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Jesse "Pecke in the Crowne" Locker

@jessemlocker.bsky.social

8.5K followers 1.8K following 2.5K posts

Professor of art history at Portland State University. Author of Artemisia Gentileschi: The Language of Painting (Yale University Press) and some other stuff. 2 parts Weltschmerz, 1 part vermouth, a dash of film noir.

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Jesse "Pecke in the Crowne" Locker @jessemlocker.bsky.social · 8d

It’s October, which is an excuse to spend the month posting the scariest, strangest, and most disconcerting images from the history of art. I’ve accumulated quite a collection, so apologies in advance for all the spooky content I won't be able to resist sharing. 🎃

Trophime Bigot, The Screaming Man, 1625, oil on canvas. Canvas, 79 x 100 cm Kunsthistoriches Museum, Vienna. A man in 17th-century costume and holding a paper lantern screams, surprised by a carved jack-o'-lantern behind him. Another man concealed behind him smiles

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Reposted by Jesse "Pecke in the Crowne" Locker

Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 6h

www.wweek.com/culture/2025...

Can you put into words what that purpose is? You and the frog have really become icons of this protest.

There’s been a nice overall whimsy that has shown up. The frog is amazing. We had a bunch of other inflatable people here last night, too. I saw people playing Twister the other day.

What they rely on is fear. So by coming out in an absurdist manner, it speaks to them, to some extent, that we’re actually not that afraid.

It also dismantles their narrative a little bit. When they try to describe this situation as “war-torn,” it becomes much harder to take them seriously when they have to post a video saying [U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security] Kristi Noem is up on the balcony staring over the Antifa Army and it’s, like, eight journalists and five protesters and one of them is in a chicken suit.

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Reposted by Jesse "Pecke in the Crowne" Locker

Jesse "Pecke in the Crowne" Locker @jessemlocker.bsky.social · 17h

In this self-portrait by Pieter Van Laer (known as Il Bamboccio), ca. 1635–37, the artist portrays himself performing a magic ritual and, to his own horror, having summoned up some kind of demon. The sheet music has his signature and the words “il diavolo non burla” (“the devil doesn’t jest”)

"In one of the most remarkable self-portraits ever created, Pieter van Laer reacts with horror to the frightening claws of the devil that have suddenly come to claim him. Dressed in the black cloak and cap of a magician, the artist, with bulging eyes and open mouth, has witnessed this apparition while standing behind a table filled with books, some with alchemical notations, a variety of vessels, a snuffed-out candle, and a skull resting on hot coals" (Leiden Collection) https://www.theleidencollection.com/artwork/self-portrait-with-magic-scene/

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Jesse "Pecke in the Crowne" Locker @jessemlocker.bsky.social · 11h

Artemisia Gentileschi in Columbus, Ohio

Artemisia Gentileschi in the U.S.: works from the Neapolitan period on display at the Columbus Museum of Art

From Oct. 31, 2025 to May 31, 2026, the Columbus Museum of Art is dedicating an exhibition to 17th-century painter Artemisia Gentileschi. Featured is the rediscovered painting Hercules and Onphale att...

www.finestresullarte.info

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Jesse "Pecke in the Crowne" Locker @jessemlocker.bsky.social · 15h

Thanks!

Jesse "Pecke in the Crowne" Locker @jessemlocker.bsky.social · 17h

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Jesse "Pecke in the Crowne" Locker @jessemlocker.bsky.social · 1d

Unfortunately the gluten-free faction is threatening to form a splinter group if we don’t get rid of the panko topping

Jesse "Pecke in the Crowne" Locker @jessemlocker.bsky.social · 1d

Alas I did not

Jesse "Pecke in the Crowne" Locker @jessemlocker.bsky.social · 1d

Timeline cleanse.

[Wayne Thiebaud, Neapolitan Meringue, 1986/1999, pastel over trial proof lithograph on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum]

A print/pastel drawing of a layered meringue on a sea-foam green background

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Jesse "Pecke in the Crowne" Locker @jessemlocker.bsky.social · 1d

Not true. I live here and every store is a Spirit Halloween

Jesse "Pecke in the Crowne" Locker @jessemlocker.bsky.social · 1d

“Gib Frid!" (Let me go!) cries the Devil as three old women beat him

[Daniel Hopfer, etching, 1510-20, 225 mm x 157 millimetres (British Museum)]

"Landscape with three witches, one holding down a devil who is giving birth (?) to a hog, and two beating the devil with washing bats; devilish creatures fly above" -British Museum https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1842-0806-93

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Jesse "Pecke in the Crowne" Locker @jessemlocker.bsky.social · 1d

Dance party until the cavalry arrive

‘Emergency’ World Naked Bike Ride planned in Portland

The announcement comes in response to Trump's "militarization of our city."

www.oregonlive.com

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Jesse "Pecke in the Crowne" Locker @jessemlocker.bsky.social · 2d

At least the rats are having fun...

[Attributed to Ferdinand van Kessel, The Dance of the Rats, 1681, Oil on canvas, 41.5 x 47 cm (Städel Museum, Frankfurt)]

A painting of rats dancing in a circle with what's surmised to be a carved table leg behind them. Likely cut out of a larger canvas.

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Jesse "Pecke in the Crowne" Locker @jessemlocker.bsky.social · 2d

Alt text has some of the artist’s reflections on the subject

Jesse "Pecke in the Crowne" Locker @jessemlocker.bsky.social · 2d

I'm not the first to say it, but this campaign has the smartest design sensibility of any I've ever seen

NYC Artist and Educator Wins Zohran Mamdani Sticker Contest

Nishan Patel’s design depicts a bodega storefront with a furry feline in the window, a tender homage to the beloved neighborhood businesses.

hyperallergic.com

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Jesse "Pecke in the Crowne" Locker @jessemlocker.bsky.social · 3d

Morris Kantor, Haunted House, 1930, oil on canvas,
94.3 × 84.5 cm (37 1/8 × 33 1/4 in.), Art Institute of Chicago

"Morris Kantor drew inspiration from the material culture of historical New England—ladder-back chairs, colonial portraiture, marine painting, wallpaper—in this fantastical rendering of a supposedly haunted house in rural Massachusetts. A shadowy figure lurks at the composition’s darkened right edge, an unknown presence encroaching on the comforts of the sitting room. Kantor later recalled that such a setting, with “its peculiar moldy smell, the fading beauty of old plaster discolored by time and living … turned my imagination to the past, to the people who had lived there and gone.” A Russian immigrant, the artist engaged with the stories and objects of American history as catalysts for his Surrealist, dreamlike musings." -AIC

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Jesse "Pecke in the Crowne" Locker @jessemlocker.bsky.social · 3d

Good morning!

[Gaetano Giulio Zumbo, A Soul in Hell, 1670-1700, Wax, 11.5 cm x 10 cm (Victoria and Albert Museum, London)]

A screaming head modeled in wax, surrounded by demons and stylized flames

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Jesse "Pecke in the Crowne" Locker @jessemlocker.bsky.social · 4d

Sarah Theresa Lee, “Monster Baby with her Kitten” (2025) Acrylic on wood (Ricco/Maresca Gallery)

A painting in a naive style of a little girl wearing a frightening halloween mask next to a white kitten and a box of cat food

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Jesse "Pecke in the Crowne" Locker @jessemlocker.bsky.social · 4d

I like the idea of this guy singing and dancing about his lacking "the noive"

Jesse "Pecke in the Crowne" Locker @jessemlocker.bsky.social · 4d

Antonio Rasio, Autumn, 1685-95, oil on canvas, 100 x 140 cm (Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo)

A reclining man made out of autumn fruits and vegetable, in a landscape with a concerned owl looking on

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Jesse "Pecke in the Crowne" Locker @jessemlocker.bsky.social · 5d

"Have you dined with us before? We do things a little bit differently here."

[Giovanni Martinelli, Death Comes to the Banquet Table, c. 1630, Oil on canvas, 47 1/2 x 68 1/2 in. (New Orleans Museum of Art)]

"This dramatic painting depicts a dinner party disrupted by the sudden appearance of a skeleton (Death), who reveals an empty hourglass to one of the revelers. Martinelli makes use of artistic tenebrism, or dramatic illumination, to heighten the scene. The featureless black of the background serves to obscure the skeleton and further accentuate the vibrancy of the diners’ fine clothes and the abundance of food on the table." (NOMA)

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Jesse "Pecke in the Crowne" Locker @jessemlocker.bsky.social · 6d

So many gory martyrdoms, beheadings, crucifixions…

Jesse "Pecke in the Crowne" Locker @jessemlocker.bsky.social · 6d

I'd say more "spooky" than "graphic," @moderation.bsky.app

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Jesse "Pecke in the Crowne" Locker @jessemlocker.bsky.social · 6d

I’m just wondering what they would even do. I mean downtown is completely dead most of the time.

Jesse "Pecke in the Crowne" Locker @jessemlocker.bsky.social · 6d

There is absolutely nothing happening here.

Reposted by Jesse "Pecke in the Crowne" Locker

Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 6d

Sick and tired of people wanting to defend “western civilisation” especially when they are also attacking arts and humanities in the universities.

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