Public domain horror
LightNews LightNews
banner
thevoidishungry.bsky.social
Public domain horror
@thevoidishungry.bsky.social
260 followers 650 following 37 posts
I find images of ghosts, monsters, and demons so you don't have to.

Most of what I share is likely in the public domain, but usage policies vary by organization. Please check the citations and verify independently before using any imagery.
Posts Replies Media Videos
Pinned
thevoidishungry.bsky.social
Public domain horror @thevoidishungry.bsky.social · Feb 24
Hello, I'm Charles! This account is a side project of mine where I wanted to share my love of the public domain and all things eerie and weird.

If you would be interested in checking out my personal account where I post some art and photography follow the link here: @awkwardsmalltalk.bsky.social
thevoidishungry.bsky.social
Goya, Francisco. El aquelarre (The Sabbath of witches). 1797-98, oil on canvas, Lázaro Galdiano Museum, Madrid, Spain.

#sabbat #sabbath #goya #oil #painting #satan #witchcraft
Witches' Sabbath shows Satan, surrounded by a coven of young and aged witches in a moonlit barren landscape. The goat possesses large horns and is crowned by a wreath of oak leaves. On the right, an old crone can be seen holding an extremely starved looking, but apparently still living, infant in her hands, while a younger witch to her right does the same with a healthier looking child, implying they will follow the same fate. The Devil seems to be acting as a sort of priest at an initiation ceremony for the children, although popular superstition at the time believed the Devil often fed on children and human fetuses. The dead body of an infant can be seen discarded to the left, whereas the legs of another can be seen held down with force to the ground by a presumably younger witch in the center foreground. More witches, young and old, can be seen in the background, as well as three dead infants hanging from the neck on a stake to the left. Typical of the imagery of witchcraft, many of the symbols used are inverted. The goat extends his left rather than right hoof toward the child, while the quarter moon faces out of the canvas at the top left corner. In the middle high-ground, a number of bats can be seen flying overhead, their flocking motion echoing the curve of the crescent moon.
March 26, 2025 at 2:34 PM
thevoidishungry.bsky.social
Le Breton, Louis. Images from The Dictionnaire Infernal (Infernal Dictionary) by Jacques Collin de Plancy. 1863, Wikipedia.

#demonology #hell #bookillustrations #publicdomain
The demon Andras. Depiction of the demon Paimon, or Paymon. Ronove as depicted in the Dictionnaire Infernal Marchosias appears as a fire-spitting chimeric wolf with the wings of a griffon and the tail of a serpent.
March 25, 2025 at 2:34 PM
thevoidishungry.bsky.social
Wolgemut, Michael. Dance of Death, leaf from "The Nuremberg Chronicle". 1493, Woodcut and letterpress text, The Met, New York, NY, Bequest of Herbert Mitchell, 2008

#death #skeleton #dancing #woodcut
Dance of Death, leaf from "The Nuremberg Chronicle"
March 24, 2025 at 2:34 PM
thevoidishungry.bsky.social
Images from Surgical anatomy by Joseph Maclise. Project Gutenberg.

#anatomy #medicalhistory #publicdomain #book
Images from Surgical anatomy by Joseph Maclise Images from Surgical anatomy by Joseph Maclise Images from Surgical anatomy by Joseph Maclise Images from Surgical anatomy by Joseph Maclise
March 23, 2025 at 2:34 PM
thevoidishungry.bsky.social
Grien, Hans Baldung. Die Lebensalter und der Tod (The Ages and Death). Between circa 1540 and circa 1543, oil on panel, Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain.

#allegorical #painting #oil #life #death
The Ages and Death (Spanish: Las Edades y la Muerte) is an oil-on-canvas painting created between 1541 and 1544 by the German artist Hans Baldung which is in the collection of the Prado Museum, in Madrid. It is also referred to as "The Ages of Woman and Death". The work is an allegorical painting alluding to the transience of beauty and the fragility of human life. Death with his hourglass and broken lance has already taken the arm of the old woman who is in turn holding on to the younger one. A baby lies sleeping on the ground. In the lower background is a depiction of Hell with above a crucified Christ in a shaft of heavenly light, representing the opposing visions of life after death. The owl at bottom left is a symbol of wisdom warning of the consequences of sin.
March 22, 2025 at 2:34 PM
thevoidishungry.bsky.social
Warren, Johnson & Co. Devils and floating girl, circus stock poster. 1870, woodcut. Library of Congress, Washington DC.

#devils #circus #publicdomain #woman #woodcut
Circus poster shows a woman sleeping in midair with devils below.
March 21, 2025 at 9:34 PM
thevoidishungry.bsky.social
Doré, Gustave. Images from The vision of Hell, purgatory, and paradise by Dante Alighieri. Project Gutenberg.

#dore #bookillustration #publicdomain #hell
Whence heaping woe on woe he hurried off, As one grief stung to madness. But I there Still linger'd to behold the troop, and saw Things, such as I may fear without more proof To tell of, but that conscience makes me firm, The boon companion, who her strong breast-plate Buckles on him, that feels no guilt within And bids him on and fear not. Without doubt I saw, and yet it seems to pass before me, A headless trunk, that even as the rest Of the sad flock pac'd onward. By the hair It bore the sever'd member, lantern-wise Pendent in hand, which look'd at us and said, "Woe's me!" The spirit lighted thus himself, And two there were in one, and one in two. How that may be he knows who ordereth so. When at the bridge's foot direct he stood, His arm aloft he rear'd, thrusting the head Full in our view, that nearer we might hear The words, which thus it utter'd: "Now behold This grievous torment, thou, who breathing go'st To spy the dead; behold if any else Be terrible as this. And that on earth Thou mayst bear tidings of me, know that I Am Bertrand, he of Born, who gave King John The counsel mischievous. Father and son I set at mutual war. For Absalom And David more did not Ahitophel, Spurring them on maliciously to strife. For parting those so closely knit, my brain Parted, alas! I carry from its source, That in this trunk inhabits. Thus the law Of retribution fiercely works in me." More than a hundred spirits, when that they heard, Stood in the foss to mark me, through amazed, Forgetful of their pangs. "Thou, who perchance Shalt shortly view the sun, this warning thou Bear to Dolcino: bid him, if he wish not Here soon to follow me, that with good store Of food he arm him, lest impris'ning snows Yield him a victim to Novara's power, No easy conquest else." With foot uprais'd For stepping, spake Mohammed, on the ground Then fix'd it to depart. Another shade, Pierc'd in the throat, his nostrils mutilate E'en from beneath the eyebrows, and one ear Lopt off, who with the rest through wonder stood Gazing, before the rest advanc'd, and bar'd His wind-pipe, that without was all o'ersmear'd With crimson stain. "O thou!" said 'he, "whom sin Condemns not, and whom erst (unless too near Resemblance do deceive me) I aloft Have seen on Latian ground, call thou to mind Piero of Medicina, if again Returning, thou behold'st the pleasant land That from Vercelli slopes to Mercabo; "And there instruct the twain, whom Fano boasts Her worthiest sons, Guido and Angelo, That if 't is giv'n us here to scan aright The future, they out of life's tenement Shall be cast forth, and whelm'd under the waves Near to Cattolica, through perfidy Of a fell tyrant. 'Twixt the Cyprian isle And Balearic, ne'er hath Neptune seen An injury so foul, by pirates done Or Argive crew of old. That one-ey'd traitor (Whose realm there is a spirit here were fain His eye had still lack'd sight of) them shall bring To conf'rence with him, then so shape his end, That they shall need not 'gainst Focara's wind Offer up vow nor pray'r." I answering thus: "Declare, as thou dost wish that I above May carry tidings of thee, who is he, In whom that sight doth wake such sad remembrance?" Scarcely had his feet Reach'd to the lowest of the bed beneath, When over us the steep they reach'd; but fear In him was none; for that high Providence, Which plac'd them ministers of the fifth foss, Power of departing thence took from them all. Amid this dread exuberance of woe Ran naked spirits wing'd with horrid fear, Nor hope had they of crevice where to hide, Or heliotrope to charm them out of view. With serpents were their hands behind them bound, Which through their reins infix'd the tail and head Twisted in folds before. And lo! on one Near to our side, darted an adder up, And, where the neck is on the shoulders tied, Transpierc'd him. Far more quickly than e'er pen Wrote O or I, he kindled, burn'd, and chang'd To ashes, all pour'd out upon the earth. When there dissolv'd he lay, the dust again Uproll'd spontaneous, and the self-same form Instant resumed. So mighty sages tell, The' Arabian Phoenix, when five hundred years Have well nigh circled, dies, and springs forthwith Renascent. Blade nor herb throughout his life He tastes, but tears of frankincense alone And odorous amomum: swaths of nard And myrrh his funeral shroud. As one that falls, He knows not how, by force demoniac dragg'd To earth, or through obstruction fettering up In chains invisible the powers of man, Who, risen from his trance, gazeth around, Bewilder'd with the monstrous agony He hath endur'd, and wildly staring sighs; So stood aghast the sinner when he rose.
March 21, 2025 at 2:34 PM
thevoidishungry.bsky.social
Bouts, Dieric. De Val van de verdoemden (The Fall of the Damned). c. 1468, oil on panel, Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille, Lille, France.

#oil #painting #triptych #hell
Panel from the Triptych of the Last Judgement. An oil on panel painting by the Early Netherlandish painter Dieric Bouts, completed in 1470. It was produced as the rightmost section of a triptych of a Last Judgment scene commissioned for the town hall of Louvain, Belgium, in 1468. The central panel of the triptych is lost, but the left side panel (or shutter), the Ascension of the Elect, survives along with the Fall of the Damned. The set of images would have drawn narrative inspiration from Genesis 2:10, the Book of Revelation and from the Purgatory of St Patrick, a 14th-century Irish manuscript by Berol telling of Sir Owein's legendary trip to Purgatory. The Fall has been on permanent loan from the Louvre to the Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille, where it has been reunited with the Ascension since 1957.
March 20, 2025 at 2:34 PM
thevoidishungry.bsky.social
Livre de la Vigne nostre Seigneur (End of Time in the Middle Ages: The Vineyard of Our Saviour). c. 1450–1470, parchment, Oxford, Bodleian Library MS. Douce 134

#hell #manuscript #illustrated #french #antichrist
A treatise on Antichrist, the Last Judgement, Heaven and Hell, comprising the final part ('le desrain liure') of a longer text. A treatise on Antichrist, the Last Judgement, Heaven and Hell, comprising the final part ('le desrain liure') of a longer text. A treatise on Antichrist, the Last Judgement, Heaven and Hell, comprising the final part ('le desrain liure') of a longer text. A treatise on Antichrist, the Last Judgement, Heaven and Hell, comprising the final part ('le desrain liure') of a longer text.
March 19, 2025 at 2:34 PM
thevoidishungry.bsky.social
Orazi, Manuel. Astrological & lunar chart / Sorciére; Astrological & lunar chart / Sorciere. 1895, chromolithography, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library, Ithaca, NY.

#lithograph #witchcraft #magic #occultism #publicdomain #skull #bat #owl
Astrological & lunar chart / Sorciére; Astrological & lunar chart / Sorciere. Calendrier Magique.
March 17, 2025 at 2:34 PM
thevoidishungry.bsky.social
Bracquemond, Félix. Untitled (The Dream of the Mogul?). 1886, etching on vellum, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

#dream #monsters #snakes #figures #creatures
Dreamlike scene with a snake/monster and cowering people.
March 16, 2025 at 2:34 PM
thevoidishungry.bsky.social
Bracquemond, Félix. Le haut d'un battant de porte (Birds Nailed to a Barn Door). 1852, etching on laid paper, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

#birds #etching #publicdomain
Le haut d'un battant de porte (Birds Nailed to a Barn Door)
March 15, 2025 at 2:34 PM
thevoidishungry.bsky.social
Painted by Moreland, G.; Engraved by Smith, J.R. A storm in a wild and rocky landscape: lightning flashes while a man drives a a coach and four hourses through the darkness. 1798, mezzotint, Wellcome Collection, London, England.

#storm #lightning #darkness #horses #gloomy
A land storm. Painted by G. Moreland ; Engraved by J.R. Smith, mezzotinto engraver to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales
March 14, 2025 at 2:34 PM
thevoidishungry.bsky.social
Rops, Félicien. A magician in his gothic study conjuring demons: a naked woman appearing from a mirror. 1800-1899, soft-ground etchings, Wellcome Collection, London, England.

#etching #gothic #magic #demon #conjuration #woman
A magician in his gothic study conjuring demons: a naked woman appearing from a mirror. Compendium maleficarum de demonialitate, De viperis. De venenis. Félicien Rops Lettering "Compendium maleficarum de demonialitate. De viperis. De venenis" is the title of the large folio volume held by the magician
March 13, 2025 at 2:34 PM
thevoidishungry.bsky.social
Compendium rarissimum totius Artis Magicae sistematisatae per celeberrimos Artis hujus Magistros. Anno 1057. Noli me tangere (A very rare compendium of the entire Art of Magic...) c.1775, book, Wellcome Collection, London, England.

#demonology #magic #occult #publicdomain
In German and Latin. On white, brown and grey-green paper. The title within an ornamental border in wash, with skulls, skeletons and cross-bones. Illustrated with 31 extraordinary water-colour drawings of demons, and three pages of magical and cabbalistic signs and sigils, etc. At the end the figures are in red, and part of the text is written in white on the grey-green paper. In German and Latin. On white, brown and grey-green paper. The title within an ornamental border in wash, with skulls, skeletons and cross-bones. Illustrated with 31 extraordinary water-colour drawings of demons, and three pages of magical and cabbalistic signs and sigils, etc. At the end the figures are in red, and part of the text is written in white on the grey-green paper. In German and Latin. On white, brown and grey-green paper. The title within an ornamental border in wash, with skulls, skeletons and cross-bones. Illustrated with 31 extraordinary water-colour drawings of demons, and three pages of magical and cabbalistic signs and sigils, etc. At the end the figures are in red, and part of the text is written in white on the grey-green paper. In German and Latin. On white, brown and grey-green paper. The title within an ornamental border in wash, with skulls, skeletons and cross-bones. Illustrated with 31 extraordinary water-colour drawings of demons, and three pages of magical and cabbalistic signs and sigils, etc. At the end the figures are in red, and part of the text is written in white on the grey-green paper.
March 12, 2025 at 2:34 PM
thevoidishungry.bsky.social
Cyprianus, M. L., Clavis Inferni sive magia alba et nigra approbata Metratona (The Key of Hell or White and Black Magic Approved by Metatron). Late 18th century, book, Wellcome Collection, London, England.

#demonology #talismans #magic #occult #star #publicdomain #book
Book. The first leaf is folding. On vellum. Brown velvet binding over wooden boards, rubbed: within gilt stamped leather covers with brass clasp. "Clavis Inferni sive magia alba et nigra approbata Metratona". Illustrated by drawings in gold and colours of magical figures, sigils, diagrams, etc. The date is given as 'MCCCCCCLLXVII' [? 1717], but the script seems to be of the late 18th cent. Book. The first leaf is folding. On vellum. Brown velvet binding over wooden boards, rubbed: within gilt stamped leather covers with brass clasp. "Clavis Inferni sive magia alba et nigra approbata Metratona". Illustrated by drawings in gold and colours of magical figures, sigils, diagrams, etc. The date is given as 'MCCCCCCLLXVII' [? 1717], but the script seems to be of the late 18th cent. Book. The first leaf is folding. On vellum. Brown velvet binding over wooden boards, rubbed: within gilt stamped leather covers with brass clasp. "Clavis Inferni sive magia alba et nigra approbata Metratona". Illustrated by drawings in gold and colours of magical figures, sigils, diagrams, etc. The date is given as 'MCCCCCCLLXVII' [? 1717], but the script seems to be of the late 18th cent. Book. The first leaf is folding. On vellum. Brown velvet binding over wooden boards, rubbed: within gilt stamped leather covers with brass clasp. "Clavis Inferni sive magia alba et nigra approbata Metratona". Illustrated by drawings in gold and colours of magical figures, sigils, diagrams, etc. The date is given as 'MCCCCCCLLXVII' [? 1717], but the script seems to be of the late 18th cent.
March 11, 2025 at 2:34 PM
thevoidishungry.bsky.social
Schongauer, Martin, Temptation of St. Anthony. Between 1450 and 1491, engraving , Library of Congress, Washington DC

#publicdomain #demons #monsters #engraving
Temptation of St. Anthony. Surrounded by demons and monsters.
March 10, 2025 at 2:34 PM
thevoidishungry.bsky.social
Taiso, Yoshitoshi, Rajōmon watanabe no tsuna oni ude kiru no zu (Watanabe no Tsuna cutting the arm of the demon at Rashomon). 188-, woodcut, Library of Congress, Washington DC

#demon #woodcut #Ibaraki #publicdomain #art
Print shows the warrior Watanabe no Tsuna's sword projecting from below the Ibaraki demon clutching a pillar at Rashomon.
March 9, 2025 at 2:34 PM
thevoidishungry.bsky.social
Schäufelein, Hans. The Rich Man in Hell and the Poor Lazarus in Abraham's Lap, from Das Plenarium. 1517, Woodcut (hand-colored) , The Met, New York, NY, Gift of Harry G. Friedman, 1961

#rich #wealthy #theonepercent #wealthinequality #incomeinequality #eattherich #hell #publicdomain
Woodcut of The Rich Man in Hell and the Poor Lazarus in Abraham's Lap, from Das Plenarium
March 8, 2025 at 3:34 PM
thevoidishungry.bsky.social
Ward, James. A Human Skeleton. Undated,
Graphite, brown ink, brown and gray wash on medium, smooth, cream wove paper mounted on medium, slightly textured, beige laid paper, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, New Haven, Connecticut.

#skeleton #stilllife #art #ink #graphite #skull
A Human Skeleton in graphite, brown ink, brown and gray wash on medium, smooth, cream wove paper mounted on medium, slightly textured, beige laid paper
March 7, 2025 at 3:34 PM
thevoidishungry.bsky.social
Saftleven, Cornelis . Monsterlijke heks op een bezem (Monstrous witch on a broom). 1617 - 1681, paper & chalk, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

#witchcraft #chalk #drawing #publicdomain #art
Een naakt vrouwelijk spook, met wapperende haren en staart, vliegt op een bezemsteel. (A naked female ghost, with flowing hair and tail, flies on a broomstick.)
March 6, 2025 at 3:34 PM
thevoidishungry.bsky.social
Woman, seated, facing skeleton symbolizing death. Published 1867, engraving. Library of Congress, Washington DC.

#death #skeleton #engraving #art #dark
Woman, seated, facing skeleton symbolizing death
March 5, 2025 at 3:34 PM
thevoidishungry.bsky.social
Schmolze, Carl Heinrich. Allegorical image of a king surrounded by skulls, a woman surrounded by a garland, with three men below. Published 1864 , Print. Library of Congress, Washington DC.

#skulls #king #queen #poetry #publicdomain #art
Allegorical image of a king surrounded by skulls, a woman surrounded by a garland, with three men below
March 4, 2025 at 3:34 PM
thevoidishungry.bsky.social
Eugène Delacroix, French. Mephistopheles in the Air (Méphistophélès dans les airs), 1828. From Faust. Lithograph. DAC accession number 1944.D1.289.2. Gift of George W. Davison, 1944. Open Access Image from the Davison Art Collection, Wesleyan University.

#faust #literature #night #wings #demon
Mephistopheles in the Air from set of eighteen lithographs with title page Faust
March 3, 2025 at 3:34 PM
thevoidishungry.bsky.social
Calcar, Jan Stephan van . Quarta musculos commonstrantium figura, omnes in posteriori corporis. Published 1543, engraving. Library of Congress, Washington DC.

#anatomy #medical #scientific #illustrations #publicdomain
Anatomical rare view of cadaver standing on skull holding head sections, with bones and musculature keyed to surrounding text.
March 2, 2025 at 3:34 PM