It’s funny on how returning to the blogosphere after saying goodbye to it for quite some years, I bump straight into an old virtual friend when searching for “Hypnerotomachia Poliphili + Bomarzo + elephant”. The friend in question runs the fascinating culture blog Journey to Perplexity [1].

The reason I googled the words above was that my Dutch edition (translated by Ike Cialona) of Hypnerotomachia Poliphili claims that Colonna’ work inspired these works of architecture:

• Grotta di Buontalenti by Bernardo Buontalenti and Giambologna‘s famous Bathing Venus in the Boboli Gardens
• Ercole Ferrata‘s Elephant and Obelisk
• Giovanni Battista Vaccarini‘s u Liotru
• Gigantomachia fresco by Giulo Romano
• Santa Maria della Salute by Baldassarre Longhena
• Park of the Monsters at Bomarzo

One thing leading to another, as they usually do, I found this [2] fascinating woodcut, of which the colour palette reminds me of Japanese woodcuts.

I wonder if the plate is part of Cranach’s illustrated version of Martin Luther’s translation of the Bible? Anyone?