UFO & Shapeshifters in a 17th Century Painting by David Ryckaert III? La Ronde Des Farfadets (The D

I'll try to stay on topic here in this post. First, OP thank you for bringing this painting to my attention. I had never seen or heard of it before, and I'm sure to have nightmares now as those are some pretty disturbing elves . Second, while there are many other (arguably better) images of what appear to depict objects flying through the sky in paintings from the past, this is not one of them.

I understand that you claim you were making no judgments or comments about the image, but you did title the thread "UFO & Shapeshifters ......". So it seemed that you at least suspected that the image above the creatures was possibly a UFO. I have to say that I feel you may have missed the mark. That the object above them is clearly a bowl I have no doubt. Why it's above their heads? Well that I can't answer. And just to show that there are much better examples you could have used here is just one of the many that exist.


Image Source

Now granted some could say that those were representations of angels, which is fine, but they at least show something that resembles a UFO. You know, as in Unidentified Flying Object?

Originally posted by Sinny
Bloody nora, thats a bit disturbing! aha.

Thing above looks like a clay bowl/pot hanging from the tree

Odd.

it's a glazed bowl because it is reflective

Im not sure what the terracotta bowl is for, but that resembles Buddha near the light in the top left and Pan near the fire center right. the bowl looks like it has a substance in it, like caramel.

strange painting.

Love and harmony
Whateva

reply to post by Sinny

You make me smile you think the clouds look odd, but the human with wings sticking out of their back isn't

Love and harmony
Whateva

Originally posted by bottleslingguy

Originally posted by gortex
reply to post by HillbillyHippie1

 

It looks to me like a bowl that's been flung into the air ... don't know what else to say really

you guys don't see the string and tree branch it's hanging from?

www.abovetopsecret.com...

I do now ... either way its a bowl and not a reflection nor a UFO , hanging or flung really makes no difference

How do you know it wasn't flung into the air and the string caught the branch which left it hanging ... it could be both flung and hanging

Even moreso than the hanging bowl, I am wondering what that statue-like thing is in the top left.

reply to post by Whateva69


aha, you just made me smile at my self, I didnt notice the wings,

whatcha think? Angel or something? Angels usually have white wings though

reply to post by HillbillyHippie1

reply to post by Arken


I do indeed. Are you claiming that there is a segment in either book in any credible version, that says 'we have mistaken aliens from another world as demons and other entities of a paranormal nature'?


It doesn't have to be those words of course, anything similar? Or should your original statement should have said 'in my opinion' instead of stating something as fact?

I think the bowl may be a reference to a superstitious test used to determine if a baby were stolen and replaced by a changeling. A bowl is placed in front of the baby and a shoe was placed in it. If the baby laughed then he was a changeling. In this case they stole the bowl so they could not be detected.

superstitionsonline.com...

reply to post by HillbillyHippie1


Some info here for you

historyofgeology.fieldofscience.com...

Ancient myths know for certain, that these must be the imprints of the hoofs of the devil and his demons. Dark legends tell also about places where the devil meets witches and sorcerers, who sell their soul to him and gain magic powers and the ability to shift their shape.

More from the link

Some of these sorcerers like even to adopt the form of a putrefied mule skeleton during these gatherings.

Superstitious mumbo jumbo it seems

I think what the painter is trying to show is some witchcraft where supernatural creatures are making a bowl float in the air. You have to realize that at the time this was painted it was very risky to be painting about such matters as the church might have you put to death or something. So there was no publicly available art like this for anyone to see.

This painting was designed to shock. A painting like this would be very scary to people back then and seeing a floating bowl in a picture would seem totally surreal. Almost mind blowing.

Originally posted by gortex

Originally posted by bottleslingguy

Originally posted by gortex
reply to post by HillbillyHippie1

 

It looks to me like a bowl that's been flung into the air ... don't know what else to say really

you guys don't see the string and tree branch it's hanging from?

www.abovetopsecret.com...

I do now ... either way its a bowl and not a reflection nor a UFO , hanging or flung really makes no difference

How do you know it wasn't flung into the air and the string caught the branch which left it hanging ... it could be both flung and hanging

edit on 14-8-2012 by gortex because: Edit to add

I don't have a problem with it being a bowl.

What Wiki says about the painter:

"Ryckaert is noted for large and often humorous genre pictures of farmers and landlords, and powerfully coloured still lifes. He also painted a range of other subjects, including religious pictures"

Look in the darker lower left, there seems to sit a small gnome-like fellow, more like what I'd think of as an elf.

Now, the elf-gnome is scared, why? Perhaps the painter felt that his humorous and good spirit had left him for the moment, and he was overcome with seemingly hellish worry and woe? Those look like hell hounds to me, not elves. So, that would be my biographcal interpretation.

It could also be a critique of religion: Look, our old stories of gnomes are replaced with hell hounds. It's possible. Mind you, that would be the 'Dance of the elves', the power of various mythical creatures to 'steal the picture', as it were.

That's how I'd approach the painting, I see no reason to include an UFO/alien angle whatsoever.

Originally posted by HillbillyHippie1
First allow me to say that I am not making any claims, in fact, I am posting this here to see what some of the great researchers on ATS can come up with.

I was just browsing around at some artwork involving elves and I came across the painting La Ronde Des Farfadets (The Dance of the Elves) by the seventeenth century painter David Ryckaert III. Naturally I found the painting very interesting and at first I completely overlooked the strange bowl-shaped object in the center/top, figuring it was some image caught by the glare of the camera which took this image, but as I looked at it, it looked like it is part of the painting, to me. Here is the painting:




Anyone capable of confirming whether or not this object is in the painting? What do you think it looks like?

They don't look like elves they look like dead creatures. I see a dead dog, a dead rat and a dead chicken holding hands with a couple dead people. This fellow was macabre.

"UFO shaped clouds"... really?
quadruple facepalm, making use of hands and feet
en.wikipedia.org...

Im actually pretty confused on the topic of this thread.

It is a painting. Just a painting. It is of some creepy creatures. There is no UFO. There is no alien. There is no "shapeshifter". So, im curious as to why this is in A&U?



^^^bowl hanging from a tree limb by a string^^^

I looked at some of his other paintings and several of them show cups, bowls, and other receptacles hanging from sticks or poles. Probably a handy way to store your stuff at the time. Here are some examples:

Example 1
Example 2
...and here's a funny painting where he has somebody beating the "elves" off with, what, a sword or something, I guess. (No bowl in that one, just thought it was funny.)

Here's a thought - maybe he included the bowl hanging above in the OP painting for perspective on the size of the "elves"?

Originally posted by Whateva69
Im not sure what the terracotta bowl is for, but that resembles Buddha near the light in the top left and Pan near the fire center right.

i noticed the man as well. im guessing it is supposed to be god. my take is he is slightly amused watching the elves dance around the bowl but not being able to reach. as if he is taunting them for his own pleasure. thats just whatever im getting out of it. a lot of art is what the viewer takes from it.

although looking closer it looks like "God" is holding a baby or something.

who really knows what was going through the mind of the artist. we can hardly decipher some modern artists let alone someone from a different time period. imagine how horrifying the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch must of looked to people in the 1500s?

edit: to add i think that it is possible his use of hanging items like bowls and pitchers represent the futility of trying to grasp something possibly the material life. there is also one of a man trying to swat at some flying creatures possibly representing someone trying to fend of demons(problems).

actually IMHO this painting belongs in DIA with all the other eyesores there