Crossroads of Curiosity

"Tigress"

 

David Normal:

 

On one side of the canvas; pious salvation, on the other, lurking behind; the beastly libido that drives artistic creation.

Is the tigress's victim an artistic competitor? On the one side the sanctity of the work of art, but behind the canvas the ruthless, merciless world of the business of art?

 

This illustration comes from a book of the genre of manly daring do in exotic places.  The man is not "struggling" - he is being slain.  The drawing, on close inspection, is not well made and if the proportions of the left arm be correct then that arm is being severely disjointed by the weight of the tiger.

 

Image taken from page 127 of 'Shafts from an Eastern Quiver, etc' Collection of the British Library.

View illustration on British Library's Flickr Photostream

 

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