Sunday, March 31, 2013

Wilhelm Kotarbiński (1849-1922)

Wilhelm Kotarbiński (1849-1922), Polish artist.
Wilhelm Kotarbiński, Dziewczyna, 1900
Wilhelm Kotarbiński, Dziewczyna, 1900
Wilhelm Kotarbiński, Cleopatra
Wilhelm Kotarbiński, Cleopatra
Wilhelm Kotarbiński, Silence d'après-midi, 1900
Wilhelm Kotarbiński, Afternoon Silence, 1900
Wilhelm Kotarbiński, Grave of a suicide victim, 1900
Wilhelm Kotarbiński, Grave of a suicide victim, 1900
Wilhelm Kotarbiński, title unknown
Wilhelm Kotarbiński, title unknown

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Franz Dvorak (1862-1927)

Franz Dvorak (1862-1927), Austrian painter.
Franz Dvorak, Purity and Passion
Franz Dvorak, Purity and Passion
Franz Dvorak, The Orchard, 1912
Franz Dvorak, The Orchard, 1912
Franz Dvorak
Franz Dvorak, title unknown
Franz Dvorak, The Concert, Saratoga - The Gay Nineties, 1890
Franz Dvorak, The Concert, Saratoga - The Gay Nineties, 1890

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Gaetano Bellei (1857-1922)

Gaetano Bellei (1857-1922), Italian academic painter.
Gaetano Bellei, The  Masquerader
Gaetano Bellei, The  Masquerader
Gaetano Bellei4
Gaetano Bellei, title unknown
Gaetano Bellei, Three Elegant Ladies
Gaetano Bellei, Three Elegant Ladies
Gaetano Bellei2
Gaetano Bellei, title unknown
Gaetano Bellei1
Gaetano Bellei, title unknown
Gaetano Bellei, The Temptress
Gaetano Bellei, The Temptress

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Carl Gustav Carus (1789-1869)

Carl Gustav Carus (1789-1869), German physician, scientist and painter. Carus studied under Caspar David Friedrich and his debt to the great German Romantic painter is very obvious in his work. Carus was a friend of Goethe and was a pioneer of the scientific study of psychology.
Carl Gustav Carus, Der Friedhof auf dem Oybin
Carl Gustav Carus, Der Friedhof auf dem Oybin
Carl Gustav Carus, Dresden desde la terraza de Brühl, c. 1830-1831
Carl Gustav Carus, Dresden desde la terraza de Brühl, c. 1830-1831
Carl Gustav Carus, Mondscheinlandschaft
Carl Gustav Carus, Mondscheinlandschaft

Monday, March 18, 2013

Aby Altson (1864-1949)

Aby Altson (1864-1949), Australian classicist painter. Also known as Abbey Altson.
Aby Altson, Expectancy
Aby Altson, Expectancy
Aby Altson, Le poète
Aby Altson, The Poet
Aby Altson, Meditation
Aby Altson, Meditation
Aby Altson, On the Balcony
Aby Altson, On the Balcony

Saturday, March 16, 2013

Edward Bulwer-Lytton's Zanoni

The English novelist Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803-1873), is today best-known for inspiring The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, a competition for the worst opening lines for the worst possible novels. This is a result of Bulwer-Lytton having opened one of his novels with, “It was a dark and stormy night.” This has gained him a reputation as a bad writer, a reputation that is most unjust. Bulwer-Lytton was in fact a fine and imaginative writer and one of the most interesting of all 19th century literary figures.

His short story The Haunted and the Haunters is one of the minor masterpieces of horror. Bulwer-Lytton wrote in many genres and was the author of the fascinating science fiction novel The Coming Race. He had a keen interest in the occult and it is one of his occult novels with which we are concerned - Zanoni, published in 1842. It is often described as his Rosicrucian novel, although in fact the two key figures in the book, Zanoni and Mejnour, are not Rosicrucians but members of a much more ancient and much more secret fraternity. They do however acknowledge the Rosicrucians as being on the right track. The alchemists they regard as sincere seekers after truth and wisdom, and often men of genius, but alchemy is not the path to the truths they seek.

This is a novel within a novel. The author claims to have come into possession of a manuscript, a manuscript written by an adept in the occult arts. He claims to have obtained the manuscript from its author, who claimed that it dealt with an idea derived from Plato, that there are four types of enthusiasm or mania. Mania is used here in a positive sense, as a kind of spiritual exaltation. The four manias are the musical, the mystical, the prophetic and that that pertains to love.

The manuscript describes events that supposedly took place at the end of the preceding century. The hero of the manuscript is Zanoni. Zanoni is one of two surviving members of a brotherhood that dates back almost as far as the beginnings of human civilisation. Zanoni appears to be a youngish man, but in fact his lifespan is measured not in mere centuries but in millennia. Majnour is even older. Zanoni and Majnour chose different kinds of immortality. Zanoni chose eternal youth while Mejnour chose eternal old age.

Mejnour is the more content of the two. The passions of youth are behind him. He is no longer prone to emotional entanglements or the snares of the passions. He regards humanity with the detachment of a scientist. He almost never seeks to intervene in human affairs. Zanoni on the other hand still knows the extremes of youth - the extremes of happiness and of despair.

Zanoni can even fall in love, but he knows that to do so would have momentous consequences. Nevertheless when he meets Viola, the daughter of a brilliant Italian composer, he finds that try as he might he cannot escape love.

Zanoni’s path will also cross that of Glyndon, a young English artist who becomes obsessed with the idea of following the path of Zanoni and achieving the powers and the wisdom of the brotherhood.

This is most emphatically not a novel that treats the occult as something evil. The occult in this novel is rather a seeking for wisdom. On the very rare occasions on which Mejnour does interfere in the affairs of humanity it is always on the side of good. Zanoni frequently intervenes in human affairs, and again always on the side of good. Which is not to say that evil does not exist. It is a hazard even for the greatest of adepts, and among the common run of humanity it is all too common. The evils in this book are all very human evils.

Zanoni can also be seen as a novel of the French Revolution but to see it that way is to miss the point. The French Revolution merely represents the absolute nadir of humanity, an event so cataclysmically evil that it is capable of having an effect even on Zanoni. It represents (according to the author’s afterword) the violent eruption of the actual into the ideal. Zanoni represents the ideal. All the major characters will find themselves drawn by destiny to Paris during the Reign of Terror.

It is somewhat pointless to try to analyse this book in terms of plot and characterisation. On the surface it might seem to be an historical novel but actually it is a philosophical novel that makes few concessions to realism, realism being an artistic ideal that Bulwer-Lytton regarded with contempt.

In this novel Bulwer-Lytton works out his rather eccentric but fascinating ideas on the occult. That might sound rather heavy but in fact it’s an entertaining novel that can be enjoyed as a kind of occult thriller. Bulwer-Lytton strongly believed that a novel must be entertaining first of all. If the author wishes to include multiple layers of meaning and hidden depths (and Zanoni includes those in abundance) then he is free to do so so long as it does not detract from the enjoyment of the story. It’s a surprisingly successful attempt to combine entertainment with esoteric occult speculation and it’s one of the most interesting of British 19th century novels.

There is a faint hint of decadence in the world-weariness of the novel’s immortals.

A strange but fascinating concoction and a must-read for anyone with an interest in the development of 19th century weird fiction, and a gripping occult thriller by an author with a considerable knowledge of the subject. Highly recommended.

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Mary Elizabeth Macomber (1861-1916)

Mary Elizabeth Macomber (1861-1916), sometimes known as Mary Lizzie Macomber, American artist, born in Massachusetts and influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites.
Mary Lizzie Macomber, Night and her daughter Sleep, 1902
Mary Elizabeth Macomber, Night and her daughter Sleep, 1902
Mary Lizzie Macomber, Faith, Hope and Love
Mary Elizabeth Macomber, Faith, Hope and Love
Mary Elizabeth Macomber, title unknown
Mary Elizabeth Macomber, title unknown

Friday, March 8, 2013

Elihu Vedder (1836-1923)

Elihu Vedder (1836-1923), American Symbolist painter and poet. He studied in New York and Paris and eventually settled in Italy. He was considerably influenced by Blake and by the English Pre-Raphaelites.
Elihu Vedder, Soul in Bondage, 1891-92
Elihu Vedder, Soul in Bondage, 1891-92
elihu vedder The Cup of Death
Elihu Vedder, The Cup of Death

Elihu Vedder, Minerva, 1896
Elihu Vedder, Minerva, 1896 (mosaic at the Library of Congress)
vedder_Sorrowing Soul between Doubt and Faith1887
Elihu Vedder, The Sorrowing Soul between Doubt and Faith, 1887
Vedder The Questioner of the Sphinx 1863
Elihu Vedder, The Questioner of the Sphinx, 1863
Vedder The Throne of Saturn 1883-1884
Elihu Vedder, The Throne of Saturn 1883-1884
elihu vedder Memory
Elihu Vedder, Memory
Elihu Vedder, Roman Model Posing, 1881
Elihu Vedder, Roman Model Posing, 1881

Saturday, March 2, 2013

Sir John Everett Millais (1829-1896)

Sir John Everett Millais (1829-1896), one of the founding members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.
Sir John Everett Millais, Ferdinand Lured by Ariel, 1850
Sir John Everett Millais, Ferdinand Lured by Ariel, 1850
Sir John Everett Millais, The Captive, 1882
Sir John Everett Millais, The Captive, 1882
Sir John Everett Millais, The Eve of Saint Agnes, 1863
Sir John Everett Millais, The Eve of Saint Agnes, 1863
Sir John Everett Millais, The Tribe of Benjamin Seizing the Daughter of Shiloh,1847)
Sir John Everett Millais, The Tribe of Benjamin Seizing the Daughter of Shiloh,1847
Sir John Everett Millais, The Vale of Rest, 1858-59
Sir John Everett Millais, The Vale of Rest, 1858-59
Sir John Everett Millais, Vanessa, 1868
Sir John Everett Millais, Vanessa, 1868