sometimes these "drolatic" style drawings were also meant to be literal representations of idioms and other expression of those languages in that point in time, so in a lot of cases the joke completely goes over our heads since we don't know the language and quite possibly the expressions have been lost to time.
@@TheUnkow yeah another style of paintings that weren't medieval but from the renaissance would be "Triumph of Death" by Pieter Bruegel, which has many of these literal representations of idioms.
Modern humor and humans really haven't changed all that much, have we 😅 People should stop freaking out over the "degradation" of modern and especially gen-z humor and surreal memes, it has apparently all happened before 🤷♂️😆
"The Ugly Duchess" is actually thought to be by Leonardo da Vinci, after he made a red chalk sketch made in about c. 1480. Although, the authenticity has been tossed between Da Vinci and Quentin Matsys. The red chalk sketch is signed with Leonardo's signature, but some art historians and archivists have stated that Matsys sent the sketch to Da Vinci, and he just signed it after he received it. Leonardo and Quentin were actually good friends during their lifetimes, and often gave each other different ideas. Another fun fact is that "The Ugly Duchess" inspired Lewis Carroll's illustrations for _Alice's Adventures in Wonderland_ more specifically Lewis's portrayal of The Duchess, in her 15th century horned headdress, decorated with popular Medieval-influenced patterns and flourishes.
Seeing stuff like this makes me think of how similar humor has been over the ages, some modern examples I’d call close to this are the “I’m sorry Jon” Garfield pieces and the deformed and horrific looking wiki how illustrations Can’t wait to see what people think of those in 100 years
idk too much about it but one video i watched talked about jesters, and one of the most famous jesters around those times had a bit where hed twirl a few times, bend over and fart lol. idk how he can fart on command like that lol. point is, farts were still funny back then
This type of humour isn’t weird or even subversive for its time or for our time either. This artwork and it’s commentary amount merely to a silly little picture book with no real deeper meaning.
Love this. Some bloke was probably wondering where he left his sketchbook and suddenly everyone's blown away by this mysterious book of deep policial humor 😂
literally. as an artist i lit always wonder around with a sketchbook and have random doodles, so crazy to see how much someone can read into it. like i don't understand why they are being describes as demons? they just look like jokes and rad doodles
@user-db4gr7ne8l hmmmm maybe your right, these drawings are super cool and detailed. I guess I just put a lot of meaning into my own sketchbooks and I personally didn't feel like calling them deamons was the right thing to do
My two best friends and I did the same thing back in elementary school. Had a whole series of "funny face magazines," that were just pages of absurd portraits and figures. Cool to see that folks don't really change that much over the centuries.
Are "funny face magazines" real things? Or were they just magazines that you thought had funny looking people in them? I'm very interested by your comment. Do you still have the 'magazines' or can they be Googled perchance? (:
@@AlexanderFromTheStarDimension "Magazine" is a bit of a stretched term here haha, they were maybe eight "pages" comprised of silly doodles my friends and I made of imagined characters
@@richardbarbaros5868 Ohhh well that's even better. I loved doodling faces when I was younger too, and would often look to magazines and books for inspiration. Curiosity quenched. 👍
"Bizarre and fantastical creatures" -- looks like when you go to a distant family reunion and within minutes are questioning how you could possibly be related to these people
I've recently been playing Elden Ring, and I immediately connected the varied creatures in the game to the doodles, or drolleries in general. I thought Miyazaki must have been influenced by these drolleries, Bosch, or maybe even the Dreams in his creation of the Souls games. To my surprise, there's actually a recent opinion piece making this connection. It's called "The Boschian Horror of ‘Elden Ring’" - go check it out!
I really love these sort of esoteric topics that would otherwise just end up as a footnote in any other video. Thanks for bringing these types of topics into light!
8:11: I totally get this one. She is sitting in a beer keg, holding a goblet in one hand and a wine jug in the other. But the beer keg is leaking. That means that no matter how much booze she drinks, she will never get drunk enough.
Because youve only been fed what instantiated your pallete, by the way this video is garbage. You should of kniwn that when the first sceptical leap was bound.
It was the “catholic coverup.” They really don’t like their image being smeared and hold LONG time grudges. Think about it, it took them 500 years to forgive Joan of arc when in actuality they owed her a apology..😳😂
I think the image at 8:08 might have been a reference to the women who brewed ale. This book is from, if I recall correctly, the same time as when the witch-hunts started, and the image of an elderly deformed woman over a big vat/barrel was a possibly a very loaded one.
My first thought was the doodle convening the rich and the poor… the creature being inside the barrel being big and ugly because of its greediness and the poor getting its scraps.
@@aquashkhar7351 Though I think your theory is much funnier, I'm not entirely sure the effects of drinking while pregnant/breastfeeding was known to people back then lol
I think it's important to remember how difficult it would be to publish a book in this period. Artists also rarely worked alone, they had Patrons that employed them, so that would be a large factor of the 'whys ' behind them.
Imagine how hard the painter of the ugly duchess laughed when he finished it, or the reaction of the first person he showed it something like "did you finish painting? Can I see? Oh....." Before bursting out into laughter
The Zeno Clash games lift a lot of their character designs from medieval art like this and the works of Bosch. There are several Bosch monsters and creatures in this book that are straight-up copied as NPCs. That demon in the dress with the hooked nose and the sunken eyes is a background character I remember seeing.
I absolutely loved this and haven’t a clue why this is the only video I’ve ever seen on it. I love how someone’s personal drawings are kept and now have a fame of their own. Goes to show that every artist should stick to their craft as who knows how folks will eventually respond to it. Thanks for sharing.
@@GoodBoi1503 Doesn't surprise me. This is a pretty good video that may help you understand why I'm not surprised: "#1 How does mental illness happen? Sin and Demonic Attack" on the channel Jesus Heals Mental Illness.
"The outfit doesn't make the monk"......in Afrikaans we we a similar saying: "Die vere maak nie die voël nie" (Feathers does not make a bird). Always amazes me how close languages really are.
The origin of this specific one is probably from a medieval latin proverb that says "Cucullus non facit monachum", "The hood doesn't make the monk" but it could also be from an XI century italian benedict monk/saint (Saint Anselm of aosta) that said: "Non tonsura facit monachum… sed virtus animi" (pls don't make me translate it) but to be honest, romans (Barba non facit philosophum, "The beard doesn't make the filosofer") , greeks and even more ancient civs all had a similar proverb. It's a worldwide spread proverb.
It’s really how close PEOPLE are lmao. Even with languages that are nothing alike, we still come up with similar phrases, because we have the same experiences.
What’s also relevant is that the pantagruel books were written as indirect critics to their contemporary clerical society, and their author, François Rabelais, was one of many important figures of protestantism
Pick up your cross and follow Jesus! The world is quickly headed for destruction, and sooner or later you will have to sit at the judgement seat and give an account for your actions. Belief in messiah alone is not enough to grant you salvation - Matthew 7:21-23, John 3:3, John 3:36 (ESV is the best translation for John 3:36). Call on the name of Jesus and pray for Him to intervene in your life! - Revelation 3:20. Contemplate how the Roman Empire fulfilled the role of the beast from the sea in Revelation 13. Revelation 17 confirms that it is in fact Rome. From this we can conclude that A) Jesus is the Son of God and can predict the future or make it happen, B) The world leaders/nations/governments etc have been conspiring together for the last 3000+ years going back to Babylon and before, C) History as we know it is fake. You don't really need to speculate once you start a relationship with God tho. Can't get a response from God? Fasting can help increase your perception and prayer can help initiate events. God will ignore you if your prayer does not align with His purpose (James 4:3) or if you are approaching Him when "unclean" (Isaiah 1:15, Isaiah 59:2, Micah 3:4). Stop eating food sacrificed to idols (McDonald's, Wendy's etc) stop glorifying yourself on social media or making other images of yourself (Second Commandment), stop gossiping about other people, stop watching obscene content etc and you should get a response. Have a blessed day!
I'm sure you would have to be from that era to really understand most of the hidden meanings of the doodles. Think of how slang terms or even clothing fashion changes so rapidly. I'm sure there are things that we will never understand in most everything from a time we are so far removed from. But that's the fun and mystery of it all!! Cool video my friend! I never knew of this book, now I'm glad I do.
Ayo, french literature bachelor here So, the book was published under Rabelais’ name, the author of Pentagruel. The book series was an enormous hit, and it’s important to know here that he was using vitriolic humour (renaissance french people liked poop jokes). It’s most likely that he asked someone to draw these monster as in every books, both Pentagruel and Gargantua will face many of them. Rabelais played a lot with body deformations, so it sticks to that in a drawing style. Plus in the books, he makes fun of every part of the society, not only clergemen and nobles, but also farmers and merchants, this granted him the pleasure to be censored, but he received privileges from the king who liked his book and allowed him to print it for 10 years
TH-cam is filled with history content much like this, and so as a viewer, my choice of what to watch usually comes down to whether i like the narrator's voice or not. You have a great voice. Subbed.
I watched your video on Hieronymous Bosch, and then this one; and now I'm subscribed. Thanks for creating and curating such a fun channel - keep up the great work 👏
This is pretty random, but I personally find the backpack figure interesting, in that I’ve come across the strange idea, from people online, that backpacks weren’t invented or used until recently, several times. That there were only satchels and back-mounted wooden frames with bags hung from or equipment tied to them, when I’m pretty sure this an example of a simple backpack, a bag with straps to put both your arms through, which would be obvious to any human trying to carry more than they can hold
I am a Montréalais born and raised so your channel name obviously caught my attention. I'm seriously glad I stopped by, this video was amazing. Cheers!
what a coincidence, im reading gargantua and pantagruel right now. absolutely fantastic read, recommend to anyone whose a fan of classic literature like don quixote. its filled with ribald humor and a lot of visionary/borderline surrealist scenes. a lot of strange creatures too
Wow, this was fantastic. Whenever I think of very old artwork, I think of that classic kind of portraiture of old high status figures of the times. I don't typically think of this type of very fantastical, fictional character design. So this conjures super awesome, curious contemplation. Soo cool. Also, I love this channel! Super happy to have found it!
Kinda like the reverse of the message of "do not judge a book by its cover" because ive never seen anyone say don't judge a book by its cover for negative means, whereas "the outfit doesnt make the monk" is express telling you that fancy clothes and titles dont make someone any more honourable in the eyes of god
@@L0rdOfThePies well not really, monks don’t wear fancy clothes at all, monacal orders often make their members take a vow of poverty, they abandon all their personal property and they don’t wear opulent white or coloured garbs like other members of the clergy (like abbots, bishops, cardinals and the like), but generally plain coarse black, brown, white or grey robes with open sandals, a wooden rosary at the belt, and a shaved head.
@@L0rdOfThePies the phrase is also non religious, it was first used in French in this form in the 13th century in Gargantua, and meant there « do not judge a book by its cover » as OP said. About its older origins, from what I read in French there are 2 sources that may well both play a part: 1. it could be the translation of the Latin formula "barba non facit philosophum" - attributed to Plutarch, this expression means "the beard does not make the philosopher"; 2. François Grimaldi, ancestor of the current reigning family of Monaco, seized the principality in 1297 thanks to a ruse, having disguised himself and his knights as Franciscan monks and sought asylum. They actually took advantage of the night to repeat the Trojan horse trick. In both cases, the explanation is secular - the Church or devout Christians would probably not suggest that there are sinners amongst monks… certainly not the Catholic or Orthodox churches, and Protestants were not established yet at the time.
One thing you didn’t address that I find interesting is how almost all of the illustrations have some form of an exaggerated phallus. It seems to be a hidden but core idea in the social commentary of whatever he’s getting at.
3:21 Historian here, I'm pretty certain this is joking about the fact that at the time, academia was all about knowing the names and "nature" of things, especially in botanics. For instance, there is a letter from a father to his son who wishes that he study well so he can know the name of any plant he points him at during walks. So this demon going all gaga for some ordinary herb on the ground is surely part of the joke, so proud to name out the plant and talking nerd anecdotes about it, so full of his knowledge!
Amazing little book. Love the drawings. Something I noticed, the face with the hook-like nose (4:20) could also be that of an owl. Which would fit nicely with the artist being inspired by Hieronymus Bosch, who also put owls in many of his works.
Good lord you have a soothing voice. You have some of the most fascinating content and your research is incredible but damn it I can't watch you if I'm even a little bit sleepy.
The first time I saw some of these doodles I thought they were definitely aimed at the church and politicians of the day. I've always been more attracted to the art of this period! Good video!
since you mentioned a proverbial interpretation that some of the illustrations might have, i can't help but wonder if some others were meant to personify proverbs as well, like the painting by peter bruegel, but the exact sayings are either obscure or lost to time
I actually have a copy of Gargantuan and Pantagruel that I got for like $1 at a second hand store a while back, so I'm very surprised to see a connection to this unique book here.
These creatures remind me of Japanese Yokai, specifically Tsukumogami, inanimate objects that gain sentience due to neglect (like the famously popular umbrella tsukumogami, kakaobake!)
Jenkins Thanks for the explanation of the Japanese object demons. I've seen some drawings of some of them (e.g. the demon lamps), but I didn't know their origin.
@@dianalindeman1644 Yeah! Its very much based in the Japanese idea that everything has usefulness. If the usefulness of an object isn't being utilized, it'll turn on humans and utilize themselves!
That was a very interesting set of drawings. The fellow who drew them, as you said, had one heck of an imagination. It's too bad we can't figure out the meaning behind them, if in fact there is a meaning. I guess we will never know for sure.
I hope you Will make more! Your voice is great, how you explain and how neutral IT is. I love to learn more from you and I hope you make longer video's like the Bosch video
This reminds me SO much of Luigi Serafini’s deeply encoded “Codex Serafinianus” - and it reminds me even more of the pretty recent, absolutely stunning “All Tomorrows.” Thanks for sharing! ☺️
I love this kind of stuff, it reminds me of when me and my friends were little and we created a compendium of 1000 monsters created by us. I think some of these had satirical meanings or hidden jokes lost to time, but it is also as probable that they just wanted to draw something grotesque for the sake of it, as that is a common trait among many artists too. I mean, imagine if in a couple hundreds years people are gonna analyse the E meme saying it was a social commentary against corporations, influencers and political power because it depicted a fusion between Mark Zuckerberg, Markiplier and Lord Farquaad.
Thanks for making this video! It has been one of my favorites among your works, and finally I managed to get my hands on a brand new edition of this book, which tries to give an interpretation of these drawings using the comments of three authors from the 1800s, Esmangard (probably Honoré de Balzac), Eloi Johanneau, and Richard Lesclide, who first tried to give a name to these doodles by studying the books of Gargantua and Pantagruel and the history of the 16th century. The book I'm reading now was written thanks to the studies of these authors, and in my opinion it gives brilliant interpretations of all the drawings (if you know Italian you should read it too, it's called "Buffe chimere- il libro dei sogni di Pantagruel in cui sono contenute centoventi figure immaginate dal maestro François Rabelais" published by WoM Edizioni ;)
Did these drawings ever have a place in the modern mainstream because I could SWEAR the character furthest left at 0:35 looks so similar to a drawing I did as a kid.
Spot on! It looks like a book of satire on some very specific people or commonly found archetypes of the age. This artist protested in personal amusement of his personal realizations - of what was the actual reality of those who were otherwise regarded as the greats by the one-eyed/half-blind/common-eyed/masses. Now start observing common repetitions between pictures. What's on the head? What's not on the head? What are they holding? What are they doing? Every object, garment, pose and feature corresponds to a certain characteristic of the being (as observed and identified by the artist/author), which if you look closely - repeat between the beings. Great respect for your care in consideration of something that is about 600 years old. Please go on. Show us what you see. We celebrate! :) Here's a key for you, offered with respect. Use if you shall ever need it: 'Age changes. The Being doesn't.'
I'd really love to see a deep dive about how Jesus is depicted in art, especially why a man born in the middle east seems so often depicted as white, but also who decided that Jesus had a beard? Or brown, long hair? Was his appearance ever described in canonical books? I just think it would be really interesting
the long hair is especially mysterious to me as i understand that was a bit of a no-no for men at the time. where and when and *who* did that one come from?
@Erika Wagner Christianity is not a religion for white people, it is a religion for everyone who wants to be a Christian. Christianity as a bloc has in history largely been carried by countries largely made up of white people, yes, but your comment is gross and inaccurate, seeing as there are long and storied histories of Middle Eastern and African Christianity, they just didn't speak English. The histories of every other major world religion have been focused in their birthplace, which is a large part of why their ethnicity matches up with their depictions.
He is depicted as white because the Romans, who were started accepting Christianity, made him look Roman. The long hair and beard was probably to make him look wise and godly like Jupiter or Zues. As far as I'm aware they're no descriptions of Jesus in the Bible except for his revived form which is literally glowing.
First off, He wasn't a "man from the middle east" He was the Christ, the Son of the living God, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity. Get it right or keep His Holy Name out of your mouth. Second, His complexion would have been not unlike the Greeks of that time given that Judea was conquered by the generals of Alexander before the later Roman occupation, leading to some inter-breeding between the Semitic Judeans and Greeks. Third, the most accurate depiction of Jesus Christ is that of the Holy image on the Shroud of Turin, leading one to believe that He would have had olive skin and dark hair, and was not a northern European, but most definitely possessing qualities of southern Europeans and Asia Minor. The beard was a common fashion of the Jews, not some invention of Christiansted pagans as enemies of the Church love to embellish.
the jesus being white is just carried over from medieval art as it progressed with time. back then a lot of the people making art like that hadn't traveled very far from their homeland and therefore hadn't seen very many people who didn't look like them, so they didn't really have a reason to depict him as looking any different than them. and since christianity was the most prominent religion in europe and white people made up the majority of people in europe, you can see how that happened. the reasons for him being depicted that way in this day and age are different but i believe that's how that started. the long hair+beard thing in my opinion was probably a misinterpretation of the bible by people of the time. there were men in israel known as nazarites who had taken the nazarite vow, and part of that vow was never shaving their hair or beard. jesus grew up in the town of nazareth, and was known and called jesus of nazareth by people of the time, but he wasn't actually a nazarite, as he was born in bethlehem, and i don't think that the nazarite vow extended to everyone living in nazareth anyway
When I look at the "bizarre and fantastical creatures" inside the "demon doodle" notebook, I only think of that one creature that sounds like this... _"ME HOY MINOY!"_
I've always heard it pronounced "Pant-a-grool", but "Paentag-ru-ehl" does make more sense linguistically. I'm assuming it's based on a Hebrew name, since the suffix "-el" refers to God/ of God. E.g. Michael, Raphael, etc.
In Rebelais' novel, he explains that Panta in Greek is worth the same as saying "everything", and gruel in the arabic language is "thirsty", wanting to infer that at the time of his birth the people were totally thirsty.
I’ve also seen doodles referred to as “marginalia” and specifically associated with folk art. Your comment about these drawings as political cartoons is pretty accurate I think!
Before you mentioned dreams and “political cartoons” I muttered to myself “these are the people I see in my dreams” pretty trippy when you revealed where the drawings came from
As someone with heavy Huguenot ancestry, it's pretty interesting to see the conflict encapsulated in such a cool artistic way rather than "just" more realistic paintings about the massacres. It makes it easier to get into the mindset of how they viewed the Catholics and their hypocrisy, rather than just having you view the conflict as an outside observer.
I’ll sometimes just draw shit like this in class, my friends occasionally joining in. There’s something really comical about doodling figures with horrible proportions and getting a rise out of people
I looked up Desprez and he widely seems to be thought of as the author of the book. I looked at some of his stuff and it is pretty damn similar. Thanks for bringing up the subject because I uploaded one of the pictures from his book and used it as my home screen wallpaper.
Whats impressive here is it was drawn back in 15th century. The details amuses my eyes, feelings that it was drawn by a woman at her 18-20's, alone in their hut with loneliness, alone
sometimes these "drolatic" style drawings were also meant to be literal representations of idioms and other expression of those languages in that point in time, so in a lot of cases the joke completely goes over our heads since we don't know the language and quite possibly the expressions have been lost to time.
And that is why some people have easier time understanding some art than others.
@@TheUnkow yeah another style of paintings that weren't medieval but from the renaissance would be "Triumph of Death" by Pieter Bruegel, which has many of these literal representations of idioms.
Huhhhh
nice
Art ryhmes with fart
Don't let that one go over your head
Imagine flipping through the pages of this thing with your friends back in the 1500’s going “that’s u” and “mood”
Modern humor and humans really haven't changed all that much, have we 😅
People should stop freaking out over the "degradation" of modern and especially gen-z humor and surreal memes, it has apparently all happened before 🤷♂️😆
The more things change the more the stay the same XD
"Lit"
Wtf are you trying to say??? Speak English
Oh god how annoying
These demon doodles could serve to make one hell of a tattoo.
I think this with almost every vid
Bdum tssst
I actually have one. I have that weird little guy in the hood and the dress on the first page. Got it about 3 years ago.
i might get one in the near future
Yea thinking about the same, and maybe i got my next one 'cause of this 😅
"The Ugly Duchess" is actually thought to be by Leonardo da Vinci, after he made a red chalk sketch made in about c. 1480. Although, the authenticity has been tossed between Da Vinci and Quentin Matsys. The red chalk sketch is signed with Leonardo's signature, but some art historians and archivists have stated that Matsys sent the sketch to Da Vinci, and he just signed it after he received it. Leonardo and Quentin were actually good friends during their lifetimes, and often gave each other different ideas. Another fun fact is that "The Ugly Duchess" inspired Lewis Carroll's illustrations for _Alice's Adventures in Wonderland_ more specifically Lewis's portrayal of The Duchess, in her 15th century horned headdress, decorated with popular Medieval-influenced patterns and flourishes.
@King Mob You're very welcome!
Hear me out though ......lol
John Tenniel did the illustrations for Lewis Carroll's books.
My gran told me no matter what you’re told, da vinci was black
@@Man_fay_the_Bru Oh? Well that's an interesting take on things
Seeing stuff like this makes me think of how similar humor has been over the ages, some modern examples I’d call close to this are the “I’m sorry Jon” Garfield pieces and the deformed and horrific looking wiki how illustrations
Can’t wait to see what people think of those in 100 years
gorefield
imagine those historian when seeing our deep fried memes
When you realize that going back 2000 years is only 100 generations at most, you'll see that we haven't evolved at all since those times.
Great comment lol! In today's age Banana Cat / Apple Cat / Happy Cat memes are my favorite
idk too much about it but one video i watched talked about jesters, and one of the most famous jesters around those times had a bit where hed twirl a few times, bend over and fart lol. idk how he can fart on command like that lol. point is, farts were still funny back then
When ever I see things like this I just think "people think modern humor is weird"
Ngl, I chuckled at the "barrel with a knife"
The more history I learn, the more I realize that humans really haven't changed much in the last few centuries.
A dog walks into a bar.
“I can’t see.”
“I’ll open this one”
@@willowdigger617 A man walks into Electrical.
“I can’t see.”
ඞAmongusඞ
This type of humour isn’t weird or even subversive for its time or for our time either. This artwork and it’s commentary amount merely to a silly little picture book with no real deeper meaning.
All these doodles are so fantastical and curious, I would love to see a animation in this style
Some of the doodles remind me of Over the Garden Wall because of the etching, if you haven't heard of it you should check it out :)
@@dameriznolastname7009 oooh, cool. Thank you!
@@Nekolaws ur welcome ^^
Felix Colgrave has a very unique style reminding me of this as well
@@dameriznolastname7009 was going to suggest this, it's one of my favorite shows
A medieval peasant looks at this book:
Hoho heavens, this is very funny
lmaooo
Ruhly captures Umpuhrieal Feudalism init?
Hoho Ben? ..no.
That’s my reaction too
Memes
Love this. Some bloke was probably wondering where he left his sketchbook and suddenly everyone's blown away by this mysterious book of deep policial humor 😂
literally. as an artist i lit always wonder around with a sketchbook and have random doodles, so crazy to see how much someone can read into it. like i don't understand why they are being describes as demons? they just look like jokes and rad doodles
@user-db4gr7ne8l well perhaps your right, these are very cool and interesting drawings. I guess I just have quite dope sketchbooks :)
@user-db4gr7ne8l hmmmm maybe your right, these drawings are super cool and detailed. I guess I just put a lot of meaning into my own sketchbooks and I personally didn't feel like calling them deamons was the right thing to do
My two best friends and I did the same thing back in elementary school. Had a whole series of "funny face magazines," that were just pages of absurd portraits and figures.
Cool to see that folks don't really change that much over the centuries.
Are "funny face magazines" real things? Or were they just magazines that you thought had funny looking people in them?
I'm very interested by your comment. Do you still have the 'magazines' or can they be Googled perchance? (:
@@AlexanderFromTheStarDimension "Magazine" is a bit of a stretched term here haha, they were maybe eight "pages" comprised of silly doodles my friends and I made of imagined characters
@@richardbarbaros5868 Ohhh well that's even better. I loved doodling faces when I was younger too, and would often look to magazines and books for inspiration. Curiosity quenched. 👍
"Bizarre and fantastical creatures" -- looks like when you go to a distant family reunion and within minutes are questioning how you could possibly be related to these people
You win the comment of the day 👏
You have bad relationships with your family so funny and related to the video 😂
@RobbyLAVA 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
R/rareinsults
OH FR
I've recently been playing Elden Ring, and I immediately connected the varied creatures in the game to the doodles, or drolleries in general. I thought Miyazaki must have been influenced by these drolleries, Bosch, or maybe even the Dreams in his creation of the Souls games. To my surprise, there's actually a recent opinion piece making this connection. It's called "The Boschian Horror of ‘Elden Ring’" - go check it out!
Came here to say this
Someone has the link? I cant find it
@@sara-hc3oq TH-cam is fickle with links. It's by Gareth Damian Martin on ArtReview
@@buck-pucker yess I found it thank you !
45 seconds into the video and I scroll down to see if anyone else connected Elden Ring
I really love these sort of esoteric topics that would otherwise just end up as a footnote in any other video. Thanks for bringing these types of topics into light!
Agreed
Ecsmkmmm
H hi bbn..
...
I
@@laykantheealien5722 hi
8:11: I totally get this one. She is sitting in a beer keg, holding a goblet in one hand and a wine jug in the other. But the beer keg is leaking. That means that no matter how much booze she drinks, she will never get drunk enough.
Idk man.....you can get pretty drunk off wine
@@Ac3Mustang not drunk enough for what this woman wants
At least, that's OP's implication, I believe
i wonder what the little people drinking the leaks signify
Trickle Down Economics 😁
Babylon the great
I'm so amazed by old art... It seems impossible that humans could paint such masterpieces so perfectly
The character progression in this manga is insane.
How the hell did I get this far in life, a medieval enthusiast with an Art History background, and have never heard of this! Holy shit thank you!
ikr!
Go to a Piranesi prison
I wonder if William Steig saw these before his The Lonely Ones came out.
Because youve only been fed what instantiated your pallete, by the way this video is garbage.
You should of kniwn that when the first sceptical leap was bound.
It was the “catholic coverup.”
They really don’t like their image being smeared and hold LONG time grudges.
Think about it, it took them 500 years to forgive Joan of arc when in actuality they owed her a apology..😳😂
I think the image at 8:08 might have been a reference to the women who brewed ale. This book is from, if I recall correctly, the same time as when the witch-hunts started, and the image of an elderly deformed woman over a big vat/barrel was a possibly a very loaded one.
My first thought was the doodle convening the rich and the poor… the creature being inside the barrel being big and ugly because of its greediness and the poor getting its scraps.
@@AtPeace541 that was my thought as well. the noblewoman drinking from two goblets and the peasants get the used bathwater
Ok your guesses are much better than mine, I thought it was a warning for women not to drink alcohol during pregnancy or while breastfeeding.
@@aquashkhar7351 Though I think your theory is much funnier, I'm not entirely sure the effects of drinking while pregnant/breastfeeding was known to people back then lol
Plus the hands are holding different objects and hand gestures. Plus the plant types. Someone who knows tarot symbolism would have some clues
I think it's important to remember how difficult it would be to publish a book in this period. Artists also rarely worked alone, they had Patrons that employed them, so that would be a large factor of the 'whys ' behind them.
I don't know. The fact that Francois Desprez was a close collaborator (almost co-owner) of the publisher of this book may have helped...
Imagine how hard the painter of the ugly duchess laughed when he finished it, or the reaction of the first person he showed it something like "did you finish painting? Can I see? Oh....." Before bursting out into laughter
This video inspired me to draw again.
The cross hatching is amazing.
Same here, I even got myself a small copy of the book so I could reference it better!
If you closely, these are incredible pen and ink drawings. And, yes, the cross hatching is so well done. :) 🌷🌱 7:25
7:51 a bell on bare shrub branches holding it up - with! a Humpty Dumpty figure stuck in it. LOL 🌷🌱😮
The very definition of "you had to be there"
😂🤣
I think it’d be kinda neat to see someone try to make 3d models of theses weird little creatures…
It'd be amazing
well i suddenly want to try that
@@shoeling DO IIIIIIIT
I'm gonna make realistic Photoshop compositions of these
The Zeno Clash games lift a lot of their character designs from medieval art like this and the works of Bosch. There are several Bosch monsters and creatures in this book that are straight-up copied as NPCs. That demon in the dress with the hooked nose and the sunken eyes is a background character I remember seeing.
Man these demon doodles seriously aged well, it feels no different than our current time.
I absolutely loved this and haven’t a clue why this is the only video I’ve ever seen on it. I love how someone’s personal drawings are kept and now have a fame of their own. Goes to show that every artist should stick to their craft as who knows how folks will eventually respond to it. Thanks for sharing.
It's like a Nightmare Pokedex. I'm partial towards Roach Legman.
There was actually a medieval cover of the PC theme hehe
And one of the characters is *obviously* Strong Mad.
I smell a romhack
Sounds like a great game. Nightmare creature/demons in a nightmare world. Breath of the wild type of exploration.
I like that little shy dude in the ghost hood who won't show his face it's just got a snoot. Spooky Snoot Proto-Shy-Guy.
“The Demon Doodles” will be the name of my first metal album.
Hello habie147
Look up rudimentary peni, punk band who had a member with scizoaffective disorder that drew all their album covers. Interesting images
@@GoodBoi1503 Doesn't surprise me. This is a pretty good video that may help you understand why I'm not surprised: "#1 How does mental illness happen? Sin and Demonic Attack" on the channel Jesus Heals Mental Illness.
"The outfit doesn't make the monk"......in Afrikaans we we a similar saying: "Die vere maak nie die voël nie" (Feathers does not make a bird). Always amazes me how close languages really are.
The origin of this specific one is probably from a medieval latin proverb that says "Cucullus non facit monachum", "The hood doesn't make the monk" but it could also be from an XI century italian benedict monk/saint (Saint Anselm of aosta) that said: "Non tonsura facit monachum… sed virtus animi" (pls don't make me translate it) but to be honest, romans (Barba non facit philosophum, "The beard doesn't make the filosofer") , greeks and even more ancient civs all had a similar proverb. It's a worldwide spread proverb.
But feathers are al major description of birds...
@@natsusatsujinki8342 thanks, we'd be lost without you
It’s really how close PEOPLE are lmao. Even with languages that are nothing alike, we still come up with similar phrases, because we have the same experiences.
People always want to communicate similar ideas, what amazes me is the sheer variety of ways we’ve made to say the same things.
You nailed with this one!
Make more on medieval obscure art please.
Channels like this are why TH-cam is an amazing resource.
What’s also relevant is that the pantagruel books were written as indirect critics to their contemporary clerical society, and their author, François Rabelais, was one of many important figures of protestantism
Pick up your cross and follow Jesus! The world is quickly headed for destruction, and sooner or later you will have to sit at the judgement seat and give an account for your actions. Belief in messiah alone is not enough to grant you salvation - Matthew 7:21-23, John 3:3, John 3:36 (ESV is the best translation for John 3:36). Call on the name of Jesus and pray for Him to intervene in your life! - Revelation 3:20.
Contemplate how the Roman Empire fulfilled the role of the beast from the sea in Revelation 13. Revelation 17 confirms that it is in fact Rome. From this we can conclude that A) Jesus is the Son of God and can predict the future or make it happen, B) The world leaders/nations/governments etc have been conspiring together for the last 3000+ years going back to Babylon and before, C) History as we know it is fake. You don't really need to speculate once you start a relationship with God tho.
Can't get a response from God? Fasting can help increase your perception and prayer can help initiate events. God will ignore you if your prayer does not align with His purpose (James 4:3) or if you are approaching Him when "unclean" (Isaiah 1:15, Isaiah 59:2, Micah 3:4). Stop eating food sacrificed to idols (McDonald's, Wendy's etc) stop glorifying yourself on social media or making other images of yourself (Second Commandment), stop gossiping about other people, stop watching obscene content etc and you should get a response. Have a blessed day!
Hochelaga, you are always bringing new and unknown things for us to see! Thank you!
I remember drawing a "monster book" as a child. I drew "mutants" on each page.
Let me guess. They sent you to the school counselor?
@@leafy4142 no? My friends drew similar stuff
@@leafy4142 For me they just said "We'll be praying for you"
57 and still doing those..lol
@@leafy4142 they sent me to the counselor lol
I'm sure you would have to be from that era to really understand most of the hidden meanings of the doodles. Think of how slang terms or even clothing fashion changes so rapidly. I'm sure there are things that we will never understand in most everything from a time we are so far removed from. But that's the fun and mystery of it all!! Cool video my friend! I never knew of this book, now I'm glad I do.
Ayo, french literature bachelor here
So, the book was published under Rabelais’ name, the author of Pentagruel. The book series was an enormous hit, and it’s important to know here that he was using vitriolic humour (renaissance french people liked poop jokes). It’s most likely that he asked someone to draw these monster as in every books, both Pentagruel and Gargantua will face many of them. Rabelais played a lot with body deformations, so it sticks to that in a drawing style. Plus in the books, he makes fun of every part of the society, not only clergemen and nobles, but also farmers and merchants, this granted him the pleasure to be censored, but he received privileges from the king who liked his book and allowed him to print it for 10 years
Loving this "Strange Christian Art" series. Its always so interesting :)
TH-cam is filled with history content much like this, and so as a viewer, my choice of what to watch usually comes down to whether i like the narrator's voice or not. You have a great voice. Subbed.
I've never heard of this book before but I rather like it. The illustrations look like they'd work well on something like playing cards
The doodles are pretty amazing honestly, i love the artstyle so much
I watched your video on Hieronymous Bosch, and then this one; and now I'm subscribed. Thanks for creating and curating such a fun channel - keep up the great work 👏
I love the ODnD Monster Manual ー everyone forgets about the 1565 edition!
Curses! Someone already made this joke! Here’s your like.
@@DimaJeydar I know how you feel!
In 500 years more , the people who find a monster manual would guess the same things as this videos author made ! Lol
These creatures remind me of the ones from Beserk.
_"Ye rolle fyor yon initiative..."_
Thought this said “Demon Noodles” and was very certain of a good time. Hearing demon doodles was almost a let down 😂😂😂
Time to draw some demon noodles for people 500 years from now to find 😆
@@HeyLisaDare will love to see that haha!
yes
thats why i came here too lol
_"Demon Noodles: Keep away from open flame or spark."_
This is pretty random, but I personally find the backpack figure interesting, in that I’ve come across the strange idea, from people online, that backpacks weren’t invented or used until recently, several times.
That there were only satchels and back-mounted wooden frames with bags hung from or equipment tied to them, when I’m pretty sure this an example of a simple backpack, a bag with straps to put both your arms through, which would be obvious to any human trying to carry more than they can hold
I am a Montréalais born and raised so your channel name obviously caught my attention. I'm seriously glad I stopped by, this video was amazing. Cheers!
what a coincidence, im reading gargantua and pantagruel right now. absolutely fantastic read, recommend to anyone whose a fan of classic literature like don quixote. its filled with ribald humor and a lot of visionary/borderline surrealist scenes. a lot of strange creatures too
I love them! Obviously, the demon who seems to have forgotten something is wondering if it left the oven on as it is wearing an oven mitten ^_^
Wow, this was fantastic. Whenever I think of very old artwork, I think of that classic kind of portraiture of old high status figures of the times. I don't typically think of this type of very fantastical, fictional character design. So this conjures super awesome, curious contemplation. Soo cool.
Also, I love this channel! Super happy to have found it!
The cardinal has a cardinal beak. That's top tier humor.
I initially read this as "Demon Noodles of 1565" thinking there was a major snake population explosion in the Renaissance era
SO incredibly interesting. Just flipped through the whole book through the link. Thank you for bringing this to my attention
One of them reminds me of Morshu from Zelda CDI! What a trip and treasure these sketches are haha. Thanks for sharing!
"L'habit ne fait pas le moine" (The outfit doesn't make the monk) means the same as "Do not judge a book by its cover"
Kinda like the reverse of the message of "do not judge a book by its cover" because ive never seen anyone say don't judge a book by its cover for negative means, whereas "the outfit doesnt make the monk" is express telling you that fancy clothes and titles dont make someone any more honourable in the eyes of god
No shit Sherlock
@@L0rdOfThePies well not really, monks don’t wear fancy clothes at all, monacal orders often make their members take a vow of poverty, they abandon all their personal property and they don’t wear opulent white or coloured garbs like other members of the clergy (like abbots, bishops, cardinals and the like), but generally plain coarse black, brown, white or grey robes with open sandals, a wooden rosary at the belt, and a shaved head.
@@L0rdOfThePies the phrase is also non religious, it was first used in French in this form in the 13th century in Gargantua, and meant there « do not judge a book by its cover » as OP said. About its older origins, from what I read in French there are 2 sources that may well both play a part:
1. it could be the translation of the Latin formula "barba non facit philosophum" - attributed to Plutarch, this expression means "the beard does not make the philosopher";
2. François Grimaldi, ancestor of the current reigning family of Monaco, seized the principality in 1297 thanks to a ruse, having disguised himself and his knights as Franciscan monks and sought asylum. They actually took advantage of the night to repeat the Trojan horse trick.
In both cases, the explanation is secular - the Church or devout Christians would probably not suggest that there are sinners amongst monks… certainly not the Catholic or Orthodox churches, and Protestants were not established yet at the time.
@@sps6374 oh cool so how about "your outfits don't dictate your mindset and dedication"?
One thing you didn’t address that I find interesting is how almost all of the illustrations have some form of an exaggerated phallus. It seems to be a hidden but core idea in the social commentary of whatever he’s getting at.
Fr
I just went on Amazon and ordered the coloring book version. Thanks for this video!
3:21 Historian here, I'm pretty certain this is joking about the fact that at the time, academia was all about knowing the names and "nature" of things, especially in botanics. For instance, there is a letter from a father to his son who wishes that he study well so he can know the name of any plant he points him at during walks. So this demon going all gaga for some ordinary herb on the ground is surely part of the joke, so proud to name out the plant and talking nerd anecdotes about it, so full of his knowledge!
Amazing little book. Love the drawings. Something I noticed, the face with the hook-like nose (4:20) could also be that of an owl. Which would fit nicely with the artist being inspired by Hieronymus Bosch, who also put owls in many of his works.
Looks to me more like the common mask of Pulcinella, the jester-costumed character from some italian operas.
I wonder WHO it could be 😊😂
Or the people you can never speak ill will of?
@@joshuaisham3929 109 countries had enough over time these are memes lol
Good lord you have a soothing voice. You have some of the most fascinating content and your research is incredible but damn it I can't watch you if I'm even a little bit sleepy.
never stop making videos!!! love every video you’ve made
The first time I saw some of these doodles I thought they were definitely aimed at the church and politicians of the day. I've always been more attracted to the art of this period! Good video!
I misread the title and wondered how weird medieval ramen noodles could possibly be
since you mentioned a proverbial interpretation that some of the illustrations might have, i can't help but wonder if some others were meant to personify proverbs as well, like the painting by peter bruegel, but the exact sayings are either obscure or lost to time
These are so intriguing, I've never seen these before. Great work, as always!!
Please keep this up. Your channel and videos are so amazing. Thank you!
This is dope!!! Thank you so much for calling my attention to this, instantly subscribed!
I actually have a copy of Gargantuan and Pantagruel that I got for like $1 at a second hand store a while back, so I'm very surprised to see a connection to this unique book here.
These creatures remind me of Japanese Yokai, specifically Tsukumogami, inanimate objects that gain sentience due to neglect (like the famously popular umbrella tsukumogami, kakaobake!)
Jenkins Thanks for the explanation of the Japanese object demons. I've seen some drawings of some of them (e.g. the demon lamps), but I didn't know their origin.
@@dianalindeman1644 Yeah! Its very much based in the Japanese idea that everything has usefulness. If the usefulness of an object isn't being utilized, it'll turn on humans and utilize themselves!
wouldnt it be the other way around
The Great Yokai War is a great Takashi Miike movie. And probably his only PG-13 one by my reckoning.
@@jenkinsjrjenkins That's a weirdly wholesome sentiment!
These are some of my favorite drawings I’ve seen in a long time. Really interesting stuff!
That was a very interesting set of drawings. The fellow who drew them, as you said, had one heck of an imagination. It's too bad we can't figure out the meaning behind them, if in fact there is a meaning. I guess we will never know for sure.
I just discovered your channel and I love it a lot. I found a new channel to watch on my relaxation time.
What a beautiful tiny insight into the past and how creativity was expressed.
Not so different to nowadays one might conclude.
Thanks a lot !
I hope you Will make more! Your voice is great, how you explain and how neutral IT is. I love to learn more from you and I hope you make longer video's like the Bosch video
hello from indonesia 🇮🇩
im always in awe of the content you produced, it’s so high quality ✨
hope you get many many more subs!
This reminds me SO much of Luigi Serafini’s deeply encoded “Codex Serafinianus” - and it reminds me even more of the pretty recent, absolutely stunning “All Tomorrows.” Thanks for sharing! ☺️
I love this kind of stuff, it reminds me of when me and my friends were little and we created a compendium of 1000 monsters created by us.
I think some of these had satirical meanings or hidden jokes lost to time, but it is also as probable that they just wanted to draw something grotesque for the sake of it, as that is a common trait among many artists too.
I mean, imagine if in a couple hundreds years people are gonna analyse the E meme saying it was a social commentary against corporations, influencers and political power because it depicted a fusion between Mark Zuckerberg, Markiplier and Lord Farquaad.
That's the fun of death of the author, you can give art whatever meaning you want.
E
Thanks for making this video! It has been one of my favorites among your works, and finally I managed to get my hands on a brand new edition of this book, which tries to give an interpretation of these drawings using the comments of three authors from the 1800s, Esmangard (probably Honoré de Balzac), Eloi Johanneau, and Richard Lesclide, who first tried to give a name to these doodles by studying the books of Gargantua and Pantagruel and the history of the 16th century. The book I'm reading now was written thanks to the studies of these authors, and in my opinion it gives brilliant interpretations of all the drawings (if you know Italian you should read it too, it's called "Buffe chimere- il libro dei sogni di Pantagruel in cui sono contenute centoventi figure immaginate dal maestro François Rabelais" published by WoM Edizioni ;)
your voice sounds like it could belong to an animated scholarly barn owl. Very soothing
When your about to sleep but hochelaga posted a interesting video
Did these drawings ever have a place in the modern mainstream because I could SWEAR the character furthest left at 0:35 looks so similar to a drawing I did as a kid.
Spot on!
It looks like a book of satire on some very specific people or commonly found archetypes of the age. This artist protested in personal amusement of his personal realizations - of what was the actual reality of those who were otherwise regarded as the greats by the one-eyed/half-blind/common-eyed/masses. Now start observing common repetitions between pictures. What's on the head? What's not on the head? What are they holding? What are they doing? Every object, garment, pose and feature corresponds to a certain characteristic of the being (as observed and identified by the artist/author), which if you look closely - repeat between the beings.
Great respect for your care in consideration of something that is about 600 years old. Please go on. Show us what you see. We celebrate! :)
Here's a key for you, offered with respect. Use if you shall ever need it:
'Age changes. The Being doesn't.'
Great video 👍 Extremely well written!
Very interesting, it seems like the artist could see the essence of someone’s soul & intentions. Therefore he showed people in their true form.
You get my vote! 🤓✅
I'd really love to see a deep dive about how Jesus is depicted in art, especially why a man born in the middle east seems so often depicted as white, but also who decided that Jesus had a beard? Or brown, long hair? Was his appearance ever described in canonical books? I just think it would be really interesting
the long hair is especially mysterious to me as i understand that was a bit of a no-no for men at the time. where and when and *who* did that one come from?
@Erika Wagner Christianity is not a religion for white people, it is a religion for everyone who wants to be a Christian. Christianity as a bloc has in history largely been carried by countries largely made up of white people, yes, but your comment is gross and inaccurate, seeing as there are long and storied histories of Middle Eastern and African Christianity, they just didn't speak English. The histories of every other major world religion have been focused in their birthplace, which is a large part of why their ethnicity matches up with their depictions.
He is depicted as white because the Romans, who were started accepting Christianity, made him look Roman. The long hair and beard was probably to make him look wise and godly like Jupiter or Zues.
As far as I'm aware they're no descriptions of Jesus in the Bible except for his revived form which is literally glowing.
First off, He wasn't a "man from the middle east" He was the Christ, the Son of the living God, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity. Get it right or keep His Holy Name out of your mouth.
Second, His complexion would have been not unlike the Greeks of that time given that Judea was conquered by the generals of Alexander before the later Roman occupation, leading to some inter-breeding between the Semitic Judeans and Greeks.
Third, the most accurate depiction of Jesus Christ is that of the Holy image on the Shroud of Turin, leading one to believe that He would have had olive skin and dark hair, and was not a northern European, but most definitely possessing qualities of southern Europeans and Asia Minor. The beard was a common fashion of the Jews, not some invention of Christiansted pagans as enemies of the Church love to embellish.
the jesus being white is just carried over from medieval art as it progressed with time. back then a lot of the people making art like that hadn't traveled very far from their homeland and therefore hadn't seen very many people who didn't look like them, so they didn't really have a reason to depict him as looking any different than them. and since christianity was the most prominent religion in europe and white people made up the majority of people in europe, you can see how that happened. the reasons for him being depicted that way in this day and age are different but i believe that's how that started.
the long hair+beard thing in my opinion was probably a misinterpretation of the bible by people of the time. there were men in israel known as nazarites who had taken the nazarite vow, and part of that vow was never shaving their hair or beard. jesus grew up in the town of nazareth, and was known and called jesus of nazareth by people of the time, but he wasn't actually a nazarite, as he was born in bethlehem, and i don't think that the nazarite vow extended to everyone living in nazareth anyway
When I look at the "bizarre and fantastical creatures" inside the "demon doodle" notebook, I only think of that one creature that sounds like this...
_"ME HOY MINOY!"_
K buying this book rn. Thank you so much for the introduction to it.
I would like to go back in time, find the artist, shake his hand and tell him "we are talking about your art 500 years from now"
"Demon doodles" is one way to get my attention
I've always heard it pronounced "Pant-a-grool", but "Paentag-ru-ehl" does make more sense linguistically. I'm assuming it's based on a Hebrew name, since the suffix "-el" refers to God/ of God. E.g. Michael, Raphael, etc.
It bothers me how it's pronounced in the video 😂
The band Gentle Giant pronounced it the latter way so it'd rhyme with Hell... which sounds appropriate to me.
In Rebelais' novel, he explains that Panta in Greek is worth the same as saying "everything", and gruel in the arabic language is "thirsty", wanting to infer that at the time of his birth the people were totally thirsty.
I’ve also seen doodles referred to as “marginalia” and specifically associated with folk art. Your comment about these drawings as political cartoons is pretty accurate I think!
So glad I stumbled on this! Very interesting!
Before you mentioned dreams and “political cartoons” I muttered to myself “these are the people I see in my dreams” pretty trippy when you revealed where the drawings came from
Bro you just earned yourself a new subscriber!
Very interesting,
More Videos please👍
Your channel is one of my favorite on this platform, I had no idea that I would love archaic and strange Christian lore this much.
As someone with heavy Huguenot ancestry, it's pretty interesting to see the conflict encapsulated in such a cool artistic way rather than "just" more realistic paintings about the massacres. It makes it easier to get into the mindset of how they viewed the Catholics and their hypocrisy, rather than just having you view the conflict as an outside observer.
Bro, sometimes a funny drawing of a little demon fella is just that.
The creatures drawn seriously feels like something i would see in Little-Nightmares
I’ll sometimes just draw shit like this in class, my friends occasionally joining in. There’s something really comical about doodling figures with horrible proportions and getting a rise out of people
I looked up Desprez and he widely seems to be thought of as the author of the book. I looked at some of his stuff and it is pretty damn similar. Thanks for bringing up the subject because I uploaded one of the pictures from his book and used it as my home screen wallpaper.
Best channel on TH-cam
im going to have to purchase this book once I get back to work!
this looks like an amazing collection of work.
Whats impressive here is it was drawn back in 15th century. The details amuses my eyes, feelings that it was drawn by a woman at her 18-20's, alone in their hut with loneliness, alone