Erik Kwakkel, Professor of Book History & Director, School of Information, UBC, Vancouver, Canada, shares all sorts of interesting tidbits online. Among the older ones—posted over seven years ago now and dating from the Middle Ages—are some wonderful children’s drawings made on birch bark.
This piece of bark is from among a large find made near the city of Novgorod, Russia, from the 13th century.
Isn’t it interesting? Look at the eyebrows and the noses! And the torsos! Incredibly cephalopodic, in a charming way. And the hands look like rakes. The figures are clearly identifiable as humans, but the customary ways of drawing some of the details seems to have changed over the centuries quite a bit.
Check out Kwakkel’s Tumblr or Twitter for more book history particulars.
Image via Erik Kwakkel on Tumblr
Out There is an occasional feature highlighting intriguing art, spaces, places, phenomena, flora, and fauna.
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