Treasury Of Fantastic And Mythological Creatures. 1,087 Renderings From Historic Sources

Drawing on 50 centuries of human history, Richard Huber has compiled an encyclopedic collection- undoubtedly the largest copyright-free collection of its kind-of devils, demons, monsters, mythical creatures, fanciful beasts, animal-gods, totemic figures, idols and numerous other supernatural beings - mainly from the darker realms of man's imagination. Spanning many cultures and eras, the collection ranges from prehistoric rock paintings to Max Ernst, from the masks of black Africa to the gargoyles of Notre Dame. Within these parameters exists an enormous range of potent images encompassing the bizarre, the unknown, the spirit world-menacing, nightmarish visions that reflect man's fear of the irrational and the need to give shape and form to his apprehensions. This volume includes over 1,000 renderings of designs from ancient Egypt, Greece, and the Middle East (gods, winged lions, harpies, griffins, satyrs, sirens, the Minotaur, dragons, Medusa, Thoth, etc.). Medleval centuries are represented by a wealth of monsters, demons, centaurs, dragons and other creatures from The Book of KeIls, the Bayeux Tapestry, anonymous Viking artists, and the works of Hieronymus Bosch, Dürer, the Brueghels, Matthias Grünewald, Alart du Hameel, Hubert and/or Jan van Eyck, and others. Global in scope, this vast trove also includes hundreds of non-European images: papier-mâché masks from Latin America, Tibetan tankas (religious paintings), Maori facial tattoos, Nigerian society masks, Oriental nature deities and demons, feathered serpents from pre-Columbian Aztec and Mayan sources, Balinese door knockers, Navajo sand paintings, Hopi kachina dolls and many more. These designs originally embellished a wide variety of objects, articles and materials: earthenware, textiles, paintings, carvings, masks, sculpture, weapons, architecture, murals, tapestries, books and manuscripts, woodcuts, frescoes, engravings, maps, drawings, jewelry, musical instruments-even wallpaper. Richard Huber has rendered them in crisp black-and-white line illustrations, providing artists, illustrators, designers and craftspeople with a huge archive of copyright-free art. Complementing its value as an artistic resource, Treasury of Fantastic and Mythological Creatures also represents an engrossing pictorial chronicle of man's fascination with the irrational, the persistence of myth and legend, and the deeper human unity underlying the varied symbolic creations of different cultures.