The Intricate Surrealist Paintings of Mike Davis
San Francisco-based Mike Davis is a self-taught modern surrealist painter who began his artistic journey in 1997. Continue reading »
The Curious Tale of Gripsholm Castle’s Lion: A Taxidermy Mishap Turned Iconic
Welcome to a fascinating story about the Lion of Gripsholm Castle, a piece of taxidermy gone awry that can be found in Gripsholm Castle, Sweden. This lion, with its comically deformed face, has become a prime example of bad taxidermy and an object of amusement in the modern era. 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 »
French Illustrator Infuses Contemporary Film Posters With A Medieval Flair
The Shining
Ever pondered about what if the medieval period had been introduced to the charm of cinema? An intriguing notion, isn’t it? This is the unique brainchild of Simon De Thuillières, a talented French artist. His body of work represents a unique blend of artistic flair, a fascination with history, and an enormous affection for movies, painting a truly intriguing portrait. Continue reading »
Meet Jeff de Boer, The Artist Who Creates Intricate Suits of Armor for Cats and Mice
Calgary-based sculptor Jeff de Boer has turned his passion for medieval armor and jewelry making into a unique and fascinating career: creating intricately detailed metal suits of armor for cats and mice. Continue reading »
Colombian Artist Creates Illustrations Inspired by Medieval Drawings and Scientific Atlases
According to Carolina Zambrano: “I am an illustrator, graphic designer and artist. The topics that I address, for the most part, are related to the symbolic world, magic, alchemy and nature. My creative processes are associated with the discovery of personal and collective symbols. Continue reading »
The Graphic Designer Continues to Make Us Happy by Redesigning Famous Logos in Medieval Style
Graphic designer Ilya Stallone (previously featured) is well-known for his series of famous brand logos in medieval style. But he does not stop there and continues this series with new works. 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 »
Artist Spent 3 Months Drawing A Mythological Medieval World Map On Door
According to Mario Yaír T.S.: “After being locked up for several months, I decided to decorate my door with miniature monsters from medieval times. Somehow, along the way, it became a medieval map full of symbolism, some carefully planted Easter eggs, and overall a filled canvas with various references that can leave one more than just curious.
The monsters that filled this door canvas are not only from Europe, but also from other continents too. Therefore, that’s why it took me a while to fill in the map as I took a lot of references from various cultures from around the world.”
The sketch
“It all started on an ordinary day of the quarantine, and like most of the days, this one too was filled with a lot of boredom and a still clean door. So I looked up some sea monsters and drew them. When I realized they looked lonely, I sketched a complete map.” Continue reading »
Medieval Branding: Famous Logos Recreated As Medieval Brands
Ilya Denisov aka Ilya Stallone created a series of works “Medieval Branding” where he reimagines what the logos of famous modern brands would look like during the middle ages. Continue reading »
The Apocalypse: The Colorful Medieval Illustrations About The End of The Days, 1330
The Dragon and the Beasts Cast into Hell
The Apocalypse, or Book of Revelation, was, according to European medieval tradition, written by John the Evangelist during his exile on the Greek island of Patmos. Continue reading »
A Collection of Medieval Marginalia that Have Been Turned Into Memes
Marginalia are drawings (often very frivolous!) that medieval monks left in the margins of manuscripts. Thanks to this little liberty, there is now such a phenomenon as “medieval memes.” Continue reading »
Weird And Wonderful Illustrated Letters From A 16th Century Songbook
The Songbook of Zeghere van Male contains local and international 500 year old songs and motets. Made in 1542, the 1200-page long book is rich in illuminations, depicting ornamental and historiated initials and interlinear drawings not necessarily related to its content. Continue reading »
Good News, We Found a Bunch of Old Paintings Where People Are Spoon Feeding Cats Like Babies
We love cats and everything related to cats on this site. That’s why we were delighted to find out that Renaissance era artists created paintings where cats are being fed with a spoon like little babies. Continue reading »
Dark Humor Art Animations by Kajetan Obarski
Kajetan Obarski is an Amsterdam-based animator who specialises in turning artistic masterpieces into spectacularly surreal short animations. Continue reading »
Sin Eater: Illustrations from The Heart of The Herefordshire Countryside by Matthew Glover
Matthew Glover is the creator of Sin Eater Illustrations, he lives deep in the heart of Herefordshire’s countryside. Here his fascination of nature and British folklore grew, working in a traditional pen and ink style his artwork is highly detailed and is all created by hand. 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 »
Codpiece Was a Weird Renaissance Fashion Trend
The codpiece as a feature of male dress dates to the 15th and 16th centuries during the renaissance. Designed to cover the gap between the two legs of men’s hose, it is packed and shaped to emphasize rather than disguise the genital area. 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 »
Medieval Visions of Hell, Satan, Demons And Cabbalistic Signs From A 1775 Compendium Of Horrors
These are Visions of Hell, Satan and Demons according to the Compendium rarissimum totius Artis Magicae sistematisatae per celeberrimos Artis hujus Magistros, 1775 – (translation: “A rare summary of the entire Magical Art by the most famous Masters of this Art.”) 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 »
Why So Many Medieval Manuscripts Depict Butt Trumpets?
Knights fighting giant snails, rabbits murdering people, countless paintings of cats licking their butts, weird elephants …and now men and animals playing trumpets with their rear ends… Medieval art is really confusing and quite random. If you have any idea why artists were so obsessed with these themes, please leave a comment below. Continue reading »
How Medieval Artists Saw Elephants: Claws, Hooves, Trunks Like Trumpets, And Castles On Their Backs
Imagine a four-legged beast with no knee joints that cannot lie down and has to sleep leaning against a tree. An animal with a long, skinny trumpet for a nose. A creature large enough that one can build small castles on its back. It lives for 300 years and is afraid of mice. Its mortal enemy is the dragon. It must “travel to the East, near Paradise, where the mandrake grows” when it comes time to mate. Now draw this thing. Continue reading »
Sleeping With The Devil: A Weird And Wonderful Collection Of Medieval Bedroom Hijinks With Creatures From Hell
The Conception of Merlin – Histoire de Merlin, France (Poitiers), 1450-1455. BNF, Français 96, fol. 62v
The Middle English Prose Merlin at Cambridge University Library MS Ff.3.11, apparently written near the middle of the fifteenth century, not long before Thomas Malory was composing Morte D’Arthur, is thought the earliest piece of Arthurian literature written in English prose. Continue reading »
Why So Many Medieval Manuscripts Depict Violent Rabbits?
Medieval art sure is weird. We’ve already featured People Happily Dying, Battle Snails and Cats Licking Their Butts galleries. For some strange reason medieval artists also loved painting violent rabbits on a murderous rampage. If you have any idea why, please leave a comment below. Continue reading »
