St. Anthony Part II

Another of St Anthony.  This woodcut depicts the saint with a t-shaped tau cross with bells, flames, and a pet pig, which befriended him during his exile. He is associated with fire because of his encounters with the demons of hell.

In this piece, the pestering demons are replaced by victims of the holy fire or "St Anthony's Fire," and detached limbs dangle above the saint and his entourage. The explanation? Sufferers of St Anthony's fire were racked with gangrene of the extremities, which resulted in the withering and eventual detachment of affected limbs. This image reflects the practice of hanging amputated limbs of victims above entrance portals of Antonite monasteries, called to act as hospitals and authorized to heal in the name of the saint.

Unfortunately, body rotting and the subsequent dismemberment were not the only hellish indices rendered by the infectious bete noire. Hallucination, muscle contortions, convulsions, and an agonizing, burning chronic pain. Ouch. And all caused by a stupid mould. Known today as ergotism, holy fire was caused by the contamination of grain, most often rye, by the ergot mould. When heated in the oven, the mould transforms into a type of LSD. Notwithstanding, that trip does not sound like a fun one.

(St Anthony, c. 1445. Woodcut. Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich)

St. Anthony Part I

Alright, so I've decided to bring some posts from my bygone blog to join the party here at Evillustrator. They're graphically inclined, so I thought, hey what the hell.  So, here's a post in honor of my beau.

St Anthony was a popular subject in Northern Renaissance art because his stoic endurance of pain mirrored Christ's Passion and offered a perfect example of forbearance in the midst of suffering and of emulating the path of Christ himself.

Also known as St Anthony of Egypt, he is considered the father of monasticism and probably lived from the mid-3rd to the mid-4th centuries of the common era. The torments of St Anthony would have been well known to Renaissance audiences via the accounts in the bestselling Golden Legend and Lives of the Church Fathers, both of which borrow from the biography of Anthony by the 4th c. bishop Athanasius. Apparently the devil wracked the man's brain with naughty images of women, demoralized him with laziness, and drove him crazy with boredom. Huh, hard to imagine such things happening out there. In the desert. Alone. He retreated to the tomb where he lived, sealing himself inside. Or so he thought--the devil went into a jealous rage when confronted by this intense devotion to God and voluntary, stalwart asceticism and beat him severely.

This engraving is a disturbing, yet utterly mezmerizing, depiction of St Anthony and his demons. The man looks completely calm, albeit slightly uncomfortable, as the malignant beasts pinch and pull and prod and grope.

The cult of St Anthony increased in popularity during the 15th and 16th c. in Europe partly because of a rekindling of the dreaded St Anthony's Fire, also called holy fire (ignis sacer). 

(Martin Schongauer, Temptation of St Anthony, c. 1470-5. Engraving)

First Post

So, I've got it in my head to actually follow through with something.  At least until late summer-ish.  Two weeks from now, I'll be out of a real job and self-employed, so, I've decided to take a serious crack at selling my art.  I've always had drawing as a creative outlet, and over the years I like to think I've honed my talent, succinctly whittled my historical interests down to a somewhat individual style.  Even though I tend to jump from medium to medium, I'm hoping that each piece is a signature EV one-of-a-kind.  I'm not really so vain as to think that every painting or drawing that gets splashed or scribbled onto a piece of paper is entirely my own.  My mind is like a sponge, so whatever the slosh that gets wrung out, it's always going to be what some people (those who use the word "mine" a lot) may deem plagiarism.  I'm sorry, but elements of Kay Nielsen, Brueghel the Elder, or some random Art Nouveau dude are going to find their way into my lines...but that's the whole of art history.  

Yeah I don't understand people who are overly protective of their subject or style or whatever...man, your stuff originated from someone else.  Influence is the word.  And if it's not another painter, it's nature or some kind of mind-altering substance...and don't think you're the only one to have ever experienced something so bizarre...not as strange as you might think.  I respect the individualism of each person and believe you should embrace what makes you unique, but not to the point where it separates you from everything else.  

I have no idea where that came from, but there it is.

Anyway, I did this pic a few weeks ago, tried something new.  I want to focus on childhood imagery, but not so much traditional notions of it.  My childhood was fun but not necessarily overly normal.  So, yeah.