Vila Wolf's Dyslexic Folklorist Ranting

On an uninhabited Caribbean island, archaeologists were amazed to discover a series of cave drawings pre-dating European contact. This was a surprise because the drawings are so well-preserved. Over 70 winding caves on the island of Mona, between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, contain art. Some are scratches on the rock. Others are more sophisticated, with paint made from sophisticated organic materials such as bat droppings, plant gums, minerals like iron, and materials from native trees like turpentine trees. The islanders were putting a lot of work into their art, deep where the light of day could not illuminate their creations.

The researchers noted that the indigenous people of Mona Island believed that the sun and moon emerged from beneath the ground. So exploring deep into the expansive network of subterranean caves, and making art there, is interpreted by today’s archaeologists as a highly spiritual act. 

Your Handy Grotesque Tapestry FAQs

Did you know we have a Periscope show, #LiterallyAnything, every Tuesday at noon Pacific Time? This week we talked about this grotesque tapestry with co-host, curator Charissa Bremer-David, and got so many questions we didn’t have time to answer them all. Here are your top questions from this week’s #LiterallyAnything in one handy spot:

What is this?  A large tapestry made of wool and silk titled The Offering to Pan. It’s one of four from the Grotesques tapestry series.

What’s going on? Three bacchantes are making an offering to a classic sculpture of Pan. One attendant is draping the sculpture with garland, and the other two are dancing with tambourines.

What is it based on? The sculpture, the female attendants, and the goat were all inspired by Nicolas Poussin’s The Triumph of Pan from 1636.

Okay. Who is Pan? The ancient god of shepherds, pastures, goats, and sheep.

What is a “bacchante”?  All of the attendants in the tapestry are know as bacchantes. A bacchante is a follower of Pan, the gods of shepherds and goats, and Bacchus, the god of vineyards and wine. They often appear in scenes of pastoral life.

What is a “grotesque”?  The art term grotesque derives from the word grotto, an underground cave sometimes found in nature. It’s used in art history to describe artworks like this, which feature fanciful, fantastic figures and foliage (fffff).

Who is that strange man at the bottom? This intense reclining figure is dressed as an ancient Roman figure, but he wears a blonde Mohawk and hanging mustache. All of these characteristics combined are meant to represent that he is ancient, from a faraway land.

What kind of bird is that at the center? What is it carrying?  This eagle and composition are borrowed from Pieter Boel’s Double Study of Eagles. Eagles commonly represented the god Jupiter. The eagle is holding an olive or a laurel branch, which represented victory.

Were these rich colors common for tapestries? The colors used were fairly common, but they are preserved particularly vividly in this work. Purple is a rare survivor in tapestries of this age.

What are the dimensions?  322.6 x 302.3 cm (127 x 119 in.).

When was this created?  About 1690 to 1730.

Did the artist do the weaving himself?  No! This tapestry was produced by the Beauvais Manufactory in France, and it was based on a design by Jean-Baptiste Monnoyer. Guy-Louis Vernansal assisted Monnoyer with the border design.

When can I watch #LiterallyAnything? #LiterallyAnything broadcasts every Tuesday at 12 noon Pacific Time at periscope.tv/thegetty. Follow @thegetty on Twitter for updates and weekly polls. You can catch the replay of this episode here.

Beautiful craftsmanship, bronze, a representation of a horse with a blanket which the Celtiberians traditionally used as a saddle. The tail and forefeet can also be used as fasteners for a warrior’s cape.

What is perhaps most interesting and curious about this piece is that it has become the symbol of Soria, where the hillfort of Numancia is found. The same as the donkey in Cataluña, the sheep in Navarra, this icon can be found on bumperstickers and postcards across the province. It has for this reason become the most famous piece in the Numancia Museum.

Happy 106th to Glacier National Park, established on May 11, 1910!

Featuring a scene set in Glacier National Park, this proof of a Saturday Evening Post cover was done by renowned western artist John Clymer in commemoration of the park’s 50th anniversary.  Among 80 Saturday Evening Post covers to Clymer’s credit, this cover was published on July 30, 1960.   Now part of the National Park Service records held by the National Archives at Denver, a note accompanying the proof concluded, “Please keep the enclosed proof to yourself until publication time.”

via the National Archives at Denver on Facebook

2016 also marks the centennial of the National Park Service.  Be sure to follow our colleagues at @phillyarchives and @riversidearchives for more #NPS100 related posts!

See all our National Parks posts »

(Dogs at Yosemite National Park,  excerpted from the film “Yosemite Valley“)

Mayan stucco mask from Palenque, in Mexico. Circa 700s CE.

“Full-page miniature of Abraham lifting his knife upon Isaac and being stopped by an angel who is pointing to the substitute offering for Isaac, the ram stuck in the bush.”, The Northern French Miscellany, f. 521v by “the Cholet Group, Master of Méliacin group and Master of Honoré groups”, France c. 1277-1286 via The British Library, Public Domain

Bottle in the shape of a gourd. Chimu, pottery, circa 1200 - 1400. Courtesy of the National Museum of the American Indian.

“The Drunkard.” A Maya clay figurine from Jaina Island. Circa 400 - 800 CE

“Medieval folding almanac”, ca. 15th century via Wellcome Library on Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

“Psalterium Caroli Calvi [Psautier de Charles le Chauve]”, f. 42r, by École du palais de Charles le Chauve c. 842-869 via Bibliothèque nationale de France, Public Domain (France)

“The Physician’s Handbook: English medical and astrological compendium”, ca. 1454 via Wellcome Library on Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

“The Physician’s Handbook: English medical and astrological compendium”, ca. 1454 via Wellcome Library on Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

“Medieval folding almanac”, ca. 15th century via Wellcome Library on Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons CC BY 4.0

“Contains a calendar and astrological tables and diagrams, including lunar and solar eclipses.” - Wellcome Library

Bullock’s Department Store, Northridge, California, 1970s

(Welton Becket and Associates)

We missed this one in our writeup here: http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-brutal-beauty-of-concrete-buildings

Rattlesnake effigy, Aztec. Date unknown

easchechter submitted:

That’s quite a while to wait (the date given is January 21–May 14, 2017), and it is going to be concentrating on “the long nineteenth century”, c. 1750-1914. Lots of Orientalism, and works by Charles Cordier and José Tapiró Baró, but I’ll almost certainly be going to see it. ;) A lot of the stuff I’ve covered for 1800s Week.

People of Color in European Art, Ancient to 1800s

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