French Emblems At Glasgow





"This website gives you access to all the French Emblem Books of the 16th century, along with their Latin versions when appropriate. While the seed of the emblem as a genre was sown in Germany in 1531, it flowered and developed in France during the 16th century, and it was from there that it spread throughout Europe."

There are hundreds of fantastic scenes on display in this collection. Here are the results I got when looking for dragons and monsters. Use the search bar on the top right to look up other images or browse the books directly from here.

Beasts in Midieval Illustration





















Here is another excellent article on artwork related to ancient artworks of strange beasts. Take a look at depictions and various art styles of real and imagined creatures from the past. The French language section has a really great animated intro page with cut outs of various animals collaged together, check it out.

The Unknown Sea


Click here and here to see the monsters of the deep at the Expositions Virtuelles in France.

Don't miss the links on the left here. There are various galleries of paintings, maps, scientific illustrations, illuminated manuscript pages and more of ocean related imagery.

And all of these images are linked together into an informative and interesting article titled "The Unknown Sea" located here.

New Works From Sergey Tyukanov




I mentioned Tyukanov about a year and a half ago and it appears since then he's been busy making incredible Hieronymus Bosch inspired paintings! His new website (located here) contains many large examples of his artwork.

New works found thanks to Who Killed Bambi?

Theatrical Faust Posters


Here are 3 interesting color lithograph posters for theatrical productions of Faust from the late 19th century. Images found at the Library of Congress.

Tony Sarg's Balloon Dragon/Rat


"In 1928 Tony designed a series of helium filled, rubberized silk animal balloons for the Macy's Thanksgiving parade. Bil Baird supervised the construction, and called them "giant, upside down marionettes" as the strings were below them. One rubber dragon, the biggest, was 125 feet long and took 50 handlers to operate him. This balloon later floated over Long Island, while aviator Clarence Chamberlain was flying. The balloons had to be carefully moved under the NYC elevated train structure. One set paraded, and the second set was released and allowed to fly away when the parade reached Macy's store. Some of the balloons were found a hundred miles away. A reward was offered for their return in any condition. Kids shot the balloons with their air rifles, and the balloons were returned full of holes. In the minds of the public this gained Tony most of his fame in New York. Rubber balloons remain a tradition of Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade." - quote source.

See more pictures from the dragon balloon here.

More vintage photos from another Macy's Thanksgiving parade around 1932 can be seen in this post at the Swapatorium.