Happy first day of summer! Welcome to #bellyseason! The pouch is definitely out!
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Happy Trans Day of Visibility— I wanted to celebrate by putting these two together in one post!
I’m a proud trans artist and I love celebrating trans people in my art!
'But thy eternal summer shall not fade.'
This Crowley is very much inspired by Shakespeare's 'fair youth'. 🖤
Absolutely losing my mind here. Like it's not just the INCREDIBLE art, it's every single detail incorporated into Crowley's presentation driving me insane with both History Nerd Hyperfixation and The Genders.
The ruff was worn by both men and women. (See Aziraphale in ep3). This one's larger, as if it were meant for a dress perhaps, but it's deliberately hard to tell what upper garment that is. A doublet or a bodice? The pearl chains are feminine; the buckle and strip across the chest are not, to my knowledge, or at the very least not commonly. The adornments on the sleeves are anyone's guess; the flattened chests of the era only contribute to further questions. The hair is long, but the style could only be feminine in a private context at odds with the formal clothing. Men wore their hair down; women didn't, as a rule (again see ep3, but this time Crowley). That bonnet/cap (? Trying to find the proper English word) is also pretty ambiguous, but funnily enough it reminds me of descriptions made of Rosalind's cap in her male outfit (from As You Like It). Which, in Shakespeare's time, would have been a young man pretending to be a woman pretending to be a man. How's that for gender fuckery? The kind that Crowley has a penchant for?
Specifically, it reminds me of the description Dorian Gray makes of Sybil Vane wearing that outfit, the "dainty little green cap with a hawk's feather caught in a jewel" (only, obviously, in Crowley's color, and with what appears to be an Angel's feather instead, supremely interesting that; we don't know if the jewel is there or not, as it would have been at the back), which was a heavy nod to queerness since he specifies "she had never seemed to [him] more exquisite" than crossdressing as a boy, and that she reminded him of a male Tanagra figurine in Basil's possession. That style of pearl earring was all the rage during the Elizabethan era, both for men and for women, but it was much more common for men to only wear one. That seems to be what's happening here, but due to the way that Crowley's hair is arranged we can not know whether it's one or two being worn. That makeup is not regular makeup, at least not around the eyes: the lily white skin and rouged cheeks and lips may well be worn by an affluent woman, but not those heavy dark shadows and shapes on and around the lids. It's theatrical makeup. Women weren't allowed onstage, but there's also plenty of theory about individuals we would today categorize as some flavor of transfem taking to the profession and the female roles. The "fair youth" the artist references is established to have been a man, but who that young man was is anyone's guess, a subject of contention, and of plenty of theories, one of the most popular being that it was one of the actors in Shakespeare's own company, whose age and physical description as per the sonnets would have made him suited for the female roles. And let's not forget the centuries-long erasure and insistence that Shakespeare could only be talking about a woman.
In short: the portrait manages to capture an almost perfect androgyny and plaster a giant question mark over Crowley's current gender while simultaneously visually referencing the mystery and misdirection applied to the inspiration for said portrait, this "fair youth" of the sonnets that, in the Good Omens universe, could very well have been Crowley themself, and create a visual impression that is nothing short of masterful both in those regards and in its sheer beauty, and my little queer history nerd Crowley-loving nonbinary heart couldn't possibly be more thrilled.
Wow, thanks so much for writing such a long analysis!!! It's so spot on. Indeed this portrait is all about gender fluidity and a mix of men's and women's styles of the era (Crowley seems to like dressing themself this way in the TV Series). I also thought about the fair youth in the GO universe could very well be Crowley themself! Whee!
I'll just add a few portraits I used as references for Crowley's style here. The sitters' dates are pretty close together but I wasn't being too strict...
- The Earl of Southampton (1573 - 1624). Known for his beautiful long hair. He is also a popular candidate for Shakespeare's 'fair youth'.
- The Duke of Buckingham (1592 - 1628). He was James I's lover and seemed to have a penchant for pearls (which were indeed more commonly worn by women), as he was painted with LOTS of them in two of his portraits.
- Sir Walter Raleigh (1552 - 1618). No reason, I just really like his little bonnet in this portrait.
In Kamen Rider Ryuki (2002) forget riders and their stupid war, the real star of the show just arrived
Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. So close. A warm and tender, loving embrace. God i miss him
using this as an excuse to post my favourite Hark, a Vagrant! strip/miniseries: http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=327
can we teach a machine to mix the e-pistulae with dracula daily i think it would add spice to cicero’s letters
the crossover event of the millenium
Quo usque tandem abutere, Dracula, patientia nostra?
quam diu etiam furor iste tuus nos eludet? quem ad finem sese effrenata iactabit audacia? Nihilne te nocturnum praesidium Palati, nihil urbis vigiliae, nihil timor populi, nihil concursus bonorum omnium, nihil hic munitissimus habendi senatus locus, nihil horum ora voltusque moverunt? Patere tua consilia non sentis?
Quid proxima, quid superiore nocte egeris, ubi fueris, quos biberis, quid consilii inferni ceperis?
O tempora, o mores! Senatus haec intellegit. Consul videt; hic tamen vivit. Vivit? Non vivit, inmortuus est!
immo vero etiam in senatum venit, notat et designat oculis ad caedem unum quemque nostrum.
Nos autem fortes viri satis facere rei publicae videmur, si istius furorem ac tela vitemus. Ad secundum mortem te, Dracula, duci iussu consulis iam pridem oportebat, in te conferri pestem, quam tu in nos [omnes iam diu] machinaris.
and because i hate it when people don’t post translations for the non-latinists:
When, O Dracula, do you mean to cease abusing our patience? How long is that madness of yours still to mock us? When is there to be an end of that unbridled audacity of yours, swaggering about as it does now? Do not the nightly guards placed on the Palatine Hill—do not the watches posted throughout the city—does not the alarm of the people, and the union of all good men—does not the precaution taken of assembling the senate in this most defensible place—do not the looks and countenances of this venerable body here present, have any effect upon you? Do you not feel that your plans are detected?
What is there that you did last night, what the night before— where is it that you were—who was there that you drank—what infernal design was there which was adopted by you?
Shame on the age and on its principles! The senate is aware of these things; the consul sees them; and yet this man lives. Lives! Nay, he is undead!
And he comes even into the senate. He is watching and marking down and checking off for slaughter every individual among us. And we, gallant men that we are, think that we are doing our duty to the republic if we keep out of the way of his frenzied attacks.
You ought, O Dracula, long ago to have been led to your second execution by command of the consul. That destruction which you have been long plotting against us ought to have already fallen on your own head.
(In Catilinam Draculam trans. C.D. Yonge, adapted by me. Note the differences!)