The Public Domain Review

This is just an automatic copy of Public Domain Review blog.

Grotesqueries at Gethsemane: Marcus Gheeraerts’ Passio Verbigenae (ca. 1580)

Wednesday 27 March 2024 at 22:46

A Passion series in which ornamental motifs invade the Christ’s narrative.

Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/passio-verbigenae


A Family Tree: Hippolyte Hodeau’s Trench Art (ca. 1917)

Tuesday 26 March 2024 at 15:44

A form of WWI trench art in which soldiers carved names and images into leaves.

Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/hippolyte-hodeau-trench-art


Little Boney: James Gillray and Napoleon’s Fragile Masculinity

Thursday 21 March 2024 at 14:06

Of all the caricatures of Napoleon Bonaparte, representations of the French emperor as a miniscule megalomaniac continue to haunt the historical imagination to an unparalleled degree. Peter W. Walker searches for the origins of “Little Boney” in the early 19th-century caricatures of James Gillray, the English illustrator who took Napoleon down a peg by diminishing his reputation and scale to the point of absurdity.

Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/little-boney


Tom Seidmann-Freud’s Book of Hare Stories (1924)

Wednesday 20 March 2024 at 16:38

An uncanny collection of folk tales written and illustrated by Sigmund Freud’s niece.

Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/tom-seidmann-freud-hare-tales


Tom Seidmann-Freud’s Book of Hare Stories (1924)

Wednesday 20 March 2024 at 16:38

An uncanny collection of folk tales written by Sigmund Freud’s niece.

Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/rabbit-tales


Flemish Proverbs by Jan Wierix (ca. 1568)

Thursday 14 March 2024 at 15:35

Haunted by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, these visualisations of proverbs look backward to uncertain origins.

Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/wierix-flemish-proverbs


The Art of Sutherland Macdonald, Victorian England’s “Michelangelo of Tattooing” (ca. 1905)

Tuesday 12 March 2024 at 16:14

Photographs of tattoos by Sutherland Macdonald, Victorian England’s first professional tattoo artist.

Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/sutherland-macdonald-tattoos


From Snowdrop to Nightjar: Robert Marsham’s “Indications of Spring” (1789)

Thursday 7 March 2024 at 15:42

What can we learn from observing the progression of spring — a hawthorn’s first flowering, the return of birdsong on a particular day? Hugh Aldersey-Williams explores the lifelong calendrical project of Robert Marsham, the Norfolk naturalist considered Britain's first phenologist.

Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/from-snowdrop-to-nightjar


Maria Sibylla Merian’s Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium (1705)

Wednesday 6 March 2024 at 17:06

Set of spectacular engravings of insects and their floral abodes — one of the first natural histories of Suriname.

Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/merian-metamorphosis


I Also Am Formed Out of the Clay: Animated Putty (1911)

Tuesday 5 March 2024 at 16:34

Britain's first clay animation film imagines a malleable substance spontaneously giving rise to manifold forms.

Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/animated-putty