Chris Achilleos


























Here are some of the more monster infested paintings by Chris Achilleos. His illustration work includes covers for Heavy Metal Magazine, he was also conceputal artist for the animated film version from the 80's. I noticed on his site that he'd worked with Ray Harryhausen and was a conceptual artist for Willow.

All works are copyright Chris Achilleos. Check out his official website here.

Jean Marie Poumeyrol






















This was the painting that introduced me to the bizarre world of Poumeyrol ten years ago. I saw it along with other paintings in H.R Giger's art collection published in this book. The painting resembles a scene from a David Cronenberg film that needs to be made.

View more paintings by Poumeyrol here.

Saint Michael Battling Lucifer






















Gerard David - Altarpiece of St Michael, oil on wood. "The picture representing the battle of St Michael with the Diable is the central panel of a small triptych. On the side panels St Jerome and St Anthony of Padua can be seen in a contiguous landscape as a background." - quote source






















Master of the Legend of St Ursula - St Michael Fighting Demons, oil on oak panel, 1480 - 1500.






















Juan de Flandes - Saint Michael and Francis, Tempera and oil on wood, 1505-09.






















Hans Leu The Elder - Michael Battling Lucifer (1500)






















Albrecht Dürer - St Michael Fighting the Dragon, woodcut, 1496/98.























Raffaello Sanzio - St Michael and the Dragon, oil on wood, 1505. Painting previously mentioned here.






















Claude Duflos - Copy of Raffaello's painting from above, engraving from 17th - 18th century.






















Pacino di Bonaguida - The Apparition of Saint Michael, 1330.










































Lieven van Lathem - Saint Michael - Tempera colors, gold leaf, gold paint, and silver paint on parchment, 1469.






















Juan de la Abadia - The Archangel Michael, paint on wood, 1490. This is probably the creepiest interpretation of satan that I've ever seen, something about the small puppet like demon running around with bird feet. That one is going to give me nightmares!

Saint Michael is like the Van Helsing of the middle ages, anywhere you see him turn up he's usually kicking monster ass. More examples of Saint Michael slicing, dicing, dropkicking, face smashing and sucker punching the devil can be found here.

St. Catherine of Siena Besieged by Demons















Tempera painting on panel from 1500, artist uknown. Image found here.

Augustus Charles Pugin - Gothic Ornaments










The above lithographs by Augustus Charles Pugin are based on grotesque animal carvings found in medieval churches across England and France. They were taken from the book "Pugin's Gothic Ornament: The Classic Sourcebook of Decorative Motifs with 100 Plates."

Tapestry of the Apocalypse

It shouldn't come as a surprise to know that the largest medieval tapestry in the world is also covered in strange depictions of beasts. It was weaved by Nicholas Bataille and painted by Hennequin de Bruges. The work is on display in a castle located in a castle in Angers, the capital of the historical province of Anjou in France.

"In 1373, the King of France, Charles V, lent his brother Louis I, Duke of Anjou, the manuscrpt of an "Apocalypse in French fully illustrated and historiated: This inspired the Duke to commission "large tapestries of the story of the Apocalypse:. " - quote source

"The battle of Armageddon rages, as Satan, "the great red dragon" (depicted with seven heads), and his minions of composite animals mark their earthly followers. The holy forces retaliate by breaking the seven vials of plagues. It all ends with heavenly Jerusalem, and Satan buried for a thousand years. The slightly flattened medieval perspective has a hallucinatory quality, extraordinarily beautiful and terrifying, evoking the end of the world either in accordance with the first-century text or as a secular holocaust." - quote source

This photo of the tapestry on display shows the epic scale of this work.
Click here and here to see more photos of the tapestry.

Here is another fantastic beast and woodwose filled tapestry from the 15th century. I'm not aware of the artist responsible for this work.

Yasushi Nirasawa and Takayuki Takeya

Check out a selection of their detailed models here.
See more models here.
Profiles and additional art by both artists can be found here.
Unpainted examples of Takayuki's models here.
More model pics here.

Here is a decapitated head which fortunately comes with a manual on how to feed it.

Below are photographs of one of their more detailed sculptures.







































Below are photos from an insane model that I think is by Takayuki. See more photos of it here.






























Takayuki Takeya was one of the creature designers in Takashi Miike's "The Great Yokai War."

This page has some very cool sculptures although I'm not sure who is responsible for them. Some favorites.. 1 - 2 - 3 - 4

Gray Morrow





















Here's a bizarre scene of a giant flying manta ray attacking people riding lizards. This was created by American illustrator Gray Morrow who was considered a fantastic realist in the science fiction / horror genre. His painted covers for the Creepy and Eerie horror comics can be found scattered around this site.

More Arent van Bolten
There is a great post on the art of Arent van Bolten over at the always amazing art blog Giornale Nuovo. Mr H saw my previous post on the curious sculptures and drawings of grotesque beasts and has since acquired a book with additional works by Bolten. He has scanned in much larger examples of Bolten's beasts then were previously available online, enjoy.

Friedrich Pacher - Christ In Limbo (detail)
Here is a detail from a painting of tempera on pine panel by Friedrich Pacher titled "Christ In Limbo" dated from the 1460's. See the full painting here.

Judson Huss - Anger
The above painting is oil on panel from 1984. Click here to see more paintings by Huss.

Botticelli's Inferno
You might have noticed the drawings Botticelli made for Dante's Inferno in the gallery I linked to in the previous post. I've collected all 27 of the drawings displayed on the site and linked them on here. I'm a fan of the more imaginative interpretations of Hell and Botticelli's unfinished drawings are among some of the best. Click on the numbers below to view Botticelli's illustrations of Dante's Inferno.

"Botticelli often concerned himself during his lifetime with illustrations for Dante's Divine Comedy. He executed the drawings from the cycle illustrated here over a relatively long period of time, from about 1480 to 1500. The identification of these illustrations with the Dante cycle which Botticelli is known to have done for Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco, his great patron from the Medici family, seems not improbable.

For some reason unknown to us, the drawings were never completed. Only four of the surviving 93 sheets - nine having been lost in the course of time - are coloured, although this was presumably the original intention for all of them. The drawings are now in the collections of the Staatliche Museen in Berlin and the Vatican Library." - quote from here.

1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14 - 15 - 16 - 17 - 18 - 19 - 20 - 21 - 22 - 23 - 24 - 25 - 26 - 27

View some of Botticelli's colored drawings from Dante's Divine Comedy here and here.
Click on the top 3 links here to view most of the remaining drawings from this series. Unfortunately the images are small, but at least you can enjoy the 27 drawings from the Inferno linked above in better detail.

Here is a book available for purchase that has collected all of Botticelli's drawings for Dante's Divine Comedy.