The Squid in Saint-Malo Cathedral

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Phineas G

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Oct 31, 2021, 12:28:28 PM10/31/21
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In chapter 18 of the second part of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Conseil jokes that he has seen a "big longboat dragged under the waves by the arms of a squid." Upon further questioning, it is revealed that Conseil is referring to a painting he saw in a church in Saint-Malo. Professor Aronnax also claims to have heard of the painting.

Has anyone been able to identify the painting in question, or even some possible candidates?

Don Sample

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Oct 31, 2021, 5:35:27 PM10/31/21
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Verne may be referring to the rather famous painting by Pierre Denys de Montfort https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Denys_de_Montfort

image1.JPG

Don't know if it ever resided in Saint-Malo cathedral.


On Oct 31, 2021, at 12:28 PM, Phineas G <phins...@gmail.com> wrote:

In chapter 18 of the second part of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Conseil jokes that he has seen a "big longboat dragged under the waves by the arms of a squid." Upon further questioning, it is revealed that Conseil is referring to a painting he saw in a church in Saint-Malo. Professor Aronnax also claims to have heard of the painting.

Has anyone been able to identify the painting in question, or even some possible candidates?

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Don Sample

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Oct 31, 2021, 5:51:25 PM10/31/21
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Sent from my iPad

On Oct 31, 2021, at 5:35 PM, 'Don Sample' via Jules Verne Forum <jules-ve...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

Verne may be referring to the rather famous painting by Pierre Denys de Montfort https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Denys_de_Montfort

<image1.JPG>

Don't know if it ever resided in Saint-Malo cathedral.

Also, Verne's original French description is "une grande embarcation" which I think would be better translated as "a large boat" than "a big longboat". "Longboat" implies a type of smaller craft carried by bigger ships.


On Oct 31, 2021, at 12:28 PM, Phineas G <phins...@gmail.com> wrote:

In chapter 18 of the second part of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Conseil jokes that he has seen a "big longboat dragged under the waves by the arms of a squid." Upon further questioning, it is revealed that Conseil is referring to a painting he saw in a church in Saint-Malo. Professor Aronnax also claims to have heard of the painting.

Has anyone been able to identify the painting in question, or even some possible candidates?

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Phineas G

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Oct 31, 2021, 10:07:51 PM10/31/21
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In the small amount of research I did on the topic, I had at first dismissed Montfort's piece, which is done in pen and wash. This was because Miller & Walter's English text uses the word "painting" to describe the work. However, the French uses the word "tableau", meaning this piece qualifies. I'll have to try to find out if it ever resided in Saint-Malo.

Jan Rychlik

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Nov 1, 2021, 1:53:43 AM11/1/21
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It is said that Montfort did the drawing after the painting donated to the St. Thomas church in Saint-Malo by the captain of the boat. It is also mentioned in Hugo’s Travailleurs de la mer, which may have inspired JV


1. 11. 2021 v 3:07, Phineas G <phins...@gmail.com>:

In the small amount of research I did on the topic, I had at first dismissed Montfort's piece, which is done in pen and wash. This was because Miller & Walter's English text uses the word "painting" to describe the work. However, the French uses the word "tableau", meaning this piece qualifies. I'll have to try to find out if it ever resided in Saint-Malo.

Jean-Louis Trudel

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Nov 1, 2021, 2:48:48 AM11/1/21
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Greetings,

This blog post has a long excerpt from Montfort:
https://lesmaitresfous.blogspot.com/2011/05/la-pieuvre.html

Jean-Louis Trudel

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mken...@aol.com

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Nov 1, 2021, 8:11:24 AM11/1/21
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In the annotations to his German edition of the novel, Volker Dehs says that the original painting was from 1661. It was in the chapel of Saint Thomas till 1789 and from then on in the cathedral of Saint-Malo. It was lost in August 1944 during the liberation of Saint-Malo, when it was either destroyed or stolen.

It seems that Montfort’s reproduction of the painting was in black and white and engraved by https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etienne_Claude_Voysard.
See here:

Don Sample

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Nov 1, 2021, 3:30:04 PM11/1/21
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On Nov 1, 2021, at 2:48 AM, Jean-Louis Trudel <trud...@gmail.com> wrote:

Greetings,

This blog post has a long excerpt from Montfort:
https://lesmaitresfous.blogspot.com/2011/05/la-pieuvre.html

Jean-Louis Trudel

re that Hokusai print:

And here I thought tentacle porn was a more recent Japanese fetish.

mken...@aol.com

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Nov 1, 2021, 3:56:28 PM11/1/21
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>It seems that Montfort’s reproduction of the painting was in black and white
To be more precise: It could have been in colour, but the engraving is in black and white, and I do not think it was published in a colourized version during Montfort’s lifetime.

I guess that the picture in colour
is a colourized version of the engraving, but it’s difficult to tell since the resolution is rather low.
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