Mysteries of the Lobby Back Hall


MAIN PAGESECTION PAGESITE MAPGLOSSARY

ART OF THE LOBBY BACK HALL
BEAVER SWAMPBOG OAKDECEMBER AFTERNOONMAKAH RETURNING IN THEIR WAR CANOESMALIGNE LAKE, JASPER PARKMIST FANTASY, SAND RIVER, ALGOMAMYSTERIES (CARMICHAEL, MONAHAN) ⎔ OXBOROUGHPLOVERSRED MAPLE


Aside from the Carmichael and Abbetts, there’s also a sketch of possibly some kind of bull/ferret/wolf/something kind of animal being ridden bareback, on the same wall as the sketch of the three lion type heads (see below) (80:53-80:57; 126:54-126:58). I have wondered at times if this could be linked to the Great Famine, Geryon (in his Divine Comedy form), Fenrir, a chimera, the Gaditano Monster, or even a map of Nova Scotia. Whatever the case, I suspect there’s something apocalyptic about it. It hangs across from Makah Returning in Their War Canoes, which we’ll discuss in a bit.

I recently found this image of the apocalypse from a Biblia Paupernum produced around the time of the Great Famine of 1315-1317. This clearly isn’t the right image in the film, but you must admit it’s similar. If the right image is something similar, this could put “famine” across from “war”, and if Wendy is linked to “conquest” and the GREAT PARTY ghost is dead like “death”, this could mean that moment is like a square of four horsemen imagery.

I recently stumbled on some Leonardo da Vinci sketches that resemble both the sketches that line the west wall. I failed to find exact matches, and I don’t want to a big, proper analysis yet. But obviously da Vinci inclusions would be pretty helpful for the golden spiral analysis, not to mention the mirrorform. That said, I’ve looked through around 2000 of the 13,000 journal pages da Vinci ever made, and haven’t seen hide nor hair of anything remotely resembling what you get through Google searches. So it seems unlikely that these are random examples pilfered from some obscure collection.


This is the second last painting to appear for the first time in the film, the last being just ahead of Wendy at the end of this hall, Lawren Harris’ Beaver Swamp.

Also, Michelangelo did studies of clusters of grotesque mask faces which are staggered on the page similarly to this piece. And Michelangelo sounds a bit like Carmichael, who we’ve (probably) just passed. The middle cluster example below is thought to be sketches in preparation for designing the tomb of Pope Julius, which includes a sketch of Hercules.

Still, you’ll easily note how da Vinci used those hard bars of darkness to accentuate the eyes in his straight-on portraits. But, yeah, these could almost be from anyone’s Renaissance sketchbook. I’ve considered Jacques de Gheyn II, Andres Melgar, and Antonio Novelli as well.

And I think it’s likely that the two sketch pieces in the hall are by the same artist, if not closely related ones. And da Vinci did have an affinity for monster sketching.


Next art reference: Makah Returning in Their War Canoes


MAIN PAGESECTION PAGESITE MAPGLOSSARY


OTHER MAIN PAGES FOR SHINING ANALYSIS

THE MIRRORFORMTHE BEATLESTHE RUM AND THE RED
BACKGROUND ARTOVERLOOK PHOTOGRAPHSGOLDEN SPIRALS
PHI GRIDSPATTERNSVIOLENCE AND INDIGENAABSURDITIES
THE STORY ROOMANIMAL SYMBOLSTHE ANNOTATED SHINING

ABOUT EYE SCREAM