I used to have this art book called Art Of The Fantastic, which – as the title suggests – was all about art on “fantastic” subject matter, from medievial bestiaries to HR Giger and his contemporaries. There’s this one picture in it which has kind of haunted me ever since; I’d like to have a look at this pic, but I can’t recall the name of it!
It was by the great Spanish artist of grim and scary stuff, Francisco Goya, and it was an illustration for a French folk- or fairytale called “The Beast (or Monster) of…” Somewhere. Not being able to remember the place name,I can’t find it online.
The illustration was done in black and white; it showed a horrible gigantic snaky creature (that appeared to be made out of immense tree roots or something) looming over the wall of an enclosed city or town; being a Goya, there was a frightening quality to it over and above that which was actually depicted.
Hopefully someone who knows more about the artist than I do will be able to identify the picture in question from my sketchy (ahem!) description and post a link to it here, or at least supply the missing keyword so I can search further myself; thanks in advance to whoever does so.
I don’t know the illustration you’re referring to, but from your description it sounds like the legend of the tarasque, which was an actual legend before *Dungeons and Dragons *got its hands on it: a reptilian monster that harassed the town of Tarascon in France (which has a famous castle) and was said to have been disposed of by Saint Martha.
Your description makes it sound like a print. It doesn’t show up in any of the series I’d suspect most (Los Caprichos, Disasters of War, or Disparates). Will look some more… .
Hmm. I’ve just had a look at a pretty complete pile o’ Goya and not finding anything that fits that description. You’re sure it was Goya? Or it was a sepenty thing (and not his Colossus black painting)?
While I was poking about on Google a little more looking for my monster picture, it suddenly dawned on me that I was perhaps more than a little a bit confused about who made said picture when I wrote the OP; the artist I’m thinking of might well be Gustave Dore, :smack: *not *Goya.
If anyone thinks they might know of the picture I’m talking about now, or wants me for anything, I’ll be over here in the corner hiding underneath this great big dunce cap.:o
The picture is called "The Gnarled Monster, it’s by Dore, not Goya (ooooohhhh, is my face red!) and here’s a link to the image, so you can see what on Earth I was on about if you’re interested:
Thanks a lot to any lovely helpful Dopers who were trying to help locate and/or identify that image for me. Now I’m gonna look for the story it’s from…
You might take a look at Goya’s Horrors of War series of etchings/engravings. There are several that would qualify and could well be adapted to some other setting.
Two other people posted links to that same image and then you posted one yourself and phrased it as if those earlier posts never happened. Perhaps you were looking while they posted and found it yourself after they did, but the only reward people get for helping other Dopers out on threads like this is acknowledgment of their success, so it’d be good to acknowledge it more directly than just saying thanking them for “trying to help” when they gave the answer to you.
It doesn’t seem to be from any particular story. GuanoLad’s link says it was part of a collection from an art publication. The artist is known to have created illustrations for stories, however.
So if you’re one of those odd people who think nobody is allowed to make any comment or suggestion on how to improve upon any less than ideal behavior unless the slight in question was directed at himself, then why on earth are you even responding to a post that wasn’t directed at you?
As far as my not helping, the question was already answered by two other people by the time I got here, so there was no real help to give the person other than trying to politely point out his breach of Doper etiquette so he’d know better for the future.
I read that as “Excuse me, you there. Yes, you, on the castle wall. Sorry to bother you, but I seem to have misplaced one of my owls. Yes, I had four of them underneath that arch over to your right, but one of the silly blighters appears to have scampered off. Do let me know if you come across him won’t you? He answers to the name ‘Hootsie.’ Well, they all do, really.”
Yep, the guy in the picture seems a little bit calm about that Gnarled Monster…who also seems more like he’s just hangin’ over the back fence, having a nice little chat with the guy next door…lol.
It was intended as a helpful suggestion, not as policing or whatever. Sorry you got your nose bent out of shape over it, but then if you chose to read that post as something inappropriate, I’m not sure how you’ll survive any message board (or the real world) with your sanity intact.
