Diableries: The Complete Edition: Stereoscopic Adventures in Hell

Product Information

In a frightening vision of Hell, the winged Devil uses a pitchfork to cram condemned souls into a boiling cauldron. Pellerin, May and Fleming spent 3 decades collecting these rare Diableries stereocards and pieces of information about them. The mysterious and fascinating tableaux depict in glorious 3-D life in Hell (bearing a striking resemblance to life in Paris during and after the reign of Emperor Napoleon III). The scenes are bursting with demons, skeletons, pretty women and, of course, M. Satan himself. In all, there are seven series of Diableries, produced between 1859 and the mid 1890s, all reproduced in the book. The earliest series, completely assembled by 1874, is mostly the work of two wildly imaginative and skilful sculptors, Adolphe Hennetier, and Louis Habert. At the time Diableries captured the interest of the public thanks to the medium of the stereoscopic cards which had been the latest trend since the early 1850s. These dioramas have several layers of meaning (satirical, political, religious) that are all revealed in the book.

Diableries” comes in a slipcase with a colored hologram on the cover. This image from the publisher really doesn’t do it justice. It’s a claim German researchers Claus-Christian Carbon and Vera Hesslinger assert in their study of Leonardo’s famous portrait, “Mona Lisa.” The pair have been analyzing the well-known version of La Giaconda that hangs at Paris’ Louvre, as well as an eerily similar copy known as the “Prado Mona Lisa,” housed at the Museo del Prado in Spain, and have concluded that the two artworks — taken together — may amount to the first stereoscopic image in the world. Later this week, May and co-authors Denis Pellerin and Paula Fleming are releasing a book about a fascinating and unusual series of stereo photographs, which were something of a phenomenon in 19th century France, and bear the wonderful name ‘Diableries’. For his birthday, Satan gets flowers, a triumphal arch, an organ grinder, gingerbread and a freak show. Some of the flourishes, like a monogram “S” on the arch, may have been a parody of Napoleon. Tableaux depicting life in hell, better known as Diableries, were all the rage in nineteenth century France but over the years the stereo images made after those clay tableaux were scattered and their hidden meaning lost. When first published in 2013, this book featured all but two of the 182 scenes in the series. Remarkably, the two lost remaining views have now been found! This 2018 Complete Edition features the full compliment, to be enjoyed just as their creators intended in magnificent 3-D.

Synonyms

ZOE: Well there’s an exhibition to celebrate devilish Diableries, which is taking place at Soho’s Century Club in London, Monday the 28th of October. Brian, you’re gonna be there. People will be able to come and get their book signed but also there’s a film that goes with this, isn’t there? The Diableries film “One Night In Hell”, which has been put together by Jason Jameson and James Hall.

For one day only, Soho’s Century Club will be transformed into a gothic Victorian crypt of temptation and seduction. Whilst surrounded by fantastic imagery depicting demonic scenes with carousing skeletons, devils and satyrs, you will have the opportunity to see the Diableries stories come to life in 3-D using Brian May’s stereoscopic viewer which he designed in the shape of an Owl and named just that. To sum up, as far as Renaissance 3-D paintings go, the truth of the matter seems to be that many artists created more than one version of their favourite scenes, sometimes painting in places quite far apart geographically, so they must have carried with them very detailed drawings which they were able to transfer to the surface they were working on. They were surprisingly accurate but there were of course some discrepancies between versions. It is these discrepancies, minor variations, that lead some people to think that they see a stereo image when fusing the two paintings. But, as we’ve seen, these variations are not consistent with any deliberate scheme of parallax. Sorry, guys, the 3-D image we all wanted to be there is simply not there. For more than 40 years now, Brian May has been staring into the eyes of the Devil. It all began one day in Portobello Road Market, when he was shown a piece of card on which were printed two scenes of cavorting skeletons and demons. This was his introduction to Diableries, pictures created by 19th-century French artists, showing Satan and his minions both at work and play. What made these images still more memorable was that, when viewed through a stereoscopic eyepiece, they coalesced into a three-dimensional whole. There is a postscript. It is possible to paint in 3-D. Salvador Dali did it more than once, creating stereo pairs which work pretty well in the stereoscope. See my article on this, a long time ago, on Bri’s Soapbox.

As for assertions that Giovanni Battista della Porta (1538 (1535?)-1615), also understood binocular vision, if you’re interested, look at this great discussion by Abram Klooswyk:

Uncover the stories behind the Diableries and follow their journey through the underworld using the full size OWL stereoscopic viewer, neatly housed in a storage envelope and inserted alongside the book in a protective slipcase.The Complete Edition of the critically acclaimed, Diableries: Stereoscopic Adventures in Hell, publishes on 28th October and includes the final two cards, which after a worldwide quest Brian and his co-authors, Denis Pellerin and Paula Fleming, finally located. You can read Carbon and Hesslinger’s entire study here. Let us know your thoughts on Leonardo’s 3D aspirations in the comments. Unanico Group is an internationally award-winning entertainment company co-founded by Jason Jameson and Paul Laikin. Based in central London, Unanico Group has two divisions: Unanico Entertainment and Unanico Studios. The talented team of both divisions are multi-cultural and multi-lingual, and bring decades of experience in the entertainment industry to projects and partnerships.