The Madman's Gallery The Strangest Paintings, Sculptures and Other Curiosities from the History of Art

<b>Enter <i>The Madman's Gallery</i> and discover an extraordinary, illustrated exhibition of the greatest curiosities from the global history of art, featuring one hundred magnificently eccentric antique paintings, engravings, illustrations, and sculptures, each with a fascinatingly bizarre story to tell.</b><br> <br> <br> <br> Brought to light from the depths of libraries, museums, dealers, and galleries around the world, these forgotten artistic treasures include portraits of oddballs such as the British explorer with a penchant for riding crocodiles, and the Italian monk who levitated so often he's recognized as the patron saint of airplane passengers. Discover impossible medieval land yachts, floating churches, and eagle-powered airships. Encounter dog-headed holy men, armies of German giants, 18th-century stuntmen, human chessboards, screaming ghost heads, and more marvels of the human imagination. A captivating odditorium of obscure and engaging characters and works, each expertly brought to life by historian and curator of the strange Edward Brooke-Hitching, here is a richly illustrated and entertaining gallery for lovers of outré art and history.<br> <br> <br> <br> A GLOBAL SURVEY: Here are European painters who used ground up Egyptian mummies as pigment, examples of the antique Japanese art of <i>Gyotaku</i> (fish stone rubbings) using dried fish as printing plates, a Parisian art hoax featuring paintings actually created by a chimpanzee, and much more.<br> <br> <br> <br> ODDITIES ABOUND: Depictions of the demon worms believed to cause toothaches carved into human molars: Check. A nude version of the Mona Lisa painted by the "bad boy" apprentice of Leonardo da Vinci: Here it is. The most admiring portrait of a cannibal likely ever produced: Presented in full color.<br> <br> <br> <br> EXPERT AUTHOR: Edward Brooke-Hitching is a master of taking visually driven deep dives into unusual historical subjects, such as the maps of imaginary geography in <i>The Phantom Atlas</i> or ancient pathways through the stars in <i>The Sky Atlas</i>, imaginative depictions of heavens, hells, and afterworlds in <i>The Devil's Atlas</i>, and the strangest books imaginable in <i>The Madman's Library</i>.<br> <br> <br> <br> Perfect for: <ul> <li>Fans of beautifully illustrated works, art history, and unusual world atlas collections</li> <li>Readers of quirky history such as <i>Schott's Miscellany</i>, <i>Atlas Obscura</i>, and the wildly popular <i>QI</i> series (for which the author is a writer and researcher)</li> <li>Gift for a graduate, teacher, or student of world history, art history, library science, archeology, sociology, or any discipline engaged in the exploration of curiosities and human nature</li> </ul>