Hendrick Hondius... POST FUNERA VITA: AFTER BURIAL, LIFE..1690

Monograms of deceased artists on pyramids: AD (Albrecht Dürer) L (Lucas van Leyden)  MVH (Maarten van Heemskerk) AG (Heinrich Aldegrever) HS (Hans Schäufelein)

POST FUNERA VITA
Pallida Mors omnes petit.  huic parere necesse est.
     Non Color hic ullus, non juvat ullus Honos.
Qui bene vixerunt, horum est POST FUNERA VITA :
     Qui bene pinxerunt vivere Morte puta.
Ad vivum pictis tabulas nova vita paratur.
     Post mortem ut possit vivere quisque parent.

Translation:

Pale death¹ attacks all.  We have to obey it.  No colour or honour is of any help here.  For those who have lived well, there is life after burial. [As for] those who have painted well, consider that they live in death.  A new life is set out in lifelike paintings²: let each set out to be able to live after death.

1.     “pallida mors”: the phrase is from Horace, Odes 1.4.13.

2.    Reading "tabulis" for "tabula".

 

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Ex Libris... Michel Fingesten ... 1937

 this is saved from a while back from journey around my skull one of my  favourite graphic art blogs now 

 50 Watts

Chimera ...print 1905... Edward Okuń (1872-1945)

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Thomas Wright ...bookplate... Eye of Providence 1750

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Eye of Providence from ~ An Original Theory or New Hypothesis of the Universe 1750

“Here we may observe that as the human mind in its imeterial state, has a power of creating both imaginary matter & space so as in a moment to pass from one object to another though at an indefinite distance, so the immortal soul may also with the like facility pass from our state of existence to an other neither of which powers at present appear to be subject to our known ideas of either mater time or space.”  Thomas Wright

This passage seems to be inspired by Robert Fludd’s translation of an ancient hermetic text:
“…command thy soul, what thou pleasest, and it will fly sooner than thou commandest…nothing
will hinder her (not) the wheeling about of the starry orbs, nor yet the bodies of the other stars,
but piercing all these, it passeth quite through…”

Thomas Wright

Jan Svankmajer... Collages... Prodopis 1973

Max Ernst ... Happy Birthday! ...

Absolument ou le Vide a l'Envers 1950

 

 

At Eye Level — Paramyths 1949

Hans Sebald Beham... Fortuna...1541

When in disgrace with Fortune and men's eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featured like him, like him with friends possess'd,
Desiring this man's art, and that man's scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least.
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;
For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

 

Sonnet 29 –William Shakespeare

 

A Rite to Fortuna

previous

 Hans Sebald Behan

Franz von Bayros... Venus...c1900

c 1900

....

These spirits she persuades not, nor deceives,

But none beside escape, so well she weaves

Her unseen toils; nor mortal men, nor gods

Who live secure in their unseen abodes.

She won the soul of him whose fierce delight

Is thunder--first in glory and in might.

And, as she willed, his mighty mind deceiving,

With mortal limbs his deathless limbs inweaving,

Concealed him from his spouse and sister fair,

Whom to wise Saturn ancient Rhea bare.

but in return,

In Venus Jove did soft desire awaken,

That by her own enchantments overtaken,

She might, no more from human union free,

Burn for a nursling of mortality.

For once amid the assembled Deities,

The laughter-loving Venus from her eyes

from

Homer's Hymn To Venus

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Bookplate ... from the library of the masons lodge Zu den drei Cedern...1808

Ex Libris...Jaroslav Dobrovolský... 1931

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Patrick John Larabee...drawing & poem

 
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Janus

An Invokation of the Hidden Light

I call forth to the Eldritch Spirits of the Dark Abyss,

Thee who don the Masks of Earths Gods,

I am Enchanted as a Light in the Dark,

Illuminated Rays ever searching for You.

Fiery Serpent of Wisdom I call forth to You,

Mighty Angel of the Absolute,

O' Sacred King of the Witch-Blood True,

To the Land of Man Thou hast Come as the Leader of the Way,

Let Thine Blessed Radiance impregnate this Red Clay.

I look forward into the Past,

I awaken the Soul of my Ancestor Qayin,

I bring to light the Hidden Wisdom of Midnight's Gods,

O' Gates of mine own Self be open!

O' Light of the Soul,

O' Brilliance of the Spirit,

Forever Shimmering is the Light of the Peacock Angel,

Descending from the Heavens to Earth to Embrace

the Flesh of the Existent.

Wisdom and Truth of the Light I seek,

Ever to be found in the Gnosis of I,

Self-Knowledge of Mine Ever-Changing Ways,

Forever swirling about the Point,

As an Un-Earthed Treasure ever abiding in the Dark.

Sacred Fire of the Most High shine from Within,

Illuminate the Mind of the Wise with the Vision of the Eternal,

O' Secret Light cast by Witches Fire,

O' Secret Light cast by Sorcerer's Pyre,

Burn bright, grow high, forever alight in the Mind's Eye.

Patrick Larabee on Etsy

I am first and foremost a practitioner of the Traditional Witchcraft Mysteries as a Walker of the Lonley Road. My work is concerned with Arte of Magick and Sorcery. Secondly, I am an artist and writer who seeks to bring to light the Mysteries of the Darkness through Image and Word, Rite and Praxis.

 

Patricks Artists page on Facebook

Claude Boutet...Colour spectrum ...1708

Artists were fascinated by Newton’s clear demonstration that light alone was responsible for colour. His most useful idea for artists was his conceptual arrangement of colours around the circumference of a circle, which allowed the painters’ primaries (red, yellow, blue) to be arranged opposite their complementary colors (e.g. red opposite green), as a way of denoting that each complementary would enhance the other’s effect through optical contrast. 

This circular diagram became the model for many color systems of the 18th and 19th centuries. Claude Boutet’s painter’s circle of 1708 was probably the first to be based on Newton’s circle. 

Unable to represent spectral red with any pigment, Boutet substituted two reds – fire-red and crimson – omitting one of Newton’s two blues. To compound the confusion, the colorist evidently misread two of the labels, “orange” and “violet.”

~ from  John Gage ~ Colour and Meaning - Art, Science and Symbolism