Cornelis Saftleven's Animal Sketches

This is called "The Vision of the Sunday Child".

 It was painted in 1660 by Cornelis Saftleven. I can't find out what a Sunday child is but that just makes me love it more.* It's not the most vivid expression of Saftleven's skill. It's quite abstract, and you're not seeing it, as I did, in the context of his other work. So here's another: a classic scene – and the measure of any great fantasy artist in the days before Hugo Gernsback – "The Temptation of Saint Anthony" (click to enlarge, IF YOU DARE):

 

  I found these paintings on the great art blog, Monster Brains. It's always throwing up goodies, but I was particularly taken by Saftleven, and wondered why I hadn't heard of him before. His wikipedia page is graced with a more mundane example of his work – "Two Musicians" – and they do look a bit like a bad copy of Rembrandt, to be honest... a bit CGI'd onto someone else's head...

 

 So maybe he just wasn't good enough at drawing people to be celebrated. But get a load of this "Allegory of Human Folly" from 1629...

 

Again, click to enlarge, well, all of these. 

 I love that the dog's made an effort. And I'm a sucker for the reframing of ritual; the improvised totem on the right is perfect. It's rare to see this delirious, medieval subject matter rendered with the photorealistic skill of a Dutch master. It makes it take on a more seriously speculative aspect. Call this human folly if you like, but there's something admirable in the fact these animals have actually managed to rustle all this up. As Bernard Black would say, you really believe monkeys can hold meetings. I began to wonder if H.G. Wells had come across Saftleven, as I was getting strong persentiments of The Island of Dr. Moreau.

 

 This is the "College of Animals", from 1665. Saftleven painted it twice.

 

 Why? I don't know. But doesn't Well's "Sayer of the Law" have the head of a ram? I looked it up, and it turns out he doesn't. That's only in the Richard Stanley version – you know the Richard Stanley version? Where Marlon Brando drove everyone mad, and insisted he always be accompanied by a two-foot-tall Dominican? And Stanley got fired as director but then went to live in the forest, and returned to the set disguised as a dog? Seek out the excellent documentary Lost Soul if you don't – but the uncanny terror of seeing animals convincingly perform human deeds, a terror that's plagued many an adaptation of Alice in Wonderland, is still just as thrilling. If Wells was inspired by these paintings to write his parable of a deranged vivisectionist, he did them justice.

 

 "Satire on the trial of Johan van Oldenbarnevelt", 1663

 

 Although Moreau never had a bash at an elephant in a hat, which is a shame. You can see more of Cornelis Saftleven showcased on Monster Brains here, and here.

 

 

Jump around! Jump around! (Quite a Saftlevenian palette to the 1977 adaptation.)

 

*UPDATE: See the comments below for an explanation.