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 'd not heard of him before. His wikipedia page is graced with a more mundane example of his work, "Two Musicians", and it looks a bit like a bad copy of Rembrandt to be honest – a bit CGI'd onto someone else's body:

 

 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 with the feather. 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 takes on a more seriously speculative aspect. As Bernard Black would say, you really believe monkeys can hold meetings, and call it human folly if you like, but I think there's something admirable about the fact these animals managed to rustle all this up.

 I wondered if H.G. Wells had come across Saftleven, as I was getting strong presentiments 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 indeed 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

 

 Moreau never had a bash at putting an elephant in a hat though, 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.

Designs for the Unseen (and What's Between)

 Colours aren't reflected light in the concept art of Mary Blair, they're light sources. The Disney films she worked on were nocturnal fairy tales, intimately sunless and perfect for dark rides. There were concepts in her concept art too, like filling Wonderland with signage for example.

  That seems apt. If Carroll's stories had a villain it was probably words. Tangentially, it's possible that I've been misusing the word "liminal". I've used it describe the location of an act of the imagination, but strictly speaking it doesn't mean pretend-y so much as between-y, coming from the Latin word for threshold.

 It was the video below that brought this to my attention. I know nothing about the contributor but my algorithms made a hell of a recommendation because Solar Sand's search for the fabled "backrooms" is absolutely packed with potential rabbit holes: "noclipping", kenopsia, the actual length of a fire hydrant, what kind of rooms inspire nostalgia in Russian millenials... Wait. What does the word "threshold" come from?

Ian Holm And Lewis Carroll A Sitting On A Gate.

 I'm surprised I haven't posted this clip before seeing as I always seem to be introducing people to it, but here's Ian Holm's stratospheric turn as the White Knight in a 1998 adaptation of Alice Through the Looking Glass not short on intelligent readings – Penelope Wilton's also in it, and Geoffrey Palmer in dundreary whiskers, and Steve Coogan as a gnat, all giving precisely judged comic readings rather than just putting on a costume and being loopy because it's Lewis Carroll. I also really like how Kate Beckinsale's adult Alice listens, a credible mixture of attention and distraction. The Buster Keaton make-up is a bit distracting maybe – although its heart is in the right place – and Holm had already played Lewis Carroll, so this might just be stunt casting, but it still takes my breath away twenty-two years later. This is how you do it. Thanks, Ian Holm. I'm sorry you've gone.