Tag: Mythology

“The impression made on memory will also be such as never afterwards to be obliterated; for the new art of memory is by association, … here the words and the pictures correspond as much as possible.” – Robert John Thornton, Illustrations of the School-Virgil

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from Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes [i]

The title page of Supplement IV: Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes (1976) presents the reader with an unattributed illustration depicting the cyclops Polyphemus and the sea nymph Galatea. The treatment follows the ‘unrequited love’ telling of their story in Theocritus’s 11^th Idyll, [ii] rather than Ovid’s later version in Metamorphoses.[iii]

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from 1,000 Quaint Cuts [iv]

As with Supplement IV, the same illustration is rendered without attribution, caption, or comment in Tuer’s 1886 compilation 1,000 Quaint Cuts. Above is a digital scan of the 1968 reprint of this book which is held at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.[v]

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from Banbury Chap Books [vi]

We find the same illustration reproduced in Pearson’s 1890 collection Banbury Chap Books And Nursery Toy Book Literature. Here, the editor has included a caption reading “Cyclops, from ‘Thorton’s Virgil,’ circa 1810. In the Preface it is stated, Wm. Blake designed, and Branstone engraved the above,” a description misstating critical information, as we will see below.

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from The Strand Magazine, No. 20 [vii]

Finally, in 1892, The Strand Magazine also reproduces the illustration, this time identified as a “representation of Polyphemus, at the entrance to his cave, with cloak, staff, and Pandean pipes. The bold, free drawing of the King of the Cyclops is of the school of Blake, but there are points in the execution which diminish the probability of its being Blake’s actual work.” And which description again, except for accurately naming the cyclops as Polyphemus, perpetuates the misrepresentation.

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Title Page of Thornton’s 1812 School Virgil [viii]

The continuing misrepresentation in various reprints is understandable. Robert John Thornton’s “Virgil” went through three editions, in 1812, 1814, and 1821—and copies are scarce. The title page of the 1812 edition, stereotyped and printed by David Cock and Co., and titled School Virgil, is pictured above. In 1814, Thornton would later publish the supplementary Illustrations of the School-Virgil with F.C. and J. Rivington. That same year he would also publish through Rivington a second edition combining text and illustrations.[ix]

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from The Pastorals of Virgil (1821) [x]; and Poussin’s Landscape with Polyphemus (1649) [xi]

In 1821, Thornton expanded and retitled the work as The Pastorals of Virgil. For this third edition he was able to engage William Blake through a mutual friend for a number of woodcuts and copper-plate engravings, and as designer of some illustrations executed by other hands. It is important to note that prior to this edition, the set of illustrations did not contain any by Blake, who was not engaged with the work until 1820.[xii]

The engraving above, captioned “Illustration of Eclogue I. The Giant Polypheme. From a Famous Picture by N. Poussin. Blake, del. Byfield, sculps.” mirrors Nicolas Poussin’s composition in “Landscape with Polyphemus” (1649).

The Banbury reprint, other than misspelling the names of Thornton and Branston,[xiii] and The Strand both appear to have confused the above ‘engraving by Byfield[xiv] from a drawing by Blake of a figure of Polyphemus by Nicolas Poussin’[xv] with the original illustration of Polypheme below.

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from Illustrations of the School-Virgil (1814) [xvi]

Captioned “The Cyclops, Polypheme” in the original 1814 Rivington print of Illustrations of the School-Virgil, the artist and engraver are still unknown.[xvii]

Several engravers and artists were involved in the set of original illustrations; however, the ‘Polypheme’ engraving does not appear reproduced in other available texts of the time by associated printers and publishers.[xviii]

In any case, where descriptions have accompanied reproductions of the original illustration, they perpetuated the same misrepresentation on down the line, confusing the engraving’s already murky origins.

As an interesting aside, among the artists who persuaded Thornton to include Blake’s unconventional woodblock engravings in the 1821 edition of The Pastorals of Virgil was the renowned English artist, James Ward (1769-1859).[xix]

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“These prints were veritable treasures of learning. One could gaze at them for hours without experiencing any sense of weariness. Profoundly suggestive in reflections, they assisted Des Esseintes in passing many a day when his books failed to charm him.” – J.-K. Huysmans[i]

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Under all manner of constraints and inspiration in the early days of the hobby, TSR, Judges Guild, et. al. commonly made use of old prints and other artwork in their published material. The illustration of Odin pictured above closes out Dungeons & Dragons Supplement IV: Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes (1976).

As with much of the old art which appears in the hobby’s early pages, it is included without formal attribution. We are fortunate enough that the artist’s signature is just legible in the bottom left of the frame as J. Reich après Joh. Gehrts, that is “Jacques Reich after Johannes Gehrts.”

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The printed engraving shown above is that of Johannes Gehrts’ 1883 original, used as the frontispiece of Felix Dahn’s Wahall (1888).

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Jacques Reich, following the original composition, reworked Gehrts’ print as an illustration for Hélène Adeline Guerber’s Myths of Northern Lands (1895). It too is here used as a frontispiece, this time with the familiar centered caption reading “ODIN,” and in the bottom right corner, under the framing, “Frontispiece” between parentheses. This is the version which eventually worked its way onto the final page of Supplement IV.

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Many of the encyclopedias, compendiums, and collections which inspired or provided reference material in the early days lack formal attribution of their sources as well. Little more than a decade after Guerber published Myths of Northern Lands, Sarah Bradish included Reich’s illustration in Old Norse Stories (1900) with a new caption reading “Odin on his Lofty Throne.”

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Perhaps the temporal fame of the original artist was taken for granted; or perhaps the artist’s signature in the illustration was deemed sufficient for a curious reader.[vi] However, the names of artists, their other work, and the sources are often lost along the way. The title page illustration of Supplement IV, for example, is one such piece deserving a post of its own as we recover inspiration from the wellspring of art and literature.

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