The Public Domain Review

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Out on the Town: Magnus Hirschfeld and Berlin’s Third Sex

Tuesday 7 June 2022 at 11:35

Years before the Weimar Republic’s well-chronicled freedoms, the 1904 non-fiction study Berlin’s Third Sex depicted an astonishingly diverse subculture of sexual outlaws in the German capital. James J. Conway introduces a foundational text of queer identity that finds Magnus Hirschfeld — the “Einstein of Sex” — deploying both sentiment and science to move hearts and minds among a broad readership.

Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/out-on-the-town


The Discarnates: Thomas Carlyle in the Spirit-World (1920)

Wednesday 1 June 2022 at 20:38

Over the course of a year, Thomas Carlyle supposedly transmitted this text to Dr. Wm. J. Bryan from beyond the grave.

Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/what-spiritualism-really-is


Portrait of Charlotte du Val d’Ognes (1801)

Thursday 26 May 2022 at 11:17

This portrait, believed to be the work of Marie-Denise Villers, encodes questions of gender and artistry in late-eighteenth century France.

Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/villers-portrait


Fearful Symmetry: Inkblot Books (1859–1915)

Thursday 26 May 2022 at 11:15

Inkblot books were part bestiary, part parlor-game séance, cataloging those creatures that seemed to crawl out of the inkwell with the slightest encouragement.

Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/inkblot-books


Of Angel and Puppet: Klee, Rilke, and the Test of Innocence

Thursday 19 May 2022 at 10:58

Built for his son from the scraps of daily life — matchboxes, beef bones, nutshells, and plaster — Paul Klee’s hand puppets harbour ghosts of human feelings, fragile communications from a world most adults have left behind. Kenneth Gross compares these enchanted objects to angelic figures, in Klee’s artworks and the poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke, helping us dance as well as wrestle with their visions of innocence.

Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/of-angel-and-puppet


Filippo Balbi’s Testa Anatomica (1854)

Tuesday 17 May 2022 at 10:43

Echoing the work of Giuseppe Arcimboldo, a composite head comprised of a tortuous tangle of écorché-like figures.

Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/testa-anatomica


Alexander in the Bathysphere

Thursday 12 May 2022 at 12:29

The story of Alexander the Great descending into the sea in a diving bell has led to diverse visual representations across countries, languages, and centuries.

Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/alexander-bathysphere


Harris’s List of Covent-Garden Ladies (1757–95)

Thursday 12 May 2022 at 12:18

As historical documents, the surviving editions of Harris’s List offer today’s readers a rare glimpse into London's 18th-century sex trade.

Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/harris-list-of-covent-garden-ladies


Petrified Waters: The Artificial Grottoes of the Renaissance and Beyond

Thursday 5 May 2022 at 11:00

Idling alongside the waters of artificial grottoes, visitors found themselves in lush, otherworldly settings, where art and nature, pleasure and peril, and humans and nymphs could, for a time, coexist. Laura Tradii spelunks through the handmade caves of the Italian Renaissance and their reception abroad, illuminating how these curious spaces transformed across the centuries.

Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/petrified-waters


Jan Luyken’s Frontispiece for Osteologia (1680)

Tuesday 3 May 2022 at 13:34

This etching seems to speak to the Enlightenment’s mission to give order to the natural world.

Source: https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/luyken-osteologia