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Magnum Vaeltaja View Drop Down
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Points: 6777 		Direct Link To This Post Topic: Allusion to Visual Arts in Prog
    Posted: October 05 2016 at 18:12
Earlier today I was chatting with an artist friend of mine and we got around to talking about some of our favourite paintings and all that, and one piece that came up was Bosch's (in)famous The Garden of Earthly Delights. Intrigued by all the incredible detail, we loaded up a super high res image and began exploring. Two small excerpts of the triptych caught my eye in particular:



A flipped version of the top left, of course, is featured prominently as the cover art for Birds and Buildings' Bantam To Behemoth:



And the bottom right was cropped out and edited slightly for Deep Purple's self-titled album:



So this got me thinking: what are some other instances where prog has borrowed or taken inspiration from the visual arts? This can include album covers taken from famous paintings, as well as lyrical or musical allusions to artwork. 
when i was a kid a doller was worth ten dollers - now a doller couldnt even buy you fifty cents
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Points: 8617 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 05 2016 at 18:32
The projected artwork for Phideaux's Infernal also features the "Prince of Hell" character from The Garden:


And of course, a classic example of prog meeting painting is Crimson meets De Nachtwacht:



Edited by LearsFool - October 05 2016 at 19:33
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Points: 37575 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 05 2016 at 21:24
^ while Kin Crimson the song reference the Rembrandt painting the album cover illustrates a different kind of Nightwatch - I suspect this punning is deliberate. Ayreon's song "The Shooting Company of Captain Frans B. Cocq" from the Universal Migrator uses the full title of the painting.
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Points: 1990 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 06 2016 at 00:31
Osanna's Palepoli uses a few different paintings if I'm not mistaken.

Image result for osanna palepoliImage result for the tower of babel elder
Image result for osanna palepoli
Image result for THE FIGHT BETWEEN CARNIVAL AND LENT
Image result for osanna palepoli

The front cover obviously uses a bit of Pieter Bruegel's The Tower of Babel and the gatefold presents another painting of his, The Fight Between Carnival and Lent with what I see as an overall allusion to Bosch, showing the panoramic view of humanity. The back cover, I can't really recognize, but I'm sure it's something.

Death Walks Behind You by Atomic Rooster uses William Blake's painting.
Image result for atomic rooster death walks behind youImage result for william blake

Not exactly, prog, but Morgen's amazing psych (proto-prog IMHO) album uses The Scream by Edvard Munch.
Image result for morgen morgenMan at bridge holding head with hands and screaming

There are also a lot of H. R. Giger works on Brain Salad Surgery, Biomechanoid by Joel Vandroogenberk or Island's Pictures to name a few.


Edited by ALotOfBottle - October 06 2016 at 00:33
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Dean View Drop Down
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Points: 37575 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 06 2016 at 01:09
Originally posted by LearsFool LearsFool wrote:

The projected artwork for Phideaux's Infernal also features the "Prince of Hell" character from The Garden:


...and Salvador Dali:


Big smile
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Matti View Drop Down
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Points: 2071 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 06 2016 at 02:25
 
This Finnish album uses a painting by John Roddam Spencer Stanhope (1887).
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Points: 37575 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 06 2016 at 04:09
...I trot this one out every time this subject pops up on the forum...

The Present by the Moody Blues:

is a variant/pastiche of Daybreak by Maxfield Parrish:
Dali's Car used the original painting for the cover of their debut album.
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Points: 20470 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 06 2016 at 07:33
Image result for pearls before swine albums
Socially conscious psych folk rockers Pearls Before Swine beat everyone to it with the cover of their 1967 debut album. (Upper right corner.)

Edited by SteveG - October 06 2016 at 07:35
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Points: 37575 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 06 2016 at 08:44
^ didn't realise it was a race. LOL Yeah, they probably win.

Staying in Prog Folk, Dead Can Dance also lifted a section of Bosch's Garden:
Dead Can Dance Aion album cover

As did Celtic Frost on the album wot I like to call "Into the Pantomime" but I'll not bother searching for a pic, those that care have all seen it before.
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Points: 23993 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 06 2016 at 09:24

Thomas Cole (1801-1848) - The Voyage of Life: Youth





Deluge Grander - August in the Urals


Edited by someone_else - October 06 2016 at 09:26
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Points: 3654 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 06 2016 at 09:25
Keep posting, gents, I'll be more than happy to add this interesting info to the particular albums page (as I've been already doing for sometime Geek , which you can check on some of these here above)
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ALotOfBottle View Drop Down
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Points: 1990 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 06 2016 at 09:42
How could I have forgotten?
One of my favorite avant-garde albums, Kew. Rhone. by John Greaves and Peter Blegvad, uses C. W. Peale's Exhuming the First American Mastodon.
Image result for kew rhoneImage result for kew rhone

Also, Pentangle's Cruel Sister uses Albrecht Durer's The Men's Bath as a part of the album cover.
Image result for pentangle cruel sisterImage result for the mens bath

Edited by ALotOfBottle - October 06 2016 at 09:43
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Points: 7024 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 06 2016 at 15:47
Grave New World has some sensational artwork, both on the triple gatefold cover and the insert booklet.
A TVR is not a car. It's a way of life.
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Points: 4255 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 06 2016 at 16:03
Gilgamesh's Another Fine Tune You've Got Me Into Cover Art by William Blake:
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Points: 6777 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 06 2016 at 23:17
Gotta say, I'm loving these responses so far - all very cool. Thumbs Up

Though now I'm beginning to wonder if there any excerpts from The Garden of Earthly Delights that haven't been used as album covers...
when i was a kid a doller was worth ten dollers - now a doller couldnt even buy you fifty cents
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Points: 10261 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 07 2016 at 00:23
Art by M. C. Escher was used for many album covers, not all of them prog though. A prog example is this:


BaldJean and I; I am the one in blue.
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Matti View Drop Down
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Points: 2071 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 07 2016 at 00:43
"An Astrologer Casting a Horoscope" from Robert Fludd's Utriusque Cosmi Historia  (1617):
 
... and the cover of a Finnish classic, WIGWAM's Nuclear Nightclub, 1975  (artwork by Mats Huldén):
 
      (thanks for Samuli R. for posting me the former pic.)
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BaldJean View Drop Down
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Points: 10377 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 07 2016 at 03:36
pictures by Belgian painter René Magritte were also often used either in completeness or as inspiration for album covers, for example this one:




Edited by BaldJean - October 07 2016 at 03:40


A shot of me as High Priestess of Gaia during our fall festival. Ceterum censeo principiis obsta
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Points: 20470 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 07 2016 at 04:09
Originally posted by Magnum Vaeltaja Magnum Vaeltaja wrote:

Gotta say, I'm loving these responses so far - all very cool. Thumbs Up

Though now I'm beginning to wonder if there any excerpts from The Garden of Earthly Delights that haven't been used as album covers...
I find that musical artists generally appreciate all types of art, so it's no surprise to me. Even Annie Haslam is renowned for her oil paintings. 
Image result for annie haslam paintings
She also paints guitars on occasion.


Edited by SteveG - October 07 2016 at 04:12
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Points: 5111 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 07 2016 at 04:31
It seems that Bosch just never gets old as far as prog dudes are concerned.  See also John Zorn's The Painted Bird released this year:



Super record, though.
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