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markculham.bsky.social
Mark Culham
@markculham.bsky.social
590 followers 620 following 5K posts
Where the bee sucks, there suck I
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markculham.bsky.social
Another example of Ninian Comper using the same Jan van Eyck Madonna.

St Mary Magdalene Church, Gillingham, Kent
📷 @simoninsuffolk.bsky.social
Comparing a detail of the baby Jesus between a painting and a stained glass window. We can see the baby has been copied, with one hand clutching the top of Mary's dress and the other holding the wrist. Beneath is a bigger detail of Mary holding Jesus which we can see is like the painting in the quoted post.
February 19, 2026 at 8:41 AM
markculham.bsky.social
📷 Louise Dahl-Wolfe Black & white fashion photograph of a model looking at a statue by Brancusi with another of his statues behind her. The background is divided equally in two by a corner of a gallery room that probably has a gap into the next room. A slim tall model with a Brancusi statue behind her on a plinth is on the right looking over to a very large phallic looking statue on the left. The wide circular base of this statue and the tip of it, both break the frame of the central divide of the background. The whole picture is in greys except for the model whose dress is mainly black as is her hair. Her long elegant stance is not unlike a Brancusi statue. She has a rolled up guide in her right hand, the tip of which is against her chin, whilst her right hand is on her hip, teapot style. She is seriously considering this statue.
February 19, 2026 at 8:27 AM
markculham.bsky.social
Ninian Comper used this Annunciation a few times. Mary's book and hands have been swapped over. The angel's leafy tiara comes from an Annunciation by Simone Martini.

Stained glass 📷 Lawrence OP
All Saints Convent Chapel, Oxford
Comparing the hands of the angel from the painting in the quoted post with the same from a stained glass scene. I have also shown most of the stained glass window beneath showing the whole of the Annunciation scene it is clear that Comper is using the painting by Fra Angelico shown in the quoted post.
February 18, 2026 at 9:12 PM
markculham.bsky.social
Ah, Memories! Walking in the hills with a friend throwing dried cow pats at each other, like they were frisbees. I thought we picked this up from William Hogarth but searching just now I can find no mention of it.

This one doesn't look dry enough.
A photograph of a cow oat on grass
February 18, 2026 at 6:58 PM
markculham.bsky.social
A definite maybe, much more than just possible, aha moment. Ninian Comper regularly sourced his imagery from the past, including from Fra Angelico, but then again he was often more precise in his quotes than here. Still.

Stained glass 📷 Ian Wood
All Saints, Maidenhead
Comparing a figure of Mary in a painting with that in stained glass. Generally similar but with lots of different details. I'm interested in the similar way Mary is holding her book open with her thumb and fore finger. I strongly suspect that is beyond coincidence.
February 18, 2026 at 6:06 PM
markculham.bsky.social
What is the late November doing
With the disturbance of the spring
And creatures of the summer heat,
And snowdrops writhing under feet
And hollyhocks that aim too high
Red into grey and tumble down
Late roses filled with early snow?
starcrossed2018.bsky.social Hester L-J @starcrossed2018.bsky.social · 1d
Titania: everything's just so messed up, the weather, the seasons... #MoonMad #SlowShakespeare
www.english.cam.ac.uk/research/slo...
Titania (Pippa Nixon), the changeling boy a babe in arms here, in the 2011 @the-rsc.bsky.social Dream, dir. Nancy Meckler, des. Katrina Lindsay.
A photograph of a play in performance. Half length, dimly lit, a woman with long dark hair is holding a small white bundle like a baby in her arms. She's wearing a dark sleeveless dress and has leaves in her hair. Beside her there's a thin upright with twining flowers and leaves around it, and there are branches silhouetted behind.
February 18, 2026 at 4:10 PM
markculham.bsky.social
I must have silence. This noise, however, is a comparatively innocent one, it is, so to speak, audible only to the ear of the householder. I start my investigations, but I can't find the right place to begin, and though I cut a few trenches I do it at random; naturally that has no effect.
February 18, 2026 at 8:58 AM
markculham.bsky.social
A bit of whimsy from Maarten van Heemskerck.
The engraving by Philips Galle from a Heemskerck design (Rijkmuseum).

Stained glass 📷 Aidan McRae Thomson
St John the Baptist Church, Cherington
Comparing a stained glass scene with that in an engraving. They have the same design. St Mark is sitting down writing in a book with his foot resting on a lion who is asleep.
February 17, 2026 at 7:43 PM
markculham.bsky.social
A painting over a doorway based on the painting in the quoted post showing a man walking up a staircase. The 'doorway' is in Hay-on-Wye.
February 17, 2026 at 4:26 PM
markculham.bsky.social
A collage of a man looking at the picture from the quoted post in an art gallery.
February 17, 2026 at 9:17 AM
markculham.bsky.social
Not quite the End.

AI Mode was unable to identify the painting by Carracci that the stained glass roundel is based on, going from Caravaggio to Rembrandt to Jacopo Pontormo, and so on. Only when I told it, it was by Carracci did it find the painting. It also didn't remember the correct answer.
Comparing a stained glass roundel by George Rogers with a painting by Carracci. Rogers made changes but his Lamentation is clearly based on Carracci.
February 17, 2026 at 8:55 AM
markculham.bsky.social
As before in the quoted post, a Heemskerck design.

All Saints, Chadshunt
📷 Rex Harris
A stained glass scene of the Queen of Sheba kneeling before Solomon.
February 16, 2026 at 8:15 PM
markculham.bsky.social
One of my hobbies is to find the sources of pictures (if they have any) in particular with stained glass. Google is threatening to take over but it still struggles where there is plenty of leading or some interpretation involved.

It can do this.
I asked Google AI model to identify a famous painting from a book illustration with different colours and it did. A woman paddling in water by Rembrandt.
February 16, 2026 at 6:11 PM
markculham.bsky.social
How to Recognise Designers

Lesson 37
Maarten van Heemskerck
A detail from the stained glass in the quoted post showing the exaggeratedly defined buttocks of one of the figures.
February 16, 2026 at 5:38 PM
markculham.bsky.social
A Maarten van Heemskerck design. Engraving by Hieronymus Cock.

Judgement of Solomon

Stained glass 📷 jmc4 - Church Explorer
All Saints, Chadhurst
Comparing a stained glass scene with an engraving. They have the same design. Solomon sitting on his throne with a baby in front of him and two women either side, plus a soldier with his sword drawn.
February 16, 2026 at 5:27 PM
markculham.bsky.social
Crucifixion designed by Jan van der Straet. Engraving by Philips Galle. British Museum.

Stained Glass 📷 Richard Collier
St Laurence, Upwey
Comparing a stained glass scene of the crucifixion with an engraving. The design is the same. It is a triple crucifixion including the two thieves. It's a pretty crowded scene.
February 16, 2026 at 3:53 PM
markculham.bsky.social
And the Lord said to Samuel, Behold, I will do a thing in Israel, at which both the ears of every one that heareth it shall tingle. In that day I will perform against Eli all things which I have spoken concerning his house.
jshellyer.bsky.social Jim Hellyer @jshellyer.bsky.social · 3d
fine early 1960s glass by Brian Thomas at St Michael, Chiswick

In memory of Samuel Manning, Vicar from 1948-59
February 15, 2026 at 9:40 PM
markculham.bsky.social
they gambled for my clothes

📷 jmc4 - Church Explorer
All Saints, Ilkley
A detail from a stained glass window where we see two soldiers playing dice whilst kneeling on a garment.
February 15, 2026 at 5:59 PM
markculham.bsky.social
Pharaoh's chariots and his host hath he cast into the sea: his chosen captains also are drowned in the Red sea.
We see in stained glass fragments of a scene of Pharaoh in his chariot caught in the Red Sea along with other horses and men.
February 14, 2026 at 5:28 PM
markculham.bsky.social
youtu.be/bybUMwCsW0o?...
February 14, 2026 at 8:00 AM
markculham.bsky.social
Peter by Maerten de Vos is hanging out at the bottom of this stained glass scene of the Agony in the Garden.

Engraving by J. Sadeler, designed by Maerten de Vos, Welcome Collection.

Stained glass 📷 Ian Wood
All Saints, Kensington & Chelsea
Comparing a sleeping figure from a stained glass panel with that from an engraving. They are the same. I haven't noticed anything else that's the same between the two. Both have Jesus praying and two further sleeping disciples as soldiers appear in the distance.
February 13, 2026 at 5:43 PM
markculham.bsky.social
Collioure
James Dickson Innes
A painting of a town that can be seen at the end of some rough shrubby land. The town includes the tower featured in the quoted post. Beyond we see the sea and a sky with high clouds and patches of blue.
February 13, 2026 at 8:45 AM
markculham.bsky.social
W. F. Dixon
St Mary's, Painswick

The Carrying of the Cross and Deposition are to the same design as at Tavistock.

📷 Legarius
A large stained glass window with three elongated scenes of Jesus carrying the cross, the Crucifixion and the Deposition. Innovative flat designs for the unusual space of tall thin lights.
February 12, 2026 at 8:51 PM
markculham.bsky.social
The same Annibale Carracci design of the Lamentation that George Rogers tweaked at Malpas, but here the makers look like they've made a pretty exact copy.

St Blaise, Haccombe

📷 jmc4 - Church Explorer
The dead Jesus lies in the lap of a woman who has fainted into the lap of another woman. Behind two further women with arms out.
February 12, 2026 at 8:04 PM
markculham.bsky.social
This time continental stained glass on the continent. The same Maarten van Heemskerck design as at South Ormsby.
Saint Anthony and Saint Catherine's, Liège, Belgium

From the story of Daniel, Bel and the Dragon
📷 Groenling
Stained glass. British Museum description of the corresponding engraving (see quoted post) states, 'the priests eating and drinking in Bel's temple at night; a group of priests, their wives and some children dine at a table and others emerge surreptitiously from under it; the statue of Bel rises above them in the dark room.
February 12, 2026 at 7:40 PM