Illustration Friday: "Breakfast"

 

Q:Well, why would giants eat children for breakfast?

A: Because they can!

Continuing on with the fairy tale theme.

If you are interested in the genesis of these images, it will be found in a  fortified cathedral I visited in Albi (France) a few years ago. From memory it was in the heart of Cathar country.

In the early 1200's, backed by the pope, the northern Lords of France invaded the Cathar region of France (in the south) and went about murdering the locals and seizing their land. It's a sad story, and if you read it you will quickly develop a sense of loathing for a man called Simon de Mountfort.

In this particular Cathedral, the back walls had a large dark paintings of Hell, reminscent of Bosch. {edit: (16.4m x 15.6m) mural of The Last Judgment covers both sides of the rounded west wall of the nave.}

Painted between 1474 and 1484, the idea of this painting was for the new Catholic overlords to show their new Cathar underlings what happens to sinners if they don't go to church on Sundays - and don't put a penny in the plate. There is an example of the Hell paintings here.

In real life they are even scarier.....

If you are interested in fairy tales and food have a look here.

In these images, the idea to blend over the kids' eyes comes directly from Wanda Torres ace painter.

The surf was good today - so I didn't get a chance to write a story --- sorry.

But I did do all these images this afternoon ---- gee I need a glass of wine!

Thanks for looking. If you click the images they get bigger ;)

Small note on Simon de Montfort.

During the Cathar wars, de Mountfort is reputed to have ordered a fortified town stormed, burnt to the ground and all it's inhabitants (mostly Catholic) put to death. The reason - there were a small number of Cathars living in the town and the Catholic inhabitants had refused to hand them over.

When asked by one of his men, how they would tell the Catholics apart from the Cathars, de Montfort answered: "Kill them all. God will know his own."  Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius. ? Maybe: Neca eos omnes. Deus suos agnoscet.

PS maybe de Monfort didn't say this, but it makes a better story....