Sass Christian

Hieronymus Bosch

"At the center of the length and breadth of the garden was a temple and altar of Dionysus,the altar wreathed in ivy, the temple in shoots of vine. Inside the temple were paintings of Dionysus and of stories involving him: Semele giving birth, Ariadne sleeping, Lycurgus in chains, Pentheus being torn apart. There were Indians in defeat and Tyrrhenians being turned into dolphins and Satyrs treading everywhere and bacchants dancing. Nor was Pan forgotten, but he, too, sat there on a rock, playing his pipes, as if he were providing the music for the treading and the dancing." Daphnis and Chloe, 192

Jasmine Becket-Griffith

I love this passage. Art, music, and literature having an orgy on page 192.  Before the written word there was oral tradition, music, and painting. Of these three mediums, painting is the most closely linked to literature and romance. Daphnis and Chloe begins with painting that is so moving it must be repainted in words. And in book 4 of D&C more paintings and music and mythology; stories upon stories within stories about stories.  Art, music, and literature weaving in and out of each other. I know a lot about music and have a working knowledge of great painters but I became curious about more contemporary painters.
 In music greatness is generally measured by relevancy. Is this music, band, or song still relevant or contain elements that are continually reused and built upon? Both Frye and D&C explore the relationship between painting and literature so I felt the need to explore painting to see if literature was still present and vice versa. Since I don't know much about painters I went to the tattoo shop to do some research.  I asked all the artists to name some of their favorite painters. First they asked 'why' and I refused to tell them until the list was compiled. After I had my list I told them why and one of the artists remarked that he didn't think most of the painters listed would be very helpful since he couldn't see any connection between their paintings and romance. I assured him the list would most likely be helpful and it was. I found art and literature fornicating in books, on walls, and all over the internet; their bastard children dancing on canvas. I really like Bosch (The Bosch painting shown is very light and dream-like, almost fairy tale. It reminds me of Daphnis and Chloe. Most Bosch is very dark and contains strange creatures) so I was excited to find Jasmine Becket-Griffith's Alice and the Bosch monsters.
When I started thinking about all of this I had a few ideas, then I started researching contemporary painters and even more ideas joined the mix. As I'm writing I realize that their are so many ideas and so much communication between these mediums that I'm really not sure where to begin. With so much to be said would it ever end?
There are as many stories in these paintings as there are in the passage I quoted above. Perhaps the best thing is to let the paintings tell their own stories.

Todd Schorr

Mark Ryden