Is It Art Tho?

Happy Festive Season listeners! We've just squeaked in a Christmas-themed episode for you to enjoy before the New Year. This time, we wanted answers to a question that has bothered the IIAT household for some time: what's the deal with Old Man Baby Jesus in early art?  We discover why people couldn't get enough of balding / jacked / eye bags / combover portrayals of the little baby Jesus, via Netflix Christmas specials, some Medieval alchemy, and some strange ideas about animals.  Artworks: Jacopo Bellini - Madonna and Child with Angels (1440s) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jacopo_Bellini_-_The_Madonna_and_Child_with_angels,_6282010.jpg  https://www.meisterdrucke.uk/fine-art-prints/Jacopo-Bellini/712673/Madonna-and-Child,-15th-century,-1926.html Barnaba de Modena - Madonna Breastfeeding Child (active 1361-1383) https://www.agefotostock.com/age/en/details-photo/madonna-breastfeeding-child-by-barnaba-da-modena-active-1361-1383-pisa-museo-nazionale-di-san-matteo-art-museum/DAE-11175251 Unattributed - Madonna and Child, Madonna delle Vergini or Icon from Bitonto (1304) https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/italy-puglia-bari-pinacoteca-provinciale-corrado-giaquinto-news-photo/187388764 Nicola di Maestro Antonio - Mother and Child Enthroned (c 1490) https://collections.artsmia.org/art/2225/madonna-and-child-enthroned-nicola-di-maestro-antonio Pacino di Bonaguida - Details from Tree of Life (1310) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pacino-di-bonaguida-florence-1310-1315.jpg Detail: https://www.akg-images.com/archive/The-tree-of-life-2UMEBMYDJL5QZ.html  Jean Mancel - Illustration from Vie de Nostre Seigneur Jésus Christ (15th C) https://www.pinterest.com/pin/525091637798032930/ Unattributed - The Annunciation, The Holy Monastery of Saint Catherine, Sinai, Egypt (Late 12th C) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icon_of_the_Annunciation,_St._Catherine%27s_Monastery Further reading: https://thedecodinghistory.wordpress.com/2020/11/06/story-behind-why-babies-in-medieval-art-look-like-creepy-adults/ https://blog.artsper.com/en/a-closer-look/history-of-art-ugliest-paintings-of-jesus/ https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/66691/why-do-babies-medieval-paintings-look-so-old-and-scary https://www.thecollector.com/baby-jesus-in-medieval-religious-iconography/ https://wtfarthistory.com/post/7886097565/homunculus-n-a-little-human https://artandtheology.org/tag/homunculus/  

It is the season of the WITCH, baby!!! This time we have a Halloween special for you. From Lilith the OG, via Circe, Hekate and Europe’s early modern Witch Craze, we are giving you a whistle-stop tour of all things witchy and woo woo. Along the way we discuss crow armies, personal taxidermists, and whether Albrecht Dürer was a fan of the Curly Girl Method.  The list of artworks we discuss in order are: The Burney Relief, Old Babylonian 19th-18thC BC: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/W_2003-0718-1 Story of Circe on an Ancient Greek pot, c. 440 BC: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/253627 John Collier, Lilith, 1889: https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/lilith-65854 Albrecht Dürer The Witch, c. 1500: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/391139 Four Witches, 1497: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_E-2-119 Self Portrait, 1500: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-Portrait_(D%C3%BCrer,_Munich)   Hans Baldung Grien The Witches, 1510: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/416796 Bewitched Groom, 1544/45: https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/work-of-art/bewitched-groom Woodcuts  A Rehearsall both Straung and True, of Hainous and Horrible Actes Committed by Elizabeth Stile,1579: https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/witchcraft-pamphlet-a-rehearsal-both-strange-and-true-1579 Title page of Matthew Hopkins’ “A Discovery of Witches”, 1647: http://www.bl.uk/learning/timeline/large107868.html The History of Witches and Wizards in England, 1720: https://wellcomecollection.org/images?query=abkab8tq Daniel Gardner, The Three Witches from Macbeth, 1775: https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw144816/The-Three-Witches-from-Macbeth-Elizabeth-Lamb-Viscountess-Melbourne-Georgiana-Duchess-of-Devonshire-Anne-Seymour-Damer Henry Fuseli Macbeth, Banquo and the Witches, 1793-4: https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/macbeth-banquo-and-the-witches-219771 The Weird Sisters, c. 1783: https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/macbeth-act-i-scene-3-the-weird-sisters-54899 Francisco Goya Witches’ Flight, c. 1798: https://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/art-work/witches-flight/5e44d19d-7cda-472b-b6d8-8868c599d252  Witches’ Sabbath, 1797-8: https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/el-aquelarre/kAFyfuppyHHyBw?hl=en-GB  Truth, Time and History, 1812: https://fundaciongoyaenaragon.es/eng/obra/la-verdad-el-tiempo-y-la-historia/165  Witches’ Sabbath, or The Great He-Goat, 1820-3: https://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/art-work/witches-sabbath-or-the-great-he-goat/09559184-cfeb-48fe-8acc-89b070b64d92 JW Waterhouse, The Magic Circle, 1886: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/waterhouse-the-magic-circle-n01572  Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Lady Lilith, 1866-8: https://emuseum.delart.org/objects/6457/lady-lilith?ctx=7daa5724c2dab253a5696066e15664624303a27d&idx=5  You can follow us on Instagram (@isit_arttho), Facebook (@isitarttho) or Twitter (@isitarttho1) to see the artworks we discuss.  We also did a lot of research for this episode which we weren’t able to fit in, so if you want to get your witch on, check out these articles and other podcast episodes below:  Lilith https://www.learnreligions.com/legend-of-lilith-origins-2076660  https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/people-cultures-in-the-bible/people-in-the-bible/lilith/  Medieval witches https://theconversation.com/the-evolution-of-the-medieval-witch-and-why-shes-usually-a-woman-104861  Gone Medieval, Royal Witches:  https://podfollow.com/gone-medieval/episode/bacf891c71399cabaaec98a5a4f0552e7a85aef9/view  https://www.grunge.com/417990/royalty-who-dabbled-in-witchcraft/  https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/women-making-beer  The Witch Craze You’re Dead To Me (BBC), The Witch Craze: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p07nx05j  https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/woodcuts-and-witches#1-1 https://historycollection.com/12-shocking-beliefs-from-the-malleus-maleficarum-the-witchfinders-guidebook/12/ https://www.bloomsburycollections.com/book/abject-eroticism-in-northern-renaissance-art-the-witches-and-femmes-fatales-of-hans-baldung-grien/foreword [There’s a free sample you can read] Goya: https://stevengambardella.medium.com/the-horror-is-real-51ba933efb5b  JW Waterhouse and Circe: https://www.dailyartmagazine.com/waterhouse-circe/  General witchiness: Art History Babes, Witches Bitches: https://podfollow.com/1123488172/episode/9d1cc1fc0f192c2ad5721e7563390c8b1b0e61f5/view  Art Matters, The Art History of Witches: https://artuk.org/discover/stories/art-matters-podcast-the-art-history-of-witches

Sorry listeners, we’ve left a long gap since our last two episodes… but we’re making up for it with a truly bonkers painting. Oh, you’re in for a treat this time, because we are talking about Hieronymus Bosch’s wackiest of paintings, The Garden of Earthly Delights. It was Augustina’s turn to research this one and she ended up tearing her hair out trying to figure out what was going on. Turns out, most art historians feel the same way. The only thing we definitely know about Bosch is that his art is cray cray.  This episode we’re also treating you to not one, but two Bosch-themed musical interludes. Thank you to composer Jim Spalink for allowing us to play his arrangement of The Butt Music From Hell and to brilliant comedian Harriet Braine (@harrietbraine) for her song based on the painting. We’ll share the painting in all the usual places but for a really in-depth look, try this interactive tour that lets you zoom right in: https://archief.ntr.nl/tuinderlusten/en.html It’s a really dense and interesting piece of work so if you want some further reading / watching, we recommend: Great Art Explained: The Garden of Earthly Delights https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBG621XEegk Renaissance Revolution - The Garden of Earthly Delights (BBC) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yx5M2um7zjM 15 Facts You Need to Know About the Delightfully Weird ‘Garden of Earthly Delights’ https://mymodernmet.com/garden-of-earthly-delights-bosch/ … And some freaky looking owls https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2012/10/bad-news-birds.html    

This episode we cover the life, art and unbelievable drama of the one and only Frida Kahlo. Get ready for sex, gore, love, betrayal, jail, revolutionary communism and for some reason... a monkey. We also meet Ellie's cat Frida, the third podcast member and - probably - Kahlo's feline horcrux.  To view all the paintings in this episode, visit our Instagram (@isit_arttho) or our Facebook page (@isitarttho). Please subscribe and leave us a review if you like what you hear :)