Chelsea Nichols

Medieval illustration of a black bat with many hands

A hand-some medieval bat

18 May 2019 by Chelsea Nichols

According to superstition, if you rub the blood of a bat on your face you’ll be able to see at night. But if you use this bat, you’ll also get more hand-some. Never too cool for a good pun. I love this quirky little bat with his many hands. It comes from The Art of Falconry (De Arte Venandi Cum Avibus), a Latin ornithology book originally published in 1241 by Frederick II, the Holy Roman Emperor from 1196-1250. More than […]

Categories: Curiosities, Historical Art • Tags: bat, humor, medieval, superstition

Sexy weasels in Renaissance art

14 May 2019 by Chelsea Nichols

Exploring the sexual symbolism hidden in paintings of weasels in Renaissance art

Categories: Curiosities, Historical Art • Tags: animals in art, ermine, fertility, flea-fur, jewels, paintings, pregnancy, renaissance, symbolism, weasel

Image of a scary goblin creature peeking out from under the bed of a little girl

How to scare children in the 1920s

9 May 2019 by Chelsea Nichols

A series of creepy 1920s photographs of goblin creatures snatching a little girl out of her bed

Categories: Curiosities, Unsettling Things • Tags: children, creepy, goblin, monsters, photography, stereoscope, unsettling

Photograph of model Lily Cole wearing a Victorian lace blouse and a damaged mask of her own face

Wearing her own face

7 May 2019 by Chelsea Nichols

Chelsea Nichols explores just what is creepy about Gillian Wearing’s photograph of Lily Cole wearing a damaged mask of her own face.

Categories: Contemporary Art, Unsettling Things • Tags: doll, gillian wearing, haunting, lily cole, masks, models, photography, psychology, unsettling, victorian era

A saucy self-portrait from 1828

29 April 2019 by Chelsea Nichols

The story behind a saucy self-portrait from 1828 by Sarah Goodridge

Categories: Curiosities, Historical Art • Tags: 19th century, breasts, erotic, female artists, paintings, sex

Tony Fomison’s inner werewolf

8 November 2018 by Chelsea Nichols

Art and monsters are two of my all-time favorite things, so I’m in (weird, twisted) heaven when the two things combine. A strange, hairy beast lurks inside the soul of New Zealand artist Tony Fomison – head over to the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa blog to read my full post about his remarkable paintings of hairy beasts. What does your inner monster look like? For New Zealand painter Tony Fomison (1939–1990) it was a creature drenched in darkness, […]

Categories: Contemporary Art, Curiosities • Tags: animal, art, curiosities, face, museum, new zealand, Tony Fomison, werewolf

17th century memento mori ring showing a skull

Two-faced death ring

19 August 2013 by Chelsea Nichols

Categories: Curiosities, history, Museums • Tags: 17th century, death, face, gold, history, jewelry, memento mori, museum, ring, skull, unsettling

Vintage photograph with head cut out in a heart shape

She lived inside someone’s locket

18 August 2013 by Chelsea Nichols

Categories: Curiosities, history • Tags: face, heart, love, nostalgia, photography, vintage

Tipu’s Tiger

23 July 2013 by Chelsea Nichols

Tipu’s (or Tippoo’s) Tiger is a life-sized wooden mechanical organ made around 1793, depicting a tiger mauling a man in European clothing. When the crank is turned, a hidden mechanism causes the man’s arm to goes up and down, and plays his wails of agony along the growls of the tiger. Under a flap on the tiger’s body there is also a small pipe organ, which can play 18 notes.

Categories: Curiosities, history, Museums • Tags: animal, art, automaton, colonialism, figurine, grotesque, history, india, music, sculpture, tiger

The Museum of Ridiculously Interesting Things

a collection of ridiculously interesting art, objects, ideas, and history

Author Archives: Chelsea Nichols