Pochoir Insects

1. Sternotomis Imperialis. Guinée; 2. Sternotomis cornutus. Madagascar; 3. Callipogon Lemoinei. Perou; 4. Palimna annulata. Cochinchine; 5. Sternodonta pulchra. Sénégal




1. Tacua speciosa. Indes; 2. Polyneura ducalis. Indes Or.; 3. Cicada saccata. Australie; 4. Cicada fascialis. Siam; 5. Tozena melanoptera. Indes Or.




1. Scolia procer. Asie Tropicale; 2. Eulema dimidiata. Brésil; 3. Stilbum splendidum. Cosmpolite; 4. Bombus lapidarius incertus. Arménie; 5. Xylocopa tenuiscapa. Asie Tropicale




1. Rhabdotis sobrins. Nubie; 2. Gnathocera varians. Sénégal; 3. Coelorhina guttata. Guinée; 4. Euchrea celestis. Madagascar; 5. Gymnetis Touchardii. Vénézuela




1. Phaneus conspicillatus. Brésil; 2. Phanoeus imperator. Argentine; 3. Cyclommatus tarandus. Bornéo; 4. Pachilis gigas. Mexique; 5. Phanoeus ensifer. Guyane




1. Pepsis limbata. Amérique du Sud; 2. Chlorion lobatum. Asie Tropicale; 3. Vespa crabro. Europe; 4. Monedula chilensis. Chili; 5. Pepsis errans. Amérique du Sud




1. Nemopistha imperatrix. Afrique Oc.; 2. Tomatares citrinus. Afrique Austral.; 3. Neurolasis chinesis. Asie; 4. Aeschna Cyanéa. Europe; 5. Mnais earnshawi. Indochine




1. Pamphagus elephas. Algérie; 2. Tropidacris dux. Amérique du Sud; 3. Cyrtacantacris tartarica. Asie; 4. Aularches miliaris. Asie; 5. Phymateus saxosus. Madagascar




1. Delias neagra. Nouvelle Guinée; 2. Catagramma kolyma. Amazone; 3. Dichorragia nesimachus. Sikkim; 4. Elymnias malelas. Inde; 5. Eulepis eudamippus. Indo Malaisie




1. Goeana festiva. Indes; 2. Zammara tympanum. Amérique du Sud; 3. Goeana ochracea. Indes; 4. Phenax variegata. Brésil; 5. Hemisciera maculipennis. Amazone




1. Euploea rhadamanthus. Inde; 2. Troïdes brookeana. Bornéo; 3. Erasmia pulchella. Sikkim; 4. Papilio antiphates. Inde; 5. Pyrameis myrinna. Equateur




1. Horaeocerus nigricornis. Madagascar; 2. Acrida miniata. Algérie; 3. Aularches miliaris. Asie; 4. Phymateus Brunneri. Afrique Tropicale; 5. Acanthodis imperialis. Asie




1. Arachnis dilecta. Mexique; 2. Hypsa borbonica. Congo; 3. Hypsa dominia. Chine; 4. Cerace stipatana. Chine; 5. Callimorpha hera. Europe; 6. Callimorpha equitalis. Chine




1. Calopterix. Australie; 2. Diphlebia nymphoides. Australie; 3. Palpares imperator. Madagascar; 4. Calopterix. Asie; 5. Nemoptera sinuata. Région Méditerran.




1. Charaxes zingha. Congo; 2. Papilio blumei. Celebes; 3. Argynnis childrenae. Chine; 4. Papilio tyndereus. Congo; 5. Charaxes cognatus. Celebes




1. Batocera Hector. Java; 2. Callichroma suturalis. Guyane; 3. Steirastoma lacerta. Brésil; 4. Rosalia alpina. Europe; 5. Batocera Wallacei. Nouvelle Guinée




1. Amaurodes Passerinii. Mozambique; 2. Inca clathratus. Pérou; 3. Histrionica euchroea. Madagascar; 4. Cerathorhina derbyana. Mozambique. 5. Goliathus giganteus. Cameroun


[definitely click on these images: they are large-ish and much more spectacular at full size]


E.A. Séguy was active as a designer and artist in France in the first three decades of the 20th century. Of that much I am confident. But there is strangely very little biographical material about him online. Much of what is around is copied from site to site (whether university or poster shop) and I don't think all of it is trustworthy. Part of the problem comes from the fact that there was another E.A. Séguy (Eugene Alain - names they both 'might' share too) active in Paris at the same time - but he was an entomologist, strangely enough. One of them died in 1989 so it's likely these prints remain under copyright.

In any event, Séguy the artist is best remembered for a couple of series of prints he produced in the 1920s - 'Papillons' and 'Insectes' - both of which are featured above. The wonderfully lush and vibrant colours we see come from the multiple-stencil technique of pochoir printing, usually associated with the Art Nouveau and Art Deco movements.

Séguy consulted textbooks in an effort to bring a scientific level of accuracy to his work and included the species names and geographic origins that I've copied in as captions. His other work - some 11 albums - abstract his natural history penchant into the world of decorative design in which he constructed decals and motifs from insects, crystals, wings and similar.

Last year North Carolina State University purchased 'Papillons' and we are fortunate indeed that they digitized both that and 'Insectes' - I knew about the large stash of Séguy work at NYPL but the quality and size of their images is mediocre at best. NCSU definitely have the best images online but unfortunately they are all obstructively caged inside the Luna Insight browser architecture. It's worth the trouble in my opinion: these prints are fantastic seen at high magnification, a testament both to the exceptional quality of the pochoir process and to Séguy's artistic abilities.

• George Glazer Gallery.
• 'Vibrant Visions': Pochoir Prints in the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum Library.

Great Scott!

[detail from spliced screencaps]

I went looking for chicks elegant portraits of women in Edinburgh University Library's Corson Collection of Sir Walter Scott and came away with hand-coloured historical romanticism.

The majority of these images were engraved by Franz Huebner after drawings by Phillip von Stubenrauch of characters from Scott's novels. The costumes appeared in a themed parade at a ball in Vienna in 1826. The harpist and the woman who appears to be praying are undated lithographs (again, of Scott characters) by M. O'Connor.

The image collection in the Walter Scott Digital Archive consists of more than 400 etchings and engravings for the mostpart, housed within the burdensome Insight browser architecture. (previously)

Bestiarius

Bestiaries are part of a tradition that began in the 3rd or 4th centuries AD with the greek 'Physiologus', a collection of animal-based moral stories, widely circulated in Europe. Later, the illustrated texts were expanded and came to include not only the religious/moral elements, but also commentary drawn from other 'more scientific' sources such as Pliny the Elder and Aristotles. The artists were often copying from predecessors and were unlikely to have been familiar with many of the animals, accounting for the odd appearance at times. Fabulous animals such as mermaids, unicorns, griffins and dragons were usually included. These works from the 13th to 15th centuries were obviously the forerunners to the natural history books from the renaissance period and beyond.

The images above come from a parchment manuscript identified as 'GKS 1633 4º: Bestiarius' in the Danish Royal Library in Copenhagen. There are 117 illustrations in the 154 page book.

This is an english bestiary in a 'bastard anglicana' latin script from the beginning of the 15th century. It is otherwise known as The Bestiary of Anne Walshe because her name appears in crude practice writing in some of the margins; she was no doubt a young girl in England when she was given free reign over this book early in its life.

It is by no means a luxury production - the images are uncomplicated, no gold leaf was used and much of the pigment is in dull colour washes - but the artist shows a sense of humour and the illustrations mostly retain their original bright visual characteristics.

The Bestiary of Anne Walshe was the subject of a student paper by David Badke at the University of Victoria in Canada in 2001 which is available at The Medieval Bestiary site. The paper is well worth reading. It's not too complicated and it's interesting to read about the systematic way in which a medieval text is evaluated.

Mayan Civilization Bas Reliefs at Palenque

"It is by no means improbable that these fantastic forms, and others equally whimsical, were the delineations of some of their deities, to whom they paid an idolatrous worship, consistent with their false belief and barbarous customs."

[click to enlarge]

Palenque, in the far southern Chiapas region of Mexico [map] (formerly part of Guatemala), was a significant city-state of the Mayan civilization. Although the site was already an important centre from around 400AD, the palace-topped pyramid and nearby temple structures [Mesoweb Palenque resources] weren't built until the 7th century. The buildings were mysteriously abandoned with the decline of the Mayan culture in the 9th century. [Theories as to the cause for this range from soil exhaustion to disease to invasion to natural disaster to trade route collapse to...]

The forest had overgrown Palenque by the time the first European visited in 1567. But little interest was shown in the site again until the 1770s when the military governor of Guatemala received a report which must have piqued his interest. He sent a party to investigate further in 1784, led by Colonel Antonio Del Rio and accompanied by the artist Ricardo Almendáriz. Despite the damage they caused to some buildings (and pillaging of relics to send to Spain), the team made a reasonably thorough survey of the site and Almendáriz was able to sketch 30 ink/ink wash drawings of the temple and palace bas reliefs to accompany the report of Del Rio.

From then on things get very confused - a number of different works were published during the next few decades and Del Rio's report apparently lay dormant for some reason. But the drawings themselves (the originals have only been discovered in private hands in the recent past) were published alone in Mexico in 1787 as: 'Coleccion de Estampas Copiadas de las Figuras Originales, que de Medio, y Baxo Relieve, Se Manifiestan, en Estucos y Piedras, en Varios Edificios de la Poblacion Antigua Nuevamente Descubierta en las Immediaciones del Pueblo Del Palenque', which is online in its entirety at the Library of Congress. {64 page book, no thumbnails, giant sizes available, illustration every 2nd page mostly} [The first european publication of a Palenque drawing was in a work by Humboldt in 1810, posted previously]

We must thank the devil for this. It was while searching for information about the demonologist Martin Del Rio the other day that I happened upon this exquisite series. I spent a lot of time cleaning up the background artifact in the images above, some of which are details. If there was a 'find of the month category', I think this book would be a pretty good bet for mine.

"There is no difficulty in publishing Tom Thumb -- or any thing else -- when we are disposed; and yet all America cannot furnish sufficient encouragement to publish a work on the greatest, yes, absolutely the greatest wonder in the world, discovered within her own borders! Well indeed should we deserve the scorpion lash of foreign Trollopes, if this were so."

And with such admonishment, Dr. Pablo Felix Cabrera arranged to translate and publish the Del Rio document with third hand copies of the illustrations in London in 1822. The english text of Del Rio's report is published on this Oliver Cowdry website (it's not very long) together with a lot of Cabrera balderdash - he imagines a Phoenecian origin to the civilizations of America - but followed by a useful timeline with respect to the convoluted publishing/expedition history surrounding Palenque. Mormons figure prominently.

The Palenque Round Table Series in the Pre-Columbian Art Research Institute Journal .