I've found a treasurebox of images of the tiny sketches in medieval illuminated manuscript margins. Often called "drolleries" or "grotesques," they are full of fantasy, humor and earthiness. Since the main illustrations generally concern the sacred or the noble, it's as though all the rest of life spilled out to surround them. As it does. The site is Discarding Images. Here's some of the treats to be found:
A cat playing the hurdy-gurdy (be sure and check the link to the "much cuter cat"
And a cat playing the bagpipes
A hare family under the most beautiful sky
A dinky little dog
another dinky dog in a tree
A cross-eyed winged cat
You'll see so much more at this excellent site. Enjoy.
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- curator
- Oregon, United States
- loves: you win if you guessed "pets" and "museums". Also books, art history, travel, British punk, Korean kimchi, bindis, martinis, and other things TBD. I will always make it very clear if a post is sponsored in any way. Drop me a line at thepetmuseum AT gmail.com !
3 comments:
We kinda wonder if the people adding in these things had permission from 'the authorities', or were doing it on the sly.
I always wondered that too...or if the patrons enjoyed looking for the extra little treats in the margins. I wonder if anyone would do such a project today...wouldn't that be marvelous?
It isn't quite the same thing, but back when I was reading Mad magazine, it had similar margin gags strewn throughout the magazine, drawn by a dude named Aragonés.
No idea if he or the magazine still exist. I haven't seen a Mad in a long time. The magazine rack in the corner store has pretty much gone the way of the Smoking section in restaurants.
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