Andrew May's Forteana Blog, focusing on the weirder fringes of history (and other old-fashioned stuff)
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Saturday, 29 January 2011
Sixteenth century alien
This is a detail from The Deposition from the Cross, painted by Il Rosso Fiorentino in 1528. There appears to be an alien visitor lurking in the background! [TZZZNP5JVJK3]
13 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Alien? Or representation on the Devil or a Demon, given the religous context?
You may be right - I've no idea what it's really meant to be. It looks quite ape-like actually, although I don't know what that would symbolize in this context.
Strange... I'm trying to discern whether that "face" could be construed as anything but just that... a face! If not, what else could it be? It certainly looks anthropomorphic enough... but all the same, it's not really human looking, either. Again, I ask "if not human, then what is it?"
Thanks for the comment Micah. Yes, I'm sure it's a real face, and I expect there is a rational explanation for it in terms of 16th century symbolism -- but I have no idea what it is!
Definitely - maybe not this exact picture, but it was drawn by Earle Bergey who is famous as the "inventor" of female metallic underwear. His wikipedia article says "His illustrations of scantily-clad women... served as an inspiration for Princess Leia's slave-girl outfit in Return of the Jedi".
Thanks - that's a brilliant suggestion, and I'm sure it's the right answer. It all hinges on knowing that he owned a pet monkey, which of course I didn't know. It's also confusing because the creature's head is at the same height as the humans (presumably sitting on someone's shoulder). But the face does look very like a Barbary macaque.
13 comments:
Alien? Or representation on the Devil or a Demon, given the religous context?
PJ
You may be right - I've no idea what it's really meant to be. It looks quite ape-like actually, although I don't know what that would symbolize in this context.
Strange... I'm trying to discern whether that "face" could be construed as anything but just that... a face! If not, what else could it be? It certainly looks anthropomorphic enough... but all the same, it's not really human looking, either. Again, I ask "if not human, then what is it?"
-Micah Hanks
Thanks for the comment Micah. Yes, I'm sure it's a real face, and I expect there is a rational explanation for it in terms of 16th century symbolism -- but I have no idea what it is!
To me it looks a bit like a hirsuite freak (i.e. a "dog face boy") such as Jo Jo http://josefragoso.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/dogboy1.jpg
Where there any notable hirsuite freaks in that era?
P.S. Andrew the "Jo Jo" comment was from me!
PJ
I saw this post yesterday and thought the aliens on the Startling Stories cover looked a bit like mine!
A little bit perhaps.
Did you happen to notice the gold lingerie that the woman was wearing? Perhaps the inspiration for Princess Leia's outfit in The Return of the Jedi??
PJ
Definitely - maybe not this exact picture, but it was drawn by Earle Bergey who is famous as the "inventor" of female metallic underwear. His wikipedia article says "His illustrations of scantily-clad women... served as an inspiration for Princess Leia's slave-girl outfit in Return of the Jedi".
A good guess by me then :-)
PJ
And if you look really close just above the ape looking face it appears to be another smaller face more in detail like a little demon smirking.
It's almost surely the Barbary macaque (tailless, but a monkey rather than an ape) that Il Rosso owned. It may represent slander in this context.
Thanks - that's a brilliant suggestion, and I'm sure it's the right answer. It all hinges on knowing that he owned a pet monkey, which of course I didn't know. It's also confusing because the creature's head is at the same height as the humans (presumably sitting on someone's shoulder). But the face does look very like a Barbary macaque.
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