This is the front cover illustration of Master Flea (from the Tales of Hoffmann) by Friedrich Wilmans, in the Franfurt edition of 1822, from a fairly large set of well-appointed galleries of The Fantastic in Art and Fiction from the library at Cornell. Master Flea, the notes attached to the image helpfully advise, is shown here “in disguise”. Excellent.
The images are given in a range of resolutions, up to an acceptable print version, which is a welcome change from some art sites I could mention. My only cavil (is it even a cavil? hold on a second… “irritating or trivial objection”… yup, it’s a cavil, all right) is that once you drill down to the higher resolution images, there seems to be no way to navigate directly to the next (or indeed, previous) high resolution image in the stack… actually, now I’ve revisited the site to confirm my cavil, I find that in fact, the graphic-intensive and distinctly dated page navigation of the site is pretty sucky altogether, but the pictures are fantas… oh, you got that part.
(via Further)
Yet another reason I consistently check this blog. Wowsers. So glad you linked yourself at some point on J-Walk Blog. Do you like Miyazaki films? As an enthusiast myself, it is sometimes difficult to not just blather on about interesting stuff.
Blathering on about interesting stuff is entirely preferable to any other kind of blathering, I tend to think.
Re Miyazaki – I’ve only seen Spirited Away, which I liked. A fan once let me know that there are better (and stranger) movies than that one. Recommendations most welcome.
So, Curtis, do you blog? Since you haven’t left a link in any of your comments, I’m guessing not, but maybe you’re just being modest…
My favorites I guess are Castle in the Sky and Totoro — although Nauusica is maybe more “important” than those two. Pom Poco is the strangest Miyazaki film. There’s a scene where a raccoon warrior uses his scrotum for a parachute.
I don’t blog. I am a blogmmenter.