In my early years, I often spent time absorbing the pages of my mom’s art books. It was invaluable, and at least in this one case, amusing. At some point, maybe I was 10 I stumbled upon a reproduction of Odilon Redon’s painting of the Cyclops.

I don’t remember exactly what I thought, but I think I found it a little creepy. Although this monster seems soppy and is probably harmless, the fact that he’s leering at a naked woman didn’t escape me.

Regardless of speculation on my psychological response, I now have hard evidence of an artistic response.

Here we see the monster is back, but wears a pointed horn and carries a spiked club. A knight wearing a spartan style helmet challenges the beast. Pegasus is tied to a rock and is none too happy about it. Now that I think about it, couldn’t Pegasus just fly upwards pulling the loop of the rope off the rock? It reminds me of how I got my bike stolen in Savannah.

The triumvirate of spartan warrior, Pegasus and the Cyclops certainly recalls Harryhausens work in the 7th Voyage of Sinbad and Clash of the Titans. Clash of the Titans was released in 1981 and it was certainly an influence.

Perhaps the knight is saying “Stay away from my woman!” or perhaps I was just disappointed with the flowery sentimentality of Redon’s impressionism and wanted to create a more meat and potatoes take on the Cyclops.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009 at 8:51 pm and is filed under Art. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.