In English
DE MONSTRORUM AD COLORANDUM ART AND EDITION :KATIUSHKA LOYOLA TEXT AND RESEARCH: IGNACIO CAMPOS 2018
/katukoloresediciones
Prologue Human experience is based upon personal, local, political and religious narratives. Cave paintings are probably the oldest manifestation we can find. Tales, myths and legends with powerful initiatory images; Stories full of fantastic beings and moral teachings colour our life and history. Amidst this collection you’ll find myths immortalized by our foreparents on paintings and engravings. There are humans with animal feats, and animals with human traits. They aren’t (necessarily) on biology texts, neither on official history, but they are definitely part of humanity’s cultural lexicon. They take part in our evolution and storyline. They mostly speak of ourselves and society. Sometimes we need to project our inner world on the outside to examine what would be otherwise hidden. Sea monsters lurking at the bottom of the unconscious mind and a man halfway changed into a bird. Water is emotion, life and death; Air is wind, intelligence and the ethereal. In the bottom of the ocean lie our most repressed and dark secrets; In birds we see our hope of flying away and ascending to a higher realm. We can also use this opportunity to have a look at the role of women in myths and iconographic art. The (so-called) “weaker sex” seems to have an ancient mission to tempt, enchant, or at least be a nuisance for the hero while he searches for a chaste, devote and submissive maid: The sky Sirin lure the defenseless sailor to his doom at the bottom of the sea; Witches hide in caves, escaping the male inquisitor willing to burn them at the slightest provocation; They are healers, goddesses, women of science, all of them debased into monsters, harmless fairies or feeble virginal counterparts for all-mighty (male) divinities.
We have selected stories transcending their origin in oral tradition into the pictorial world. Some of the artwork is obscure or hard to find so, in a ambitious proposal, Katiushka Loyola deprives the images from its primary context, background or colours, as if unveiling the essential in each one, so we can behold some hidden meaning in its semiotic nakedness, and as you go on colouring, you’ll engage in a dialogue, commenting and seeing these monsters under a new light; the light of brand new pigments and filters provided for adults and children alike in the era of globalization and reinterpretation of cultural concepts, redefining gender and social roles.
Ignacio Campos S. Co-Author. Texts and Research Musician and journalist
Sea Monster From the bottom of the ocean, a sickening slippery being approaches. Ugly, scaley; foul and lustful. It’s fingers are webbed and used for swimming, it’s claws are efficient for digging and slashing.
He looks very much like a human being.
Original ilustration: Ullises Aldrovandi,Monstrorum Historia
The Buda Monster “It’s vegetarian, so it raids farm houses to steal bread. Even though rumours have it killing animals, and forcing itself on maids (…) it knows how to run and speak. ” Elena del Río Parra, On the Buda monster
In the olden days it was said that the perfect man should have a long neck and a bird’s beak. This way, food takes longer to reach the stomach, therefore it is better digested. It was also said that a judge would specially benefit from these ornithological feats. The elongated neck allows the heart extra time to think before the words leave the mouth. Others see gluttony and a drunkard extending its maw so it can savour delicacies for a longer time. Original ilustration: Ullises Aldrovandi,Monstrorum Historia
Sorceress Midwives and matrons, oracles and healers, Goddesses and alchemists; Scholars and hermits. Women of power who lived on the verge of the community, they lent their services where they were needed. They knew the art of making potions, filters, spells, chants and skrying into the future. But under the reign of men, women of power become a threat. They were grouped in the term “Witches”, and hunted down as evil temptresses and night hags; sinners and Satanists. The inquisition searches untiringly for these women, burning them for their independence and dangerous knowledge (Knowledge=Power). A wise and intelligent girl is “unGODly”. Fortunately, Witches are still teaching us about the Goddess.
Ictioscrofa from the deep Related to the earth boar, this creatures can be found grubbing around the mud and slime at the abyss under the sea. Some associate it with gluttony and filth, but it is a gentle brute, permanently cleaned by the waters it lives among. His diet is based on prawn and potato skins.
Original ilustration: Ullises Aldrovandi,Monstrorum Historia
Sirin A relative of mermaids. These creatures are half woman and half bird. They come from the Greek lands and tradition, where they are famous for singing and tempting the (defenseless and seducible) hero. Despite its semi human feats, the flying Sirin is brutal when it comes to rip apart and gut the victim after it is distracted, or drowned.
Original ilustration: Hans Thoma
Rooster of the Indies "There cometh a peacock into the stone, filling the whole Aire. It is like the vision called the Universal Peacock, or, rather, like a representation of that vision.� The Vision and the Voice (4th Aethyr.)
The Peacock was a fantastical beast for the XVIIth century Europeans. In the Middle East it was celebrated and included in many mythical stories; For the Yazidi it is a symbol of Melek Taus, a benevolent angel, redeemed after the Fall for hatching the Cosmic Egg from where the Universe was created. It also symbolizes Hera, the Olympian goddess. She commissioned the construction of Argos, a thousand-eyed guardian. But Hermes killed this giant, and the goddess took all of his eyes, embedding them on the tail of the Peacock as a tribute for the deceased but faithful servant. Original ilustration: Ullises Aldrovandi,Monstrorum Historia
Monoceroth
It grows at least a pair of ceroths less tan it’s more reknown cousin, the Triceroth. It comes from an obscure area in the Unicorn family tree. It can only be summoned by an involuntary celibate page on a forest clearing during twilight. It is said about its ceroth that it bestows the ability of speaking with apes.
Original ilustration: Johannes Schenck von Grafenberg, Monstrorum Historia Memorabilis
Hairy woman The Wild Woman it’s a myth derived from a patriarcal society. The woman who runs among wolves is hairy like them, and probably an adept of dark magic. She eats up misogynistic males in one single gulp. She’s proud of her head (and body) of hair, so she combs it on a daily basis using coral made combs, using flowers and aromatic oils to keep it healthy and shiny.
She is very similar to a hairy man.
Original ilustration: Ullises Aldrovandi,Monstrorum Historia
Many-Antlered Deer There are deer spending their lives dwelling on negative thoughts. Envy, hate and resentment towards their neighbors. This thoughts become ossified with the passage of time and repetition; Sharpened by hard feelings, one of this proto-cornus eventually drills it’s way out of the illminded fawn, ending in an inverted trepanation. Even though just one of these osseous protuberances is able to kill the animal, there are records of elder stags exhibiting up to 54 antlers grown in this way. Original ilustration: Ullises Aldrovandi,Monstrorum Historia
Bibliography ALDROVANDI, ULISSE, "Monstrorum Historia". Sumptibus Bibliotecae, 1696. p938. Link https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=AiDXDmBJHcC&hl=es&pg=GBS.PR1
CROWLEY, Aleister. “The Book of Thot”, Samuel Weiser Inc. Londres, Ingalerra. 1995. p285. Del Río Parra, E. (2003). ENTRE HISTORIA Y RELATO: LOS ORÍGENES DE "EL ANIMAL DE HUNGRÍA", DE LOPE DE VEGA. Hispanófila, (139), 49-60. Link http://www.jstor.org/stable/43894937 VON GRAFENBER, Johannes Schenck, “Monstrorum Historia Memorabilis”. Francofurti : Ex officina typographica Matthiae Becker, impensis viduae Theodori de Bry, & duorum eius filiorum. 1609. p154. Link https://ia800502.us.archive.org/11/items/monstroru mhistor00sche/monstrorumhistor00sche.pdf
Learn about history, relax and play!; Colour them, fright and read about any of the medieval critters pouncing at you from the pages of De Monstrorum ad Colorandum. Extraordinary beasts, hybrids, and fantastical beasts dance for your enjoyment. Come this way, and watch them come to life by the power of your own crayons or paint. Come and learn while painting magic itself!