A Selection of Gorey Art

Looking at the sky

Constellation, in common usage, is a group of stars that appear to form a configuration in the sky; properly speaking, a constellation is a definite region of the sky in which the configuration of stars is contained. Identifiable groupings of bright stars have been recognized and named since ancient times, the names corresponding to mythological figures (e.g., Perseus, Andromeda, Hercules, Orion), animals (e.g., Leo the Lion, Cygnus the Swan, Draco the Dragon), or objects (e.g., Libra the Balance, Corona the Crown). Ptolemy listed 48 constellations in his Almagest (2d cent. A.D.).

As systematic observations were extended to the entire southern sky from the 17th cent. on, more constellations were added to the list by J. Bayer, N. L. de Lacaille, and others. The final list consists of 88 constellations, each associated with a definite region of the sky. Thus, the entire celestial sphere celestial sphere, imaginary sphere of infinite radius with the earth at its center. It is used for describing the positions and motions of stars and other objects.

The sky is divided according to a plan prepared by Eugene Delporte, with the boundaries fixed by international agreement in 1930, along lines of right ascension right ascension, in astronomy, one of the coordinates in the equatorial coordinate system.

Valerie & Her Week Of Wonders

I blogged about this film on my main page (A Clockwork Door Hinge) but felt compelled to share it with everyone over here as well.

This darkly erotic Czech film chronicles a week in the life of budding young Valerie, who has just gotten her first menstrual period. Not unlike Rosaline in The Company Of Wolves, Valerie descends into a dreamlike fairy tale where lecherous priests attempt to deflower her, ancient vampires try to seduce her and there are lots of doves, lace dresses and flowers to play with.

It comes off rather like a slightly porny Alice In Wonderland and doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but you won't care. The gorgeous gothic visuals are an exquisite feast that you simply must taste!

Contacting the Dead

A seance is an attempt to communicate with spirits.









The famous seance of Harry Houdini was conducted initially by his wife and has been regularly repeated ever since.

Christening

Random Creepy Pic

Creepy Dolls

The Tarot

There are many different theories as to the true origin of the Tarot deck, but the first documented deck was painted in fifteenth century Italy.
Several other early tarot-like sequences of portable art survive to place the Visconti deck in context. Later confusion about the symbolism stems, in part, from the occult decks, which began a process of steadily attributing paganism to it and universalizing the symbolism to the point where the underlying Christian allegory has been somewhat obscured (as, for example, when the Rider-Waite deck of the early Twentieth Century changed "The Pope" to "The Hierophant" and "The Popess" to "The High Priestess").

Tarot cards eventually came to be associated with mysticism and magic. Tarot was not widely adopted by mystics, occultists and secret societies until the 18th and 19th centuries. The relationship between tarot cards and playing cards is well documented. Playing cards first appeared in Christian Europe some time before 1367, the date of the first documented evidence of their existence, a ban on their use, in Bern, Switzerland. Before this, cards had been used for several decades in Islamic Al Andalus. Early European sources describe a deck with typically 52 cards, like a modern deck with no jokers.The 78-card tarot resulted from adding the Fool and 21 trumps to an early 56-card variant (14 cards per suit).

We Have Always Lived In The Castle

"My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I am eighteen years old and I live with my sister Constance. I have often thought that with any luck at all I could have been born a werewolf, because the two middle fingers on both my hands are the same length, but I have had to be content with what I had. I dislike washing myself, and dogs, and noise. I like my sister Constance and Richard Plantegent, and Amanita Phalloides, the death-cup mushroom. Everyone else in my family is dead."

"Merricat," said Connie, "would you like a cup of tea?"

"Oh no," said Merricat, "you'll poison me!"

"Merricat," said Connie, "would you like to go to sleep?

Down in the boneyard, ten feet deep!"

Vintage Erotic Beauty

Prostitution in the Victorian Era

The Victorian period is commonly viewed by people as an era of strict moral severity. However, this is not exactly true. Victorians had a very powerful, if officially repressed, sexual appetite. Add to this the pradox that prostitution was legal, and quickly you begin to see how this problem worked itself out.

Prostitution formed an important part of much of the social and literary fabric of the Victorian world.

The figures for prostitution in the city of London vary, but reasonable estimates place the number between 7,000 (from the Police Dept) to 80,000 (by the Society for the Suppression of Vice)
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One of the reasons that women would go into prostitution was simply because it was very profitable. In an age where feminism and the women's equal rights movement were just beginning to make serious headway, the options available to women were limited. There was factory work. This killed many people. There was the career of governess, but one had to be respectable and educated to break into that career. Domestic duties (ie maids) were possible, but were very low paying. Prostitution, on the other hand, offered a relatively high wage, with easier working conditions and less hours than most other jobs. A night with a virgin could fetch up to 25 pounds. The average wage per year for a skilled worker was 62 pounds. Of course, the virgin thing was a one shot deal, but it would provide the woman with start-up money to get a room, clothing and food. As well, a prostitute was a more socially liberated than other classes of women. Prostitutes could congregate in pubs where 'virtuous' women could not. Some women were taken and trained to cater to high-society tastes. The following is an excerpt from an edition of "Harris's Guide to Covent Garden Ladies," a publication that advertised high-class prostitutes:

"Miss B. Number 18 Old Compton Street, Soho.
This accomplished nymph has just attained her eighteenth year, and fraught with every perfection, enters a volunteer in the field of Venus. She plays on the pianoforte, sings, dances, and is the mistress of every manoeuver in the amorous contest that can enhance the coming pleasure; is of middle stature, fine auburn hair, dark eyes and very inviting countenance, which ever seems to beam delight and love. In bed she is all the heart can wish, or eyes admires every limb is symmetry, every action under cover truly amorous; her price two pounds".

However, it is obvious that life wasn't all rosy for the sex workers. A darker underside to Victorian prostitution existed. There were never enough voluntary prostitutes to fill the extremely high demand. Pimps, almost exclusively men, known as 'bullies', filled this demand by kidnapping young girls, or misleading recently-arrived women from rural areas into entering the sex trade. Many girls who were under the age of consent were forced into prostitution, some by their families, some by the aforementioned bullies. Keep in mind that the age of consent was established in 1861 at 12, and only went up to 16 in 1885. It was highly profitable for a bully to have young children in his brothel. F. Rush, in his 1980 book "The best kept secret: Sexual abuse of children" states the price for a night with a girl under 12 from the upper class was 400 pounds.

The other extremely disturbing aspect to Victorian prostitution was torture. In 1893, C. Edholm wrote for the The Women's Temperance Publishing Association, "Pain became an essential ingredient for pleasurable sex.. .and since the defloration of very young virgins can be excruciating, Victorians were obsessed with a 'defloration mania.' The screams of children became indispensable, shrill torture was the 'essence of delight' and many gentleman would not silence a single note."

In the summer of 1885, the Pall Mall Gazette's editor and investigative reporter, W.T. Stead, published a series of articles called the "Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon," which allegedly exposed these child prostitution rings. It was recieved with such popularity that it printed until the supply of paper ran out, and by the end of the day, copies of it were selling for 12 times their original value. He wrote that

"flogging or birching goes on in brothels to a much greater degree than is generally believed. One of Mrs. Jeffries' [the pimp of the most exclusive brothel in London] rooms was fitted up like a torture chamber... There were rings in the ceiling for hanging women and children up by the wrists, ladders for strapping them down at any angle, as well as the ordinary stretcher to which the victim is fastened so as to be unable to move. The instruments of flaggelation included the ordinary birch, whips, holly branches and wire-thonged cat-o-nine tails."

The last problem with prostitution was the high possibility of venereal disease. The large majority of prostitutes had syphilis before the age of 18. One of the reasons that virgins were so expensive was because they were guaranteed to be VD-free. By 1864, VD was a major problem among soldiers and sailors in the British Army and Navy. In response, the British Congress passes a set of laws called the Contagious Diseases Act which made it possible for police to arrest a prostitute if she was found to have VD. Prostitutes were routinely examined at military bases, if they serviced those bases. Women's group rose up in fury over the Act, which was extremely discriminatory against prostitutes,denying them even basic rights. This, combined with the uproar that the "Maiden Tribute" caused amongst the populace of London led to the establishment of new legislation in 1886, which replaced the Contagious Diseases Act of 1864. The new legislation, entitled the Criminal Law Amendment Act, gave far more protection to children than anything previously, made homosexuality criminal, and provided the basis for prostitution to eventually be made illegal.

(Info taken from everything2.com)

Macabre

Macabre is a quality of certain artistic or literary works, characterized by a grim or ghastly atmosphere. In these works, there is an emphasis on the details and symbols of death. Macabre themes are often preoccupations in the Goth subculture. Themes are usually deliberate.

The etymology of the word "macabre" is uncertain. According to Gaston Paris it first occurs in the form macabre in Jean le Fèvre's Respit de la mort (1376), Je fis de Macabré la danse, and he takes this accented form to be the true one, and traces it in the name of the first painter of the subject. The more usual explanation is based on the Latin name, Machabaeorum chorea (Dance of Maccabees). The seven tortured brothers, with their mother and Eleazar were prominent figures on this hypothesis in the supposed dramatic dialogues.




Other connections have been suggested, as for example with St. Macarius, or Macaire, the hermit, who, according to Vasari, is to be identified with the figure pointing to the decaying corpses in the Pisan Triumph of Death, or with an Arabic word maqaber (مقابر), cemeteries (plural of maqbara). Another claim is that the word "Macabre" comes from the two Hebrew words "מן הקבר " (Min Hakever), meaning "from the grave"

Boreas- 1902 Waterhouse

The reappearance of Waterhouse's Boreas in the saleroom in the mid 1990s caused a sensation as it had been lost for 90 years. Called Boreas after the north wind in Greek mythology, the work shows a young girl in a windswept landscape. In 1904 the Royal Academy notes described the subject as: "In wind-blown draperies of slate-colour and blue, a girl passes through a spring landscape accented by pink blossom and daffodils". Since then, the picture's whereabouts have been unknown and it was referred to as "lost" in Anthony Hobson's 1989 biography of Waterhouse.

The painting was sold for £848,500 ($1,293,962)