator Yukai Du moved very quickly to England, where she currently lives. She was introduced to the finesse of Chinese painting at a very young age, at the age of 4. It was only later, during her travels to China to visit her grandparents, that she immersed herself in her memories and that she remembered the richness of Chinese painting. Continue reading »
Wonderful Photos of Fujian Tulou, the Unique China’s Hakka Earthen Buildings
The Hakkas who settled in mountainous south western Fujian province in China developed unique architectural buildings called tulou, literally meaning earthen structures. Continue reading »
Medieval Artists Were Really Bad At Drawing Lions
While medieval artists excelled at painting religious scenes and portraits of royalty, lions offered an altogether different challenge. It looks like the medieval painters never laid eyes on a real lion. Continue reading »
Frozen Caveman Sculpture Compared To Monolith Appears In Minneapolis
Move over monoliths, there is a new surprise rectangle popping up in the frozen tundra of Minnesota. What appears to be a frozen caveman has popped up in Theodore Wirth Park in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Named Zug Zug, the caveman encased in plexiglass. Continue reading »
Bone Church of Rome: Amazing Vintage Photos Show Inside Rome’s Capuchin Crypt From the Late 19th Century
Popularly known as the Capuchin Crypt, the ossuary displays the bones of over 3,700 Capuchin friars, who died between 1528 and 1870. It is ornately decorated with skulls and bones displayed in the Baroque and Rococo styles, with a skeleton dressed as ‘Death’ standing in a niche. Continue reading »
Guy Uses Modern Software To Restore The Faces Of Julius Caesar And 23 Other People From Ancient History
Roman General And Statesman Julius Caesar
For many of us, history used to be a bit of a boring topic in school. But, over the years, it has become clear that it wasn’t the topic itself, but the way it was presented—it just didn’t appeal to the younger audience. Continue reading »
Grotesque Medieval Music Sheets From Chansonnier of Zeghere van Male from 1542
The 16th-century scribes of Bruges had a lot of fun illuminating this musical manuscript, because it’s full of gorgeous, fascinating and downright bizarre illustrations. The song book is called the Cambrai Chansonnier and was made for the pleasure of aristocratic local Zeghere van Male. Continue reading »
Rock Art Depicting Extinct Animals Is Discovered In Colombian Amazon And It’s Dated Back Around 12,000 Years
When it feels like we know the world around us all too well, and there are few things that can surprise us, the wonders of history and nature prove us wrong. Just recently, the British-Colombian team of archaeologists led by José Iriarte announced the bombshell news. Continue reading »
These Ancient Greek and Roman Art Tattoos are Amazing
@mrtstucklife is an incredible tattoo artist based in Stockholm, Sweden. The artists works out the Stucklife studio and where he has become well known for his hyperrealistic, black and white style. Continue reading »
Face of 4000-Year-Old Dog Revealed by Forensic Reconstruction
A reconstruction, commissioned by Historic Environment Scotland (HES), has revealed the face of a Neolithic dog for the first time in over 4,000 years. The reconstruction has been created from the skull of a dog discovered in Cuween Hill chambered cairn on Orkney. Continue reading »
These Are the World’s Oldest Masks Ever Discovered, And Are Estimated to Be 9000 Years Old
Elie Posner/Israel Museum
In 1983, a small team of archaeologists led by Harvard prehistorian Ofer Bar-Yosef, excavated a recently looted cave in the southern Judean Desert. Known as Nahal Hemar, the site appears to have been used to store thousands of objects from an ancestor cult. The scientists uncovered rope baskets, wooden beads, shells, flint knives, figurines carved from bone, human skulls decorated with molded asphalt, and embroidered textiles that may once have been ritual costumes. Continue reading »
Wilhelm Werner Von Zimmer’s “Dance Of Death” From 1540
In the Late Middle Ages, there were illustrated books called Danse Macabre or the Dance of Death which were used to focus the mind on life’s short stretch.
These books were heavily illustrated with pictures of Death or a gnarly skeleton fresh from the grave a-coming-up to claim both high and low. The peasant and the King were equal before Death, neither could escape its cold bony grasp. The Princess and the child were not spared. Understandable when the average life expectancy was between 30 and 40-years-of-age in the 1500s. The rich and privileged may have lived slightly longer but the majority died before forty. Continue reading »
Incredible Photos Of Two Roman Ships Which Were Recovered After 2,000 Years In 1929 And Lost Again During WWII
The Nemi ships were two ships, one larger than the other, built under the reign of the Roman emperor Caligula in the 1st century AD at Lake Nemi. Although the purpose of the ships is only speculated upon, the larger ship was essentially an elaborate floating palace, which contained quantities of marble, mosaic floors, heating and plumbing and amenities such as baths. Continue reading »
Incredibly Realistic Sculptures Of People Who Lived Thousands Of Years Ago By Oscar Nilsson
Oscar Nilsson is a Swedish sculptor and archaeologist who specializes in reconstructing faces. In one of his recent projects, he used his skills to hand-sculpt the faces of a handful of people who lived hundreds, some even thousands, of years ago using their excavated bones as a reference, giving us a unique glimpse of how those people might have looked like. Continue reading »
Artist Creates 3D Sculptures Of Ancient Deities And Mythological Creatures With A Modern And Surreal Twist
According to Oliver Marinkoski: “I got to the idea what it would look like if the ancient Slavic gods were represented in Roman style sculptures, then added some modern attributes to their supernatural ability’s (God and Goddess of thunder got a boom-stick). Then I continued creating their Roman and Hellenic counterparts, and maybe ancient Egypt gods are next!” Continue reading »
Stunning Images Of The Seven Wonders Of The Ancient World Restored In Their Prime
The 7 Wonders of the Ancient World was a list of must-see sites for Ancient Greek tourists. Compiled by Antipater of Sidon, a poet in 2nd-century-BCE Greece, with later contributions by figures such as the mathematician Philon of Byzantium, the list remains an important piece of intangible heritage today. Continue reading »
Alfabeto Pittorico: An Alphabet Book Of Fictional Architecture By Antonio Basoli
Antonio Basoli was an Italian artist that lived between the 18th and the 19th century working mostly in Bologna. Among other things, he created these beautiful architectural alphabet engravings called Alfabeto Pittorico. I wish there was a place called Alphabet City where all these buildings were real. Continue reading »
In An Old Village In Southern Bavaria, A Unique Ancient Pagan Tradition Is Still Alive
In Oberstdorf [this is] the dance of the wild men (Wilde-Mändle-Tanz), which is held only in this small town, once in five years. Wilde-Mändle-Tanz is dedicated to the Germanic god Thor, and involves 13 men, all of whom belong to old local families who have been living in that region for centuries. The men’s costumes are made of moss, which grows only in the Allgäu Alps. Continue reading »
A Giant Ancient Egyptian Statues Unearthed
Egyptian workers lift with an excavator parts of a statue for restoration after it was unearthed at Souq al-Khamis district, at al-Matareya area, Cairo, Egypt, 09 March 2017. According to the Ministry of Antiquities, a German-Egyptian archaeological mission found in parts two 19th dynasty royal statues in the vicinity of King Ramses II temple in ancient Heliopolis. The first is an 80cm tall bust of King Seti II carved in limestone, while the second is eight meters tall carved in quartzite. There were no engravings on the latter, however discovering it at the entrance of King Ramses II temple suggests that it could belong to him. (Photo by Khaled Elfiqi/EPA) Continue reading »
