Maybe you’re a concept artist or a fantasy illustrator or a set designer. Maybe you’re working on a design for a castle of vampires or a lair of dragon tamers. Anyway, here it is for the taking. The piece is from Siena, Italy, and I found it in on page 395 of an 1887 edition of the Magazine of Art.
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Download the 1887 Magazine of Art from Google Books
18 comments:
Do you know who drew it?
T. Arthur, no, I don't remember seeing a byline. It was probably a wood engraving from a photo or a drawing.
I'm tempted to say wow, that's just what I was looking for. But I must say I'm fascinated, I'll archive it properly and promise to use it.
I have to say by the way, that the amount of knowledge and love you put in your blog and your books is priceless. I cannot describe in words how much you have helped and influenced me. Thank you very much James.
I love stuff like this - Thanks James!
Thanks, I do collect images of this kind of item. I create buildings in miniature, fantasy structures in real 3D.
Another great dragon detail that you might like is that there is a long history of using sheet metal and cast metal dragons on the ends of metal downspouts. An image search with the keywords dragon spout will bring up many examples. But you can start with this lovely one from the Victoria and Albert Museum.
http://www.vam.ac.uk/images/image/29158-popup.html
Oooo... I like! Very cool! :)
It's striking how this piece incorporates some floral elements; leaves and flower blooms, amidst all the scaliness.
Hi James,
This is fantastic! I just adore this kind of decorative detail work that you often see in European architecture, although clearly this is an illustration.
You wrote recently about decorative details in art and architecture, and I meant to post at that time a flickr set that I found about a year ago. Peacay's photostream has many sets of collected prints and illustrations, as well as photographs of exactly this kind of work. It is an amazing resource, lovingly collected by the author of the photostream. (name unknown)
Here is the url to the photo sets:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bibliodyssey/sets/
That's cool. It looks like something I would've written about. Did you see any other cool pictures in that magazine?
oops - I meant to post this url:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lineae/
but the other one is just as great.
Good looking out!
Thanks! I actually did need this:)
Pietro Tacca's fountain in Piazza Santissima Annunziata, Florence.
I like that. Interior draco. I like the folreate tail, rather medieval looking.
Can anyone help me out -- I can't actually download any books from Google books. Is it because I'm not Aymarikkaen?
Bjorn, I'm not sure exactly how the page loads up on your computer, but look for where it says "PDF" above the page window. If you click on that, it should start your computer downloading the whole book.
I own exactly that winged dragon; it is a gilded bronze wall torch holder. Bought it in a flea market.
I own that very same winged dragon; it is a gilded bronze wall torch holder; I bought it in a flea market. Great piece.
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