Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder

Patterns from an illustration by Henry Holiday (and Joseph Swain) to the chapter The Vanishing in Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark (1876) and a segment of the Allegory of Iconoclasm (or The Image Breakers ) by Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder (c. 1567). (1st version on Flickr: 2010-08-24 )

[left]: Mirror view of Henry Holiday's depiction of a bonnet (the hat, not the sail) and "the maker of Bonnets and Hoods" in Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark (1876) [right]: The Image Breakers (1566-1568) by Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder See also: www.academia.edu/12105957/The_Boots

Illustration by Henry Holiday to The Hunting of the Snark (1876) and The Image Breakers (1566-1568) by Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder. This is the first comparison which I made between a Snark illustration by Henry Holiday and another image. A second discovery followed. That is how the Snark hunt started in December 2008. At that time my dealing with Holliday's illustration perhaps was a bit too playful and some matches marked in this comparison are questionable. But it was a good start, also thanks to some encouragement by the Canadian Indian German cryptomorphist Snark illustrator Mahendra Singh , who at that time already (but unknowingly) worked like Henry Holiday (even though he doesn't like Holiday's illustrations too much). The difference: Holiday never talked about his allusions. Singh does so quite openly. Both artists have in common, that they not only create illustrations, they also teach how to see . How did I run into the Snark ? The hunt is a kind of side effect of my work in work safety .

I added this to my photostream by courtsey (date: 2010-02-10) of Marcus Wills . This painting won the Australian Archibald Prize in 2006 . To me it is an excellent example for "art about art", which is an art in its own right. This painting not only is about Marcus Gheeraert's probably most famous etching, it also is about the sculptures of Paul Juraszek (Melbourne). Something like this should be treated like the pictorial equivalent to a good variation of a musical composition (e.g. like Koechlin's variations on BACH).

Henry Holiday, Gustave Doré (2x) , Lewis Carroll (mirror view), Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger (mirror view), John Martin , Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder (I am not so sure about Henry Holiday's allusion to the image on the lower right side by Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder.)

Mahendra Singh (Montréal) holds the copyright to the illustration (depicting Victor Hugo ) on the right side. Compare it to the 16th century etching The Image Breakers (1566-1568, mirror view, right side) by Marcus Gheraerts the Elder. I added that comparison as shown above to my photostream with Mahendra's consent (2010-07-22). Source of Mahendra Singh's illustration: justtheplaceforasnark (blog, 2009-12-03) Mahendra knows the art of deniability very well. Mahendra's "heads": • justtheplaceforasnark.blogspot.de/2009/12/dream-books-nonsense-and-bourbon.html • justtheplaceforasnark.blogspot.de/2013/09/the-heart-is-lonely-snark-hunter.html

[left]: The Banker's nose in Henry Holiday's illustration to the chapter "The Banker's Fate" in Lewis Carroll's "The Hunting of the Snark" (1876). [right]: "nose" (mirrored about a horizontal axis) from a horizontally compressed segment of "The Image Breakers" (1566-1568) aka "Allegory of Iconoclasm", an etching by Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder (British Museum, Dept. of Print and Drawings, 1933.1.1..3, see also Edward Hodnett: Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder, Utrecht 1971, pp. 25-29). ---> www.academia.edu/10103262/Noseflip_animation_

[top]: Detail from the etching (1566-1568) The Image Breakers by Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder. [center]: Detail from the illustration (1876) by Henry Holiday to The Hunting of the Snark . C. L. Dodgson did not want Henry Holiday to depict the Snark in the illustrations to The Hunting of the Snark . But Holiday was allowed to let it appear veiled by its "gown, bands, and wig" in The Barrister's Dream . [bottom]: Redrawn image from a concept draft by C. L. Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll). The original drawing was part of a lot consisting of an 1876 edition of The Hunting of the Snark and a letter (dated 1876-01-04) by Dodgson to Henry Holiday. The lot was auctioned by Doyle New York (Rare Books, Autographs & Photographs - Sale 13BP04 - Lot 553) offered in November 2013. The whole lot was sold for US$ 25000. ( www.doylenewyork.com/asp/fullcatalogue.asp?salelot=13BP04+++553+&refno=++953647&image=2 ) · This shows: First C. L. Dodgson defined the concept [bottom], then Henry Holiday did the artwork (including the allusions to Gheeraert's "head" [top]) and finally Joseph Swain cut the illustration [center] into a woodblock.

===== How I got into Snark hunting ===== In December 2008, I searched for “Hidden Faces” in the Wikipedia . I wanted to see whether an illustration by Henry Holiday (left) to Lewis Carroll’s The Hunting of the Snark was mentioned there. (Now it is.) But instead of that I found Gheeraert's Allegory of Iconoclasm (right, aka The Image Breakers ) in the Wikipedia article on hidden faces. And then I saw a little rhombic pattern in the “mouths” of the “heads” depicted in both illustrations. The Snark hunt had begun. left: 2009: Illustration by Henry Holiday to fit the eight in Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark (This is the 2007 version of an image in ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/c/carroll/lewis/snark/#fit8 .) center: 2008-12-16: Detail from "Hidden Faces" in en.wikipedia.org, en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hidden_faces&oldid=258354510 right: Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder, Allegory of Iconoclasm , c.1566–1568 etching 15” x 10.4”, British Museum, London. commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gheerhaets_Allegory_iconoclasm.jpg (In December 2008 the image was smaller: upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/archive/f/f5/20100214083045!Gheerhaets_Allegory_iconoclasm.jpg , but even there you can see the detail which cought my attention.) (The blur is intentional. It removes unecessary details.)