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5 scary, beautiful scenes of skeletons
31 October 2013 by Jenny Kutner
The new book “Diableries” features 19th-century images of skeletons doing everything from feasting to ice-skating
What do you get when you put the lead guitarist from Queen together with a whole bunch of Victorian-era skeletons? The answer: “Diableries,” a book by Queen’s Brian May, along with Denis Pellerin and Paula Fleming, that puts together eerie stereoscopic photographs of skeletons (don’t worry, they’re sculptures) into a weirdly beautiful package. … 15 of our favorites!
Captions:
– According to the preface of May, Pellerin, and Fleming’s book, a Diablerie is “a special kind of stereo card, [or] 3-D views printed on paper,” first available in Europe in the 1850s. The book’s subtitle cuts to the chase a little quicker: they’re “stereoscopic adventures in hell.” – Satan’s invitation-only dinner party to celebrate the end of the Franco-Prussian War, ca. 1873.
– “At this point in the Diableries series,” write May, Pellerin, and Fleming of this underworld ice-skating scene, “Hell really does seem to be becoming more and more attractive.”
– The devil’s daughter, Mademoiselle Satan, “starting a feminist revolution in her father’s own realm.”- Didn’t you know Satan was once the editor-in-chief of a daily newspaper?
– Outside the famous Gates of Hell.
– Satan celebrating a particularly good wheat harvest in Hell.
– “It’s Carnival time in Hell (again!)”!
– The railway to purgatory (like stairway to heaven, except… not).
– Another Carnival diablerie, except now Satan has decided “to get these costumed party-goers very drunk and send his skeletal minions to steal their souls.”
– A different Black Sabbath, minus Ozzy Osbourne.
– Happy Satan Day! The Devil celebrates his birthday in style – “It’s a concert in Hell!” Don’t worry–they only play the devil’s music.
– The quintessential image of Hell: a bunch of skeletons being boiled in a cauldron, while Satan pokes at them with a trident.