Franz Sedlacek

Lied in der Dammerung, Franz Sedlacek

Training Field, 1926

Sedlacek, Franz

Fantasy become reality and A Chimera

This post is about Fantasy but not about Art. Or maybe it is about Fantasy in Art that became Reality.

I have been searching on the web for Gargoyles, Chimeras and grotesque form of Gothic Churches and sacred buildings and I found this. - Scientists have been starting produce chimeras—a hybrid creature that's part human, part animal.

I know it is old news but still incredibly fascinating. Chinese scientists at the Shanghai Second Medical University in 2003 successfully fused human cells with rabbit eggs. The embryos were reportedly the first human-animal chimeras successfully created. They were allowed to develop for several days in a laboratory dish before the scientists destroyed the embryos to harvest their stem cells.

A chimera is a mixture of several different species (human, animal, dragon, dinosaur, virus, bacteria) in one body – this will be in the future.

The mythological monster Chimera had two heads: one of a lion one of the goat, goat's body, and serpent's tail and according Homer "a snake behind, and snorting out the breath of the terrible flame of bright fire".

What once had been fantasy become reality....Chimera! It belongs to the Greek Mythology and to Gothic Churches. It belongs to the fantasy world of art, literature, mythology, sculpture and SF but not to the REALITY! Imagine I am just about to meet a Chimera somewhere. How would I react? "Hi, I am sorry that I have to say this, I loved you on the Gothic buildings but in reality you are disgusting and sickening....or How are you today? What a lovely day today, isn't it? Should we......"

Gothic Cathedrals and the Brick

I love Gothic Churches (or should I say Gothic Cathedrals because the English speaking people use it as a synonym for all the Gothic churches, Cathedrals or not). They are a creation of a genius spirit, mind and fantasy. They are colossal, huge and arrogant in their gigantism, gigantology, gigantomachy. (what is the best description?!) The sphere inside the Gothic Church is only one of its kind and is very mysterious; and of course the architecture and the ornamentation is unique as well.

I can’t remember how old I was, 4 or 5 when I saw my first Gothic Church in real. I mean an old Gothic Church, not one in Neogothic style. It was in Gdansk in Poland. I was only a child but still I can remember my surprise that fairy like building could also exist in a real world. In my realm. (I grow up in a Communist country, with the communist architecture!) Of course when you are small and short everything seems huge.

But the St. Mary’s Church is really a huge one. The Church is is the largest brick church in the world, and one of the largest Brick Gothic buildings in Europe. It is 105.5 m long, and the navie 66 m wide. Inside the church is room for 25,000 people. It is an aisled hall church with a transept (Build between 1343- 1496). The Polish name is Bazylika Mariacka. The long proper name should be this: Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The church was severely damaged in the World War II, during the storming of Danzig city by the Red Army in March 1945. Fortunately, most of the artworks from the interior survived, as they were evacuated for safekeeping to the villages surrounding the city. Many of these have returned to the church, but some are displayed in various museums around Poland. I read in some magazine that the Polish Church does everything to secure their return. I hoop so, because they belong to this building.

From the moment when I saw my first real Gothic Church, every time when we was visiting a new place, city, country, I always wanted to know if there is a Gothic church there. My Mum thought for a moment that I was a profound believer in god, in the Catholic god of course. But I wasn’t, I didn’t actually like the idea about such a powerful and horrific creator. I probably felt in love with the Gothic style, without knowing this. With the wonderful ornamentation, the gargoyles and the dragons. The mythical, mystical and profound creation of the medieval people.

The brick Gothic architecture is different to the French Gothic Style of building. Using less of more only bricks delimited the ornamentation possibilities of the architects. You can say that the Brick Gothic is a reduced style of Gothic architecture but you can also see it as a a different style of Gothic by using the bricks. The countries where the Brick Gothic was common were: North Germany and all the countries around the Baltic Sea; all are without natural rock resources.

Personally I prefer the rock Gothic, the real French Gothic with all the ornamentation, with the dragons, with the gargoyles. I will tell more about this subject in the next post.

(If you are interesting in more information about the history of this church, go to Wiki; Wikipedia has an interesting article about the St. Mary’s Church in Gdansk; available in English).

The Last Judgment, Triptych by Hans Memling

The Last Judgment by Hans Memling

Hans Memling isn't Hieronymus Bosch but he was absolutely one of the best primitives of his time.
And his altars still are the precious of some Gothic Churches. The triptych The Last Judgement belonged a long time to a Gothic Church in Gdansk. After the Second World War it has been moved to The National Museum in Gdansk. What you see in the Church St. Mary's Church in Gdansk is a copy, a great one.

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Gothic Cathedrals and dragons

I love Gothic Art, especially Gothic Cathedrals. Tomorrow I will post a great post about both of them......it is to late now. Till tomorrow........
For now, the Gothic Cathedral in Polen, Krakow.....

Where to find the best-known works by Hieronymus Bosch

When I was a little girl I promised myself that I would see all the most important museums in the world. (I still have the evidence of it, in my diary) I am 51 as I am writing this and I have to say that I have almost completed my desire! However, there still are a few that I wish to visit. Some of the museums I have visited several times and I will do it again and again. Do I love museums, yes I do. I love to see the original paintings, no copy can compete with the original. I love to see the museum's buildings too; I love to smell the explicit atmosphere of specific museums. They are so diverse, so unique.

But this is not what I wanted to tell you. I want to give you some information about Hieronymus Bosch's works, and where to find them.

The first painting, his best known work "The Garden of Earthly Delights", is to be found in the Prado in Madrid. Museo del Prado is one of my favourite museums, and not only because of the great collection of Hieronymus Bosch, but also because of the great collection of Spanish art of course.

What can you find more from Bosch (fantasy work) in Prado:

• The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things;
  completed in 1485.
  
• Paradise and Hell; painted c.1510. The work consists the left and right panels of a minor triptych based on The Haywain Triptych (also in the Prado).
  

  This painting is part of a series of four, the others are Terrestrial Paradise, Fall of the Damned and Hell.
  

• Copy by a follower of Bosch The Temptation of St. Anthony.
  

The painting The Temptation of St. Anthony currently hangs in the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, in Lisbon

The triptych of the Temptation of St. Anthony
is to be found in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels. One of my favourite museums, too. If you are in Brussels don't forget to visit it. There are some utterly amazing art works hanging on the walls.

The Garden of Earthly Delights is not my favourite work of Bosch though. My preferred painting is without doubt a triptych (from an altar) The Last Judgment created sometime after 1482. This triptych currently resides at the Academie für Bildenden Künste in Vienna. Just saw it again last November spending two weeks with my darling Jim in my darling Vienna.

The other work of Bosch that I really like is the Ascent of the Blessed, painted sometime after 1490. It can be seen in the Palazzo Ducale, in Venice, Italy.

Hell Bosch, Hieronymus

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