Nicolò Nelli, The Land of Cockaigne, 1564, ets, 40 x 53 cm, Hollyman and Treacher |
'The Land of Cockaigne' with searchable details
"This is a moral landscape with little hint of the Utopian overtones others have stressed. Nelli sees overblown indulgence and unfettered pleasure as leading only to the deterioration of the human condition. [...]
The depiction of the land of Cockaigne was a popular subject- allowing the narrator to fantasise on food for free - horses born with saddles and fish that leap out of the river and offer themselves as food. A poem in Dutch of 1567 describes (among other facilities) tarts that cook themselves and fences made of sausages.
Look out for Breughel's celebrated painting of the subject (1567) , and listen to Elgar's Cockaigne (In London Town) Concert Overture Opus No.40. which the composer meant to be 'stout and steady' rather than a moral reflection on an excess of provender. "
versie 1871, London, British Museum (spiegelbeeld !) |
Nicolò Nelli, Venerable Idleness, Queen of Cockaigne (La Venerabile PoltroneriaRegina di Cucagna),
ca. 1552–79, Venezia, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art
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Nicolò Nelli, Il trionfo de carnavale nel paese de cucagna, ca. 1575-1590 |
[Nicolò Nelli: Venetian illustrator and mapmaker (1530 – ca. 1580)]
['poltroneria': laziness; sloth; indolence]
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