Ars Macabra — Noctis Cognitio

ARS MACABRA — The Beauty of the Grotesque

"The beautiful is always bizarre."
— Charles Baudelaire

Gallery: The Sublime and the True

Here is Ars Macabra, a digital representation of my personal collection. This gallery gathers the visual expressions of the truths humanity so bravely tries to ignore, and these works are my absolute favorites. From Goya's black paintings to Beksiński's apocalyptic landscapes. I have chosen each work for its ability to celebrate raw beauty, cosmic conflict and the sublime in the grotesque, by pushing beyond the light.

Each of these paintings also has its given place in my gothic Palatium Memoriae. They hang as silent guardians along the winding corridors, rest in the shadows of the study or gaze down over the ballroom. Hundreds of works are seen and sensed throughout the castle's architecture, but their exact placement in the memory palace is mine alone to know.

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Sightseeing

The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun av William Blake — The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun (Rev. 12: 1-4) av William Blake (1805) – Brooklyn Museum

Saturn Devouring His Son av Francisco Goya (c. 1819–1823) – Museo del Prado

Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan on 16 November 1581 av Ilya Repin (1885) – Tretyakov Gallery

All Souls' Day av Jakub Schikaneder (1888) – National Gallery Prague

Tod und Frau / La Mort embrassant une femme av Hans Baldung (c. 1517–1520) – Kunstmuseum Basel

Flaying of Marsyas av Titian (c. 1570–1576) – Archbishop's Palace, Kroměříž

Dante and Virgil av William Bouguereau (1850) – Musée d'Orsay

The Incredulity of Saint Thomas av Caravaggio (c. 1601–1602) – Bildergalerie Sanssouci, Potsdam

Salome Bearing the Head of St. John the Baptist av Okänd konstnär — Salome Bearing the Head of St. John the Baptist (Okänd konstnär)

The Devil's Checkmate av Friedrich August Moritz Retzsch (c. 1832)

Judith Beheading Holofernes av Caravaggio (c. 1598–1599) – Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Rom

The Camden Town Murder av Walter Sickert (1908) – Yale Center for British Art

The Severed heads av Théodore Géricault (1810-talet) – Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

The Nightmare (The Dream) av Henry Fuseli (1781) – Detroit Institute of Arts

Study After Velazquez's Portrait of Innocent X av Francis Bacon — Study After Velazquez's Portrait of Innocent X / Screaming Pope av Francis Bacon (1953) – Des Moines Art Center

Diomedes Devoured by his Horses av Gustave Moreau (1865) – Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen

Skull of a Skeleton with Burning Cigarette av Vincent Van Gogh (1886) – Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

Faust in his study av Carl Gustav Carus (1852)

Lucifer av Franz von Stuck (1890) – National Art Gallery, Sofia

Ghostly Vision av Francisco Goya (c. 1820-1823) – Museo del Prado

Pandemonium av John Martin (1841) – Musée du Louvre

Stańczyk av Jan Matejko (1862) – National Museum, Warszawa

Salome with the Head of St John the Baptist av Guido Reni (c. 1638) – Galleria Corsini, Rom

The Raft of the Medusa av Théodore Géricault — The Raft of the Medusa (Jéroft de la Méduse) av Théodore Géricault (1818–1819) – Musée du Louvre

The Triumph of Death av Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1562) – Museo del Prado

The Scream (Skrik) av Edvard Munch (1893) – Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo

Judith and Holofernes av Artemisia Gentileschi (c. 1614–1620) – Uffizi, Florens

Satan summoning his legions av John Martin — Satan presiding at the Infernal Council (Satan summoning his legions) av John Martin (1825)

Isle of the Dead av Arnold Böcklin — Isle of the Dead (Die Toteninsel) av Arnold Böcklin (1880–1886) – Kunstmuseum Basel

Abbey in the Oakwood av Caspar David Friedrich — Abbey in the Oakwood (Abtei im Eichwald) av Caspar David Friedrich (1809–1810) – Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin

Illustrations to Dante's Inferno av Gustave Doré

The Vision of St. Hubert av Franz von Stuck (1890)

Wild Hunt av Franz von Stuck (1889) – Lenbachhaus, München

Faun by Moonlight av Léon Spilliaert (1900)

Death of an Artist - The Last Friend av Zygmunt Andrychiewicz (1901)

Self-Portrait with Death Playing the Fiddle av Arnold Böcklin (1872) – Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin

Laughing Fool av Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen (1500)

The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Deijman av Rembrandt van Rijn (1656) – Amsterdam Museum

Saturn av Peter Paul Rubens (c.1636–1638) – Museo del Prado

Death and the Miser av Hieronymus Bosch (c.1485–1490) – National Gallery of Art, Washington

The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb av Hans Holbein the Younger (1520–1522) – Kunstmuseum Basel