medieval art

Beavers are incredible creatures and significant ecosystem manipulators, but they’ve also been subject to various written and illustrative inaccuracies. Medieval bestiaries often depict the common beaver as a weird-looking dog that bites off its own testicles when pursued by mounted hunters. In this episode of Stuff to Blow Your Mind, Rob and Joe explore the meaning of these inaccuracies as well as the actual biological wonder of North American and Eurasian beavers. 

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From glowing rings to flaming sun discs, the halo takes many forms in religious iconography. Why do angels, saints, gods and demigods love standing beneath or in front of these things? In this episode of Stuff to Blow Your Mind, Robert and Joe explore the nature of halos in myth, art and optics.

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We’ve all marveled at the grotesque, oddly-proportioned old man babies in medieval art -- but why did artists of the period pain such creatures? In this special Christmas episode of Stuff to Blow Your Mind, Robert Lamb and Joe McCormick explore the convergence of the homunculus theory of human reproduction, the nativity and the infants of medieval and renaissance art. (Originally published Dec. 21, 2017)

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We’ve all marveled at the grotesque, oddly-proportioned old man babies in medieval art -- but why did artists of the period pain such creatures? In this special Christmas episode of Stuff to Blow Your Mind, Robert and Joe explore the convergence of the homunculus theory of human reproduction, the nativity and the infants of medieval and renaissance art.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.