Melusina Mermaid: The Art Deco Mermaids of Carlo Chiostri

Monday, May 9, 2011

The Art Deco Mermaids of Carlo Chiostri

Carlo Chiostri (1863 - 1939) was a prolific, Italian illustrator, quite often illustrating fairy tales. Among these fairy pictures are his mermaids with their pretty, little faces & bright, red lips. Something like a precursor to Disney's mermaids in Peter Pan & The Little Mermaid.

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*Oscar Wilde*

And she sang a marvelous song. For she sang of the Sea-folk who drive their flocks from cave to cave, & carry the little calves on their shoulders; of the Tritons who have long green beards, & hairy breasts, & blow through twisted conches when the King passes by; of the palace of the King which is all of amber, with a roof of clear emerald, & a pavement of bright pearl; & of the gardens of the sea where the great filigrane fans of coral wave all day long, & the fish dart about like silver birds, & the anemones cling to the rocks, & the pinks bourgeon in the ribbed yellow sand.

*Hans Christian Andersen*

Now the little mermaid saw that they were in danger & she had for her own sake to beware of the floating beams & wreckage. One moment it was so pitch dark that she could not see at all, but when the lightning flashed it became so light that she could see all on board. Every man was looking out for his own safety as best he could, but she more particularly followed the young prince with her eyes, & when the ship went down she saw him sink in the deep sea. At first she was quite delighted, for now he was coming to be with her, but then she remembered that human beings could not live under water, & that only if he were dead could he go to her father's palace. No! he must not die; so she swam towards him all among the drifting beams & planks, quite forgetting that they might crush her. She dived deep down under the water, & came up again through the waves, & at last reached the young prince just as he was becoming unable to swim any further in the stormy sea.