From BibliOdyssey. I’m especially enamoured of the grotesque panel by Matthias Beutler and the two prints by Valentin Sezenius — the angel appearing to a shepherd, and Perseus and Andromeda. Below those on this page is a nice creepy Nativity also by Sezenius, with a shepherd poking the Christ child’s head with a stick and a disembodied head hovering above the manger as disembodied heads do. As curator Anne Puetz at the British Museum remarks, these works by Beutler and Sezenius have an “appearance of chinoiserie avant la lettre”. To my eyes Sezenius in particular is a rather fascinating blender of styles.
Grotesque panel, Matthias Beutler
Angel appearing to a shepherd, Valentn Sezenius
Perseus and Andromeda, Valentin Sezenius
Nativity, Valentin Sezenius
There’s something wonderfully uncomfortable about that Nativity.
It’s like he’s gone out of his way to make it as weird as possible. Baby J is lolling like an odalisque, Mary has witchy hands, the dog and sheep(?) look menacing, and those dead trees with wispy crap hanging off them look like Terry Gilliam put them there. Then again, the kid’s gonna grow up to be a human sacrifice, so perhaps all is as it should be.