Mervyn Peake, Mannerism, and The Morgan Library

Delighted to say that Garance Coggins references Lobster & Canary in "From Pictures to Prose: How Goya and Rembrandt Contributed to the Titus Books," published this fall in Peake Studies (click here).  Coggins refers to L & C's July 29, 2012 entry, " 'Anything, Seen Without Prejudice, Is Enormous': Mervyn Peake, Caricature, and the Baroque Roots of Modern Fantasy Literature"  (click here).

[Among many insights, Coggins quotes from chapter 14 of Gormenghast, a scene from Bellgrove's class:  "The ink was blue, dark, musty, dirtyish, deep as cruel water at night: what were the other colours?  Titus was surprised at the richness, the variety."]

Along similar lines, for more possible influences on Peake's work (or at least parallel imagery), I recommend a small but powerful exhibition currently at The Morgan Library & Museum in Manhattan:  "Fantasy and Invention: Rosso Fiorentino and Sixteenth-Century Florentine Drawing"  (click here).