Penthesilea
@hansklocker.bsky.social
medievalist / idealist / feminist
Aww, you guys, I went to the Getty and they actually have this guy on view in their lovely exhibition on travel in the Middle Ages! 🐘🐘🐘
November 8, 2025 at 6:52 PM
Aww, you guys, I went to the Getty and they actually have this guy on view in their lovely exhibition on travel in the Middle Ages! 🐘🐘🐘
Putting this here for comparison...I think it's just distorted by perspective, no?
October 3, 2025 at 10:14 PM
Putting this here for comparison...I think it's just distorted by perspective, no?
I mean, back in my day they were too busy chasing the ladies, but I admit I haven't actually been to Paradise lately
July 23, 2025 at 1:00 AM
I mean, back in my day they were too busy chasing the ladies, but I admit I haven't actually been to Paradise lately
That's basically the way medieval people saw it -- here's God creating Adam & Eve, but the three red prongs in the halo are meant to evoke the Cross and remind you that God really is Jesus. (Of course these are also people who imagined centaurs hunting camels in Paradise, so really anything goes)
July 23, 2025 at 12:48 AM
That's basically the way medieval people saw it -- here's God creating Adam & Eve, but the three red prongs in the halo are meant to evoke the Cross and remind you that God really is Jesus. (Of course these are also people who imagined centaurs hunting camels in Paradise, so really anything goes)
Can't believe I know this, but oh well -- Julian is the son of his second marriage, and that age gap isn't so bad, but it's the third marriage from around this time that's borderline illegal.
July 18, 2025 at 9:49 PM
Can't believe I know this, but oh well -- Julian is the son of his second marriage, and that age gap isn't so bad, but it's the third marriage from around this time that's borderline illegal.
Here's another example from the late Middle Ages: the pelican often appears with three chicks at their feet, curling their necks forward to reach their breast; I can imagine the missing part of the Canterbury roof boss might have also included a long, thin neck like this, which would break easily.
July 18, 2025 at 5:06 AM
Here's another example from the late Middle Ages: the pelican often appears with three chicks at their feet, curling their necks forward to reach their breast; I can imagine the missing part of the Canterbury roof boss might have also included a long, thin neck like this, which would break easily.
It's most likely a pelican; they often look a bit like falcons in medieval art. The lore was that they would pierce their own breast to feed the chicks with their blood, which was understood as analogy for Christ's self-sacrifice and the blood of the Eucharist. (Architectural term is a roof boss.)
July 18, 2025 at 5:00 AM
It's most likely a pelican; they often look a bit like falcons in medieval art. The lore was that they would pierce their own breast to feed the chicks with their blood, which was understood as analogy for Christ's self-sacrifice and the blood of the Eucharist. (Architectural term is a roof boss.)
Here's the back cover, which has suffered fairly significant degradation over many centuries, but even so it's a pretty magnificent thing. Shows the dove whispering in the ear of Gregory the Great, which is not a super common iconography but was particularly loved in imperial Ottonian circles.
July 13, 2025 at 7:10 PM
Here's the back cover, which has suffered fairly significant degradation over many centuries, but even so it's a pretty magnificent thing. Shows the dove whispering in the ear of Gregory the Great, which is not a super common iconography but was particularly loved in imperial Ottonian circles.
OMG love the frog 🐸 😍
June 27, 2025 at 7:12 PM
OMG love the frog 🐸 😍
Mediocrities of the world...
June 22, 2025 at 4:14 AM
Mediocrities of the world...
Glad it's not just me! A quick Google search suggests we are supposed to see fol. 10v, which is indeed charming 🐝
May 20, 2025 at 2:52 PM
Glad it's not just me! A quick Google search suggests we are supposed to see fol. 10v, which is indeed charming 🐝
This is all I see...trying to figure out if it's a sad statement on declining bee populations, a painful reminder of the BL's website woes, or perhaps just my phone slowly dying
May 20, 2025 at 12:54 PM
This is all I see...trying to figure out if it's a sad statement on declining bee populations, a painful reminder of the BL's website woes, or perhaps just my phone slowly dying
Here's a photo from where they are standing if it helps orient you...I have made my share of pilgrimages to see this book 👀
April 27, 2025 at 10:00 PM
Here's a photo from where they are standing if it helps orient you...I have made my share of pilgrimages to see this book 👀
Fascism ripened like an avocado - it was always too soon and then it was too late
April 20, 2025 at 12:44 AM
Fascism ripened like an avocado - it was always too soon and then it was too late
Even more incredible when you realize it's from the 1360s, give or take (Unicorn Tapestries are ca. 1500!)
April 9, 2025 at 8:23 PM
Even more incredible when you realize it's from the 1360s, give or take (Unicorn Tapestries are ca. 1500!)
Love how he looks like an actual Plague Doctor coming to see some medieval art 🐦⬛
March 17, 2025 at 6:52 AM
Love how he looks like an actual Plague Doctor coming to see some medieval art 🐦⬛
Just a friendly medieval elephant to brighten your day
🏰🐘⚔️✨
🏰🐘⚔️✨
December 27, 2024 at 9:43 PM
Just a friendly medieval elephant to brighten your day
🏰🐘⚔️✨
🏰🐘⚔️✨
The most obvious is the guy on the left with the hooked nose, but these types of angry faces are all bound up with efforts to demonize Jews and other "outsiders" in 16th century Germany and elsewhere. Sorry to be a killjoy; I really do admire your work and probably should have stayed quiet.
December 20, 2024 at 5:14 PM
The most obvious is the guy on the left with the hooked nose, but these types of angry faces are all bound up with efforts to demonize Jews and other "outsiders" in 16th century Germany and elsewhere. Sorry to be a killjoy; I really do admire your work and probably should have stayed quiet.
Just coming back to share my source; I am not any kind of expert on the numbers here but will never, ever get over the weirdness of someone getting up to a billion dollars and not thinking to themselves "ehhh, okay, I have enough, how about I give the rest of it away to help my fellow humans"
December 20, 2024 at 4:03 AM
Just coming back to share my source; I am not any kind of expert on the numbers here but will never, ever get over the weirdness of someone getting up to a billion dollars and not thinking to themselves "ehhh, okay, I have enough, how about I give the rest of it away to help my fellow humans"
Posting to say I'm not a bot -- I'm a married mom of three working for a great arts nonprofit on the East Coast. I try to be nonpartisan, but I believe in democracy and civil rights, making me a reliable Democratic voter. I don't plan to post much here; I joined to follow the journalists I admire.
November 17, 2024 at 8:24 PM
Posting to say I'm not a bot -- I'm a married mom of three working for a great arts nonprofit on the East Coast. I try to be nonpartisan, but I believe in democracy and civil rights, making me a reliable Democratic voter. I don't plan to post much here; I joined to follow the journalists I admire.