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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 · 6d

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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Jesse "Pecke in the Crowne" Locker @jessemlocker.bsky.social · 10h

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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Reposted by Jesse "Pecke in the Crowne" Locker

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

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 · 19h

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

Jesse "Pecke in the Crowne" Locker @jessemlocker.bsky.social · 23h

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 · 1d

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

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

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 · 2d

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 · 2d

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

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

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 · 3d

"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 · 4d

So many gory martyrdoms, beheadings, crucifixions…

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

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

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

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 · 4d

There is absolutely nothing happening here.

Reposted by Jesse "Pecke in the Crowne" Locker

Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 4d

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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Reposted by Jesse "Pecke in the Crowne" Locker

Michael Lobel @mlobelart.bsky.social · 4d

🚨I know there are too many emergencies going on right now to even keep count, but this is alarming: imminent selling-off of our country's cultural heritage, in this case DC building with major New Deal murals by Ben Shahn and Philip Guston🚨

Timothy Noah @timothynoah.bsky.social · 6d

Re-posting my Tuesday story on the imminent sale and likely destruction of government-owned murals by Ben Shahn and Philip Guston. The Trump administration is a cascade of emergencies; this one requires rapid mobilization by preservationists. Followup tomorrow.

newrepublic.com/article/2010...

The New Deal Masterpieces Threatened by Trump’s D.C. Downsizing

Your great-grandparents paid Ben Shahn and Philip Guston to create gorgeous public murals. Next year they could be rubble.

newrepublic.com

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

Andrea Locatelli, Magic Scene, circa 1740/41, oil on walnut, 54.20 x 30.20 cm (Staatsgalerie Stuttgart)

"In the seclusion of a dilapidated building, a magician in a long hooded cloak conjures up demonic powers. Skeletons, monsters, a witch with snakes, and a rider on a goat flying through the air are the terrifying illusions of hell. Bats, monkeys, and an owl reinforce the gloomy atmosphere in this place of horror, where a ragged, gaunt man has hanged himself; he is still being desecrated afterwards. The horrified observer below him is probably a self-portrait of Locatelli."
https://www.staatsgalerie.de/de/sammlung-digital/magische-szene

Detail of first image, showing a skeleton relaxing (?) beside a book, candle, and cauldron

Detail of first image, showing a likely self-portrait of the artist looking horrified

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Reposted by Jesse "Pecke in the Crowne" Locker

Open Culture @openculture.bsky.social · 4d

The Foot-Licking Demons & Other Strange Things in a 1921 Illustrated Manuscript from Iran

Few modern writers so remind me of the famous Virginia Woolf quote about fiction as a 'spider's web' more than Argentine fabulist Jorge Luis Borges.

www.openculture.com

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

Gives me the creeps as an adult!

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

"So the LORD says to me, 'I want you to go out and smite in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred fourscore and five thousand so that they're all dead corpses.' And I says to him, 'Are you kidding me? I could do hundred fourscore and five thousand and one, no problem.'"
"Yeah, uh, this seat is taken."

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

I guess so… but what do you think is going on in the rest of the drawing?

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

When a pet is too much work.

[Alessandro Casolani, Young Woman Contemplating a Skull, 1567-1591, 62.9cm x 44.7cm (Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen)]

A painting of a woman in a yellow dress holding a rosary and contemplating a skull with way too much hair still on it

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Reposted by Jesse "Pecke in the Crowne" Locker

Daniel Bellingradt @dbellingradt.bsky.social · 6d

"Keep on reading the big and badly written book, they said. It'll be fun finishing it, they said. It is totally worth the time, they said..."

A human skeleton reading a big book. The image is a detail of a larger print showing the Last Judgement interpreted by Johannes Wierix in 16c Europe.

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

Antoine Wiertz, Premature Burial, 1854, 160 cm (62.9 in) x 235 cm (92.5 in) (Antoine Wiertz Museum, Brussels). The inscription of the coffin reads: “MORT DU CHOLERA / Certifié par nous Docteurs / Sansdoutes” (“DEAD FROM CHOLERA / Certified by us Doctors / Without a doubt”)

Three wooden coffins in a catacomb, one being pushed open by a man with a horrified look on his face. The inscription of the coffin reads: “MORT DU CHOLERA / Certifié par nous Docteurs / Sansdoutes” (“DEAD FROM CHOLERA / Certified by us Doctors / Without a doubt”)

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

Jacopo Vignali, Youth surprised by Death, c. 1640/50. Oil on canvas, 60 × 80cm (Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi)

A skeleton holds up an hourglass to a fashionably dressed young man

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