20 February 2024

The Bayeux Travesty


Front and back covers of the Harvard Lampoon issue of December 1966, depicting the Harvard-Yale football game.
The Bayeux Travesty is meticulously faithful to the original in colors, design, and its Romanesque style. “His calligraphy was letter-perfect,” says historian Ted Widmer ’84, Ph.D. ’93, a Lampoon alumnus like Rayman. “Among many other things, David was a medievalist who loved illuminated manuscripts.” The artist’s wicked wit also inspired dog-Latin inscriptions that smuggled outright obscenities onto the magazine cover without a single peep of reader protest.
More information about the artist and his tragic death by defenestration at Harvard Magazine.

10 comments:

  1. more art https://www.muzen.com/david-ck-mcclelland David C. K. McClelland

    and the super extra large jumbo travesty: https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/610434642c6d3422ab872539/3c2fb33e-7c00-486a-a569-4d03e69e44e6/Bayeux+Travesty+Edited+for+Website.jpg

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    1. Every image I've been able to find of the cover has a pinkish tinge, even though the travesty was said to be "faithful to the original" in colors. I wonder if the magazine cover had a pink tinge or whether everyone has been reproducing a poor copy of the original.

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    2. The colors look better here, but there is also glare from the glass and lights:

      https://www.flickr.com/photos/181827690@N02/48003739221/

      More of his art:

      https://www.flickr.com/photos/181827690@N02/ Celebrating David C. K. McClelland

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    3. That looks much better. Apparently the archives of the magazine are behind a paywall.

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    4. video of the 2019 event:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EC7iz79WBJ8 45:47 Celebrating David C. K. McClelland

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    5. Thank you. Obviously the original was on a traditional white background.

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  2. I thought to be 'defenestrated', someone has to do it to you? He defenestrated himself - does that count?

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    1. It literally means "to throw something" and I used it here in the sense that he threw himself.

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  3. Related -- https://htck.github.io/bayeux/#!/

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  4. I get some of the jokes and humour in that 'travesty'; I am sure that I am missing out on many more. I wish there was a good explanation of / pointers to ALL of them?

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