“New, new, new, just for the sake of newness, for the sake of the sales’ curve, in order to make people throw away the old things before they have served their time. Not so long ago we looked for a better form, now we only have to find a new one.”
— Poul Henningsen (1894-1967), Danish author, architect and critic
Why does he have a tail and pointy ears?!?
I generally prefer for readers to sort some of these things out for themselves (that’s the kind of cognition I personally enjoy).
But because there is a threat of people thinking I’m engaging in sacrilege, here’s the quick poop:
In the Middle Ages, it was very typical to depict people as animals in illuminated manuscripts. Monkeys and rabbits are the most typical (in my experience). Why did they do this? Sometimes just for fun (rabbits jousting on snails?) . Sometimes to remind ourselves that we lack wisdom or are naive – like animals.
The image you are looking at is adapted from the Book of the Dead, a German book that featured portraits of deceased craftsmen who lived in a particular home dedicated to caring for aging tradesmen and women.
I hope you can now interpret this image and quote without a pitchfork in your hand….
What I really want to know is what happened to perspective in the Middle Ages? Table ends and other objects like that just hung out in the air, like they were suspended on strings. Did perspective die with the Roman Empire? Did people really hang up their tables on strings? Inquiring minds need to know.
I meant it in pure humor, I had no ulterior motives 🙂 Apologies, I chalk it up to the limitations of online-text-comments. On the plus side, I learned a fascinating bit of history, much appreciated.
i think your time line may be out of whack.
Why is the Brother depicted as if he has a tail? Illustrative of the evil of the retail industry or …?
He’s not a monk. This is not a religious or irreligious scene.
No wonder the guy died if he was accustomed to planing uphill!
Who’s the artist?
My daughter did the sketch. I don’t know who did the original painting.
Looks like an early woodworker on Planet Vulcan 😉
In art school, I had a professor who talked about the shift in the definition of the word “Genius”. Originally a genius was a fellow who could excecute his craft or art with the greatest of skill, creativity, excellence, etc. Contrast this to modernism, when genius came to describe a fellow who could come up with something that had not been done before. – thanks for sharing this quote from Mr. Henningson.