Below is a picture from the historical buildings preservation document for the Fleur-de-Lys Studios (which features in “The Call of Cthulhu”). Note the semi-tentacular nature of the tails in the mural design placed above the fire-place in the Fleur-de-Lys Studios interior…
One wonders if Lovecraft could have seen it on a tour of the interior?
It might be interesting to know the mythological derivation and symbolism in use here? It appears to be blending of a gryphon or Welsh red dragon (also to be seen on the exterior) with a sea-serpent? And with a human eye shape made by the combination of both tails.
Seems to be a “Basilisk” or a “Cockatrice”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilisk
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cockatrice
Many thanks. That’s put me on the right track.
“The Hymn to Amen Ra” (1400-1200 B.C) was a poem to the chief deity of Memphis in Ancient Eygpt. In his translation of this poem for his book “Notes for the Nile”, Hardwicke D. Rawnsley has this in translation…
Thou the head of Karnak, Ra! men
Bow before thee
And adore thee,
Beautiful with double horns.
Lord of the Uneus crown,
Plumed, exalted high to wear
Snow-white helm, tiara fair,
With the grace
Of the serpent, and the disk
Of the double basilisk,
As adornment to his face.
(My emphasis). However, this was probably a mis-translation. He probably just means two asp snakes aka cobras each flanking a sun disk — aka the urseus, commonly used as a frontlet on the royal crowns of ancient Eygpt. The Basilisk was an Egpytian mythical creature though, known in the record since at least 3,300 BC. The way that two are combined at the Fleur-de-Lys Studios to make the “eye” does suggest it draws inspiration from Egyptian symbolism and was an artistic re-working of the Ancient Egyptian urseus in the form of basilisks rather than cobras. Since is was Stetson who did the interiors, one assumes they might be his work?
The only other twin basilisks I can find are those used as the emblem of the Swiss town of Basel… but these are heraldic flankers and are not entwined.
It’s hard NOT to see an eye in the combination of both tails, – but still it’s an interpretation isn’t it? There might be rather decorative than mythological reasons for the painting? It would be interesting to learn more about Stetson.
I found some websites, among them a catalogue of an exhibition, featuring a biography and some works.
http://archive.org/details/catalogueofexhib00stet
An interesting “Sketch for worship” from the 1880’s can be seen here:
http://www.bauerart.com/Stetson_frames.html
At first glance he was heavily influenced by Pre-Raphaelite painters, Symbolism (some paintings remind me of Swiss painter Arnold Böcklin) and so on.
Back to Basiliks: Since you turn into stone facing a basilisk’s glimpse – that’s maybe where the eye comes from?
Hi Alex. I like the final suggestion. It certainly fits. I suspect the design is by Stetson. He designed all the interiors of the building. There was an 1888(?) journal article on his interiors which would probably tell more about the design, but it’s not online. Although I now have the main book on him, picked up dirt cheap on Amazon, which had presumably perused the 1888? article, and it doesn’t feature the design in question. So perhaps it was by another artist.
After all the studio looks quite interesting. I stumbled upon one of your posts mentioning the Rhode Island School of Design, perhaps they can tell more about the interior design.
I also read your post about Frederick Allen Wesley. Which other local artists did Lovecraft knew? Did he knew Stetson?
Stetson was from before Lovecraft’s time, but he mentions him in passing in a letter. I suspect he may have seen Stetson’s big retrospective exhibition in Boston.
I went to the library to have a look again at the basilisk. This is from the “Handwörteruch des deutschen Aberglaubens” (Concise Dictionary of German superstition) from 1927:
“The belief in the basilisk is a special example of the power of the evil eye and is based on the fact of the captivating, fascinating snake eye.”
Maybe the topic moves away from HPL but I couldn’t get rid of it 🙂