Creepy Art Throughout History
Throughout history, artists have depicted the macabre in art, exploring themes such as death, violence, and the supernatural. During antiquity, artists used their talents to reckon with themes of death and violence seen in life and warfare. In the European Renaissance, art questioned the strict, overbearing Christian ideology. In Medieval Europe, dark art was employed to explore the effects of plague, ranging from the supernatural to the everyday. modern visual art uses disturbing imagery to confront uncomfortable truths of society.
Odilon Redon, “The Smiling Spider,” 1887
In 1887, French Symbolist artist Odilon Redon created The Smiling Spider, a lithograph of an unusual arachnid with ten legs. Still, even with this extra set of limbs, the most peculiar thing about this spider is its unsettling grin, which the artist has delineated with a row of tiny teeth.
The Smiling Spider is one of many noirs, or “blacks” created by Redon between 1870 and 1890. Rendered in charcoal and as lithographs, these pieces illustrate the artist's interest in the obscure and, most importantly, are characterized by darkness—both in color and subject matter.
The Face Of War By Salvador Dalí, 1940
the closer you examine The Face of War, by the famous artist and surrealist painter Salvador Dalí, the more its horrid yet cruelly on point details come to light. The painting portrays a disembodied head, set against a desert backdrop, with an emaciated face—much like a corpse—under attack from serpents. Its expression is bleak and forsaken, which was Dalí’s intention: to show the ugliness of war. Within the mouth and eye sockets are identical heads and within them, are more identical heads, making this aspect of it infinite—another rather depressing concept.
Dalí painted the work in California, 1940, and it is believed to be more evocative of the Spanish Civil War than the Second World War. The dominating color is brown, with a muted blue-green sky in the distance. Arguably, the brown shades represent war, while the blue-green tones represent peace
Overall, The Face of War is a stark reminder of humanity’s brutal and never-ending penchant for conflict.
William Blake, The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed with the Sun, 1805-10 and The Ghost of a Flea, 1819/20
The English poet and painter William Blake was strongly influenced by spirituality in his works. It goes without saying that he was rejected by his enlightened contemporaries. Only with the advent of Romanticism in the early 19th century did his work find increasing recognition and imitation by other artists. Blake created the painting The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed by the Sun between 1805 and 1810 as an illustration of the Old Testament book of Job. In 1981, it inspired the American author Thomas Harris for the first novel in the Hannibal Lecter series, Red Dragon.
Francisco Goya, “Saturn Devouring His Son,” c. 1819–1823
Between 1819 and 1823, the Spanish artist Francisco Goya created his Black Paintings, a series of 14 particularly haunting pieces. Among the most famous of these frightening works of art is Saturn Devouring His Son, a gruesome painting of a father feasting on his child.
According to Roman mythology, Saturn (Cronus in Greek folklore) was the leader of the Titans. Saturn overthrew his father, Caelus, in an effort to become ruler of the universe. Fearing his own offspring would do the same, he killed and consumed each child shortly after birth—an atrocity Goya opted to portray in this Black Painting.
Goya did not create this series for the public. In fact, they were intended to decorate his own home, with Saturn Devouring His Son hanging—where else?—in the dining room.
*Head’s Up: This one is extra-scary: https://www....ring-his-son/
Electric Chair: Andy Warhol, 1964
The dreadful injunction "silence" glows in the gloom of Andy Warhol's Electric Chair, as if describing the future for whoever has been slaughtered in that seat. The restraints lie slack on the ground after the corpse has been removed and the darkness speaks of some shadowy no-man's-land. The silkscreen print takes the original photograph to the verge of dissolution with its blurry overlays, so that one can hardly grasp what is going on in this desolate scene. "Everything I do is connected with death," remarked Warhol, and it seems particularly true of his silkscreen images – widowed Jackie, the skulls, the car crash sequences and, above all, the electric chairs.
Medusa: Caravaggio, 1596-98
Medusa was one of the three Gorgons, monstrous beauties with snakes for hair who turned people to stone with their gaze. They were supposedly invincible, until the Greek hero Perseus came up with the brilliant ruse of fending off Medusa's lethal look with a mirror. Perseus gave her decapitated head to the goddess Athena to carry on her shield in the Trojan war. Caravaggio's painting also takes the form of a shield, his Medusa axed but still conscious, still momentarily alive and as horrified as she is horrifying. Legend has it that Caravaggio used his own reflection for the model.
The Nightmare: Henry Fuseli, 1781
It is the worst dream in art and by far the most famous, an archetype to outclass Sigmund Freud. The sleeper in her virginal nightgown lies readied on the bed like a sacrificial victim, throat stretched bare as if for the blade. On her stomach squats an excremental troll. His pricked ears cast horn-like shadows on the curtains behind her, which are, in turn, thrust apart by the head of a wild-eyed stallion. Even those blind to the intimations of rape, bestiality, voyeurism and murder can feel the power of Fuseli's metaphor: the nightmare as nocturnal violation. The Nightmare was meant to cause nightmares.
Paul Cézanne, “Pyramid of Skulls,” 1901
Modern art master Paul Cézanne painted Pyramid of Skulls at the turn of the century. Featuring only a stack of human skulls as its subject, this piece offers an ominous alternative to the artist's more traditional still life paintings of fruits and bottles.
While such eerie iconography was not typical of Post-Impressionism, artists had been incorporating skulls and other symbols of mortality into arrangements of objects since ancient times. Defined as memento mori, a Latin title that translates to “remember that you have to die,” this genre of painting focuses on the fleeting nature of life.
As he approached old age, Cézanne became increasingly fascinated by death. From 1898 until the end of his life in 1905, Cézanne painted several still lifes of skulls. While most of these depictions do not focus solely on the skeletal objects, Pyramid of Skulls places them at the forefront, forcing the viewer to confront them and, consequently, reflect upon death. “These bony visages all but assault the viewer,” art historian Françoise Cachin said, “displaying an assertiveness very much at odds with the usual reserve of domestic still life tableaux.”
Frida Kahlo, “Girl with Death Mask (She Plays Alone)” 1938
Mexican painter Frida Kahlo is known for her collection of 55 self-portraits. While her most well-known works feature the artist as an adult, she also portrayed herself as a child in Girl with Death Mask (She Plays Alone).
This peculiar piece depicts a young girl standing before a barren landscape. In her hand, she holds a single yellow flower and, on her face, she wears a skull mask. Both of these props are characteristic of Día de los Muertos—or Day of the Dead— prompting the viewer to reflect upon themes related to death. Finally, a beastly mask rests at her feet, adding even more mystery to the chilling painting.
Girl with Death Mask (She Plays Alone) was painted in 1938—the year before her dramatic divorce from fellow artist Diego Rivera. Like many works created during this time, this piece was likely inspired by Kahlo's feelings of isolation and loneliness. “I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone,” the artist famously said, “because I am the person I know best.”
Salvator Rosa, The Temptation of St. Anthony, 1645
Salvator Rosa was an Italian painter, poet, and musician who lived in the 17th century. He mostly devoted himself to images of the Italian landscape, which he enlivened with soldiers or outlaws. Every now and then, however, he also added a good deal of drama, even surrealism, to his work, which was completely unusual at the time. In the present work, the hermit Antonius is confronted with creepy figures on his wandering through the desert, who want to tempt him in the name of the devil.
Gustave Moreau, Diomedes Devoured by his Horses, 1865
What can you do if your pets suddenly turn against you? This is the question that Thracian king Diomedes had to grapple with in Greek mythology. Diomedes was the proud owner of four horse beasts that lived in the swamps and ate on human flesh. With them he terrorized his people. Then the hero Herakles stepped on the scene, who also had to take on the horse beasts in the course of his 12 imposed tasks. He finally ended the reign of terror by throwing Diomedes himself to his steeds to eat.
The Scream, 1893 by Edvard Munch
Munch's The Scream is an icon of modern art, the Mona Lisa for our time. As Leonardo da Vinci evoked a Renaissance ideal of serenity and self-control, Munch defined how we see our own age - wracked with anxiety and uncertainty.
Essentially The Scream is autobiographical, an expressionistic construction based on Munch's actual experience of a scream piercing through nature while on a walk, after his two companions, seen in the background, had left him.
Munch did the painting while he was testing expressionistic techniques. He developed a unique method: distinct horizontal and vertical brushstrokes that were emblematic of his aggression and unhinged mental state—which eventually led to his breakdown in 1908.
Utagawa Kuniyoshi, “Takiyasha the Witch and the Skeleton Specter” c. 1844
Edo period artist Utagawa Kuniyoshi created the woodblock print Takiyasha the Witch and the Skeleton Specter, in which a giant skeleton looms over two samurais as a woman reads a scroll in the wings. The unsettling image is based on a story from the Heian period in Japan that took place in 939 CE.
At that time, samurai warlord Taira no Masakado traveled from his home in Kantō and led an army to rally against the central government in Kyoto. He eventually tried to set up an “Eastern Court” in Shimōsa Province but was defeated and decapitated. His daughter, Princess Takiyasha, continued to live in the family’s shōen, turning to witchcraft and studying dark magic.
Kuniyoshi's piece shows her reading a spell to bring forth a Gashadokuro, a spirit that takes the form of a giant skeleton. It looks over Ōya Taro Mitsukuni and another samurai who were both sent to get the princess. Their plans were foiled by the haunting spirit.
John Quidor, The Headless Horseman Pursuing Ichabod Crane, 1858,
Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” inspired Quidor to paint the climactic moment from this famous tale. Ichabod Crane is a prickly and stuck-up schoolmaster and a bumbling suitor for the lovely Katrina, who uses him to make her beau jealous. The pompous twit is no match for the clever locals, and he disappears, chased away by the headless horseman through a darkened wood.
Hell: Hans Memling, c1485
Man as well as woman, devil as well as dragon, dog and bird, this vicious critter is dancing on the damned as they burn in eternal hell fire. Memling heaps up the horror, so that the inferno broils within the jaws of a colossal fish and the demon holds a banner emphatically denying the possibility of hope: "In hell there is no redemption'. The scene is part of a larger altarpiece intended to frighten 15th-century churchgoers into far better behaviour. But the notion of a torso that can talk was catnip to those modern shock merchants, the surrealists.
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