Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Illustration Friday - Tales and Legends 2 - Man In Black



On the building of Old Town Hall complex, right next to a Gothic bay window, you can see a picture of the man in black who is mentioned in one of the oldest stories - about a widow and a false oath.

Every Wednesday , people used to come to the town hall court with their complaints to seek justice. Once a widow stated that her husband´s field had been robbed by one of the municipal lords who was sitting in the room. He replied that the woman is mad and pulled out a document with a seal which confirmed that the field was his. "The document can´t be right! " screamed the desperate widow. "Let the Municipal Lord swear that he is telling the truth ! " He did so, and added, " If it is a false oath, let me be punished justly." Then the whole house shook and became smoky, from the smoke appeared a devil, he threw the liar over his shoulder, and before he disappeared with his booty touched the Town Hall wall with his black hand, and left for ever pressed into it picture of the lying Municipal Lord. Or his own , who knows it exactly today?
And here it is Devil/man in black , done in watercolor and Lamy ink pen on WN CotmanNOT/cold pressed 300 gsm watercolor paper

3 comments:

Rowena said...

I really enjoyed this, both the illo and the legend! Thanks for sharing this. :-)

Paul Bommer said...

I adore stories like that
and stories about the devil
brilliant
its a fantastic pic too

Joan Sandford-Cook said...

Hi JaKo - you kindly popped into my blog for the first time and I always make it a habit of viewing new visitors blogs. How interesting all the way from mysterious Slovakia. Found your blog so so interesting and loved your version of the man in black. Will add it to my favourites to view and read regularly.