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JSM=John Soane's Museum, MMA=Metropolitan Museum of Art,
MFAB=Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Other museum names are listed
in full)
Battle
of Naked Men (Antonio Pollaiuolo, 15th c., MMA)
An engraving showing ten men engaged in a vicious battle with
weapons raised for the death blows. This painting could come
to life to show the outcome of their fight: total carnage.
Could be very macabre and funny.
The Tournament of Lances
(Lucas Cranach the Elder, 15th c, MMA)
A woodcut showing a melee or a mass fight between armored
knights with lances. Potential for a maze-like puzzle in this
intricate work—perhaps following the various lances to
their targets.
Death
Killing the Lovers (after Hans Burgkmair, 16th c. MMA)
Death—a skull faced monster with tattered wings—pulls
apart a young man's jaw to snatch out his soul while catching
the man's beloved by her gown with his teeth. Just the kind
of thing Weil would have in his gallery.
The Knight, Death and the Devil
(Durer, 16th c., MMA)
The depictions of Death and the Devil in this engraving are
amazing. Possible vignette?
The
Alchemist (After Bruegel the Elder, 16th c., MMA)
A scene filled with activity, objects and characters showing
the attempt to turn lead into gold. Might be used as the basis
for an image puzzle.

Leda and the Swan. Erotic
art.
The Temptation of Saint Anthony
Abbot (Sassetta, 15th c., MMA)
A magical/fantastical tempera painting of the Saint in a deserted
landscape. Potential here for advice from the figure of St.
Anthony warning the Visitor of Weil. The Blue Angel could
appear in the painting as one of the Saint's temptations.
The Ship of Fools (Bosch,
15th c., Louvre)
Lust and gluttony on a boat. Very funny painting.
Crucifixion
and The Last Judgement (Jan van Eyck, 15th c., MMA)
The bottom part of this painting is a Bosch-like vision of
hell with bodies writhing in torment, lizard-headed monsters,
demons with gaping mouths in their torsos, and a skeleton
with black wings hovering over them all.
Judith
With the Head of Holofernes (Lucas Cranach the Elder,
16th c. MMA)
We could replace the face of Judith here with the Blue Angel.
Vanitas
(still life from reverse of Portrait of Jane-Loyse Tissier,
Rijksmuseum, 16th c.)
Cool painting of a skull on a bookshelf. This is on the reverse
of a portrait of a young woman. We could have the same sort
of visual hint on the back of a portrait—the Visitor
must turn the painting over to see this secret image.
The
Ugly Duchess (Quentin Massys, 16th c., National Gallery,
London.)
A hilarious painting. We can put the title "Mom"
under it, as though it were a portrait of Weil's mother.
The
Incantation (Goya, 18th c. Lazaro Galdiano Foundation,
Madrid)
A possible vignette based on this painting. The story is about
a man who is shunned by several women in his village, so he
conspires to have them burned at the stake as witches. After
their deaths, they come back to haunt him in the guises of
hideous witches. We enter the vignette through the painting.
The finale of the vignette is what happens in the moments
after the image of the frozen painting (that is, the witches
have their revenge).

The
Stibbert Museum This museumin Florence has a huge collection
of armor. Check images of two of the rooms' European and Japanese
armor. These might serve as prototypes for the War room. In
this collection is the Devil's Mask: a knight's helm with
eerie "devil's" horns. A full-size reproduction
of this suit of armor could inhabit one of the rooms of the
house and stalk the Visitor.

David
with the Head of Goliath (Bartolommeo Bellano, 15th c.,
MMA)
Possible vignette material here or animated statue of David
giving advice to player (with comment from the decapitated
head of Goliath at his feet).
Ephesian
Artemis (2nd c. AD, JSM)
Cult fertility figure from the temple of Artemis.
Pilasters with Angels (Giovanni
Pisano, 14th c., MMA)
Four angels blowing on trumpets. Cool Gothic design. Angels
could come to life playing a Medieval trumpet piece that changes
to a 30's style cabaret song, backing up the Blue Angel in
a song.
Ugolin
(Carpeaux, 1860, Musee d'Orsay)
Statue of a man biting his fingers in agony with his four
starving sons at his feet. This statue would be a fantastic
segue to a vignette. Ugolin was a 13th century Italian tyrant
who was imprisoned by his enemy with his children and grandchildren
and condemned to die of starvation. Count Ugolin finally died,
but only after eating his offspring.
Model
of Egyptians Butchering an Ox (2000 B.C., MFAB)
These lifelike models were placed in tombs. Many of them showed
acts of daily life like pottery and beer making, soldiers
and servants. The Egyptian vignette could be told with these
figures coming to life in pseudo stop-action style.
Winged
Assyrian Bulls, Khorsabad, palace of Sargon of Assyria
(721-705 BC, Louvre)
Two of these Assyrian bulls with the heads of men are built
into a doorway in the Louvre. We should have something like
this in Weil's museum. The heads could come to life and speak
to the Viewer as they enter one of the rooms—perhaps
bar the Visitor's entrance until they have answered a riddle
from the bulls.
Diana The Huntress & The Martyrdom
of Saint Sebastion
A 16th Century painting of an innocent but tortured looking
young man, Saint Sebastian, his body pierced with arrows.
He comes to life. He speaks, "The pain is very great!
I beseech you by all that's holy, help free me from this place
of torment. I must warn you of a great threat--a danger to
your soul..
He seems suddenly terrified by something on the other side
of the room. A statue of Diana The Huntress (Artemis) coming
to life. She draws her bow and launches an arrow which hits
the young man in the throat to stop him from speaking. The
tortured soul then fades back into the static 2 dimensional
painting hanging on the wall and the Diana statue becomes
lifeless once again.
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Egyptian
Canopic Jars (1000 BC, Detroit Institute of the Arts)
During the mummification process, the internal organs were
removed and placed into special jars. These would be part
of the "mummy’s organs" puzzle.
Greek
Vase, Two Warriors Fighting (6th c., MFAB)
An example of the kind of Greek vase that might be in the
museum showing two men dueling with spears. (Archaic style.)
Celestial
Globe with Clockwork (Austrian or Bohemian, 16th c., MMA)
A silver horse with a clockwork globe showing the zodiac mounted
on its back. Potential here for a puzzle involving aligning
the constellations.
Byzantium,
Chalice (1501, Church of St. Sabbas, Nicosia)
A strange, golden chalice with curling dragon heads for handles.
Anatomy Skeleton (JSM)
The Visitor finds an anatomy skeleton that comes to life and
tells his story. (He sold his future corpse to Weil while
he was still alive. Weil poisoned him to expedite his death.)
Model of Etruscan Tomb (JSM)
A miniature Etruscan tomb with a skeleton, pottery and other
vessels.
Model of Stonehenge (JSM)
An accurate rendering of the Neolithic stone circles in the
Salisbury plains when they were complete and undamaged. Touching
the model with the cursor, however, causes the stones to fall
like dominos, revealing the present day, dilapidated Stonehenge.
Gypsy Fortune Teller Automaton
A mechanical gypsy fortune teller in a booth. Every time the
Viewer clicks on it, he gets a different fortune. Some are
standard fare "You will soon be going on a long sea voyage".
Others are related to various Vignettes such as the Booth
Vignette, "Thus always to tyrants." "You will
meet a dark stranger in the woods." "You will be
famous in the theatre." At one point, you click on it
and instead of dispensing a piece of paper, the automaton
leans forward with a chillingly human look of intensity on
her face and tells the player "YOU WILL DIE!"
Stereo Photo Viewer
Old fashioned stereo photo viewer. Click on it and zoom in
to see a "stereo pair" of some vintage photographs.
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