Astral Codex Ten

Artwork

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Artwork

Entities classified as artwork within this archive.

Reference Index

Use the title to open the reference entry. Use the caret to expand a compact inline dossier with source context, issue trail, related pages, and outbound links.

Agony In The Garden1 mentions across 1 issues

Agony In The Garden is a recurring artwork in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between November 20, 2024 and November 20, 2024. The archive places it in contexts such as "This is “Agony In The Garden” by Andrea Mantenga, 1455". It most often appears alongside /r/ImaginaryWarhammer, 19th Century, Abstract/Modern.

Reference entry
Agony In The Garden
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
November 20, 2024
Last seen
November 20, 2024
Outbound links
Issue trail
Related pages
Source context
How Did You Do On The AI Art Turing Test?
November 20, 2024 · Original source
Human. This is “Agony In The Garden” by Andrea Mantenga, 1455.
Inline links: “Agony In The Garden”
Christ Crucified (With Donor)1 mentions across 1 issues

Christ Crucified (With Donor) is a recurring artwork in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between December 28, 2022 and December 28, 2022. The archive places it in contexts such as "a mention of this 1640 piece, Christ Crucified (With Donor) , which I think of as the Renaissance version". It most often appears alongside 2C-B, 48: Bean, @AliceFromQueens.

Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
December 28, 2022
Last seen
December 28, 2022
Outbound links
Issue trail
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Source context
Links For December 2022
December 28, 2022 · Original source
57: @Cryptovexillologist: Disconnected Thoughts On Art Reproduction. The highlight is a mention of this 1640 piece, Christ Crucified (With Donor), which I think of as the Renaissance version of the highest Kickstarter reward tier:
Inline links: Disconnected Thoughts On Art Reproduction
El Marcado de la Independencia1 mentions across 1 issues

El Marcado de la Independencia is a recurring artwork in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between August 22, 2025 and August 22, 2025. The archive places it in contexts such as "El Marcado de la Independencia, by Rugendas in 1843". It most often appears alongside Andes, Anti, Anti-suyu.

Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
August 22, 2025
Last seen
August 22, 2025
Outbound links
Issue trail
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Source context
Your Review: Ollantay
August 22, 2025 · Original source
El Marcado de la Independencia, by Rugendas in 1843. He did some nice paintings of Lima while on tour. Rugendas asked the monks in the convent to make a copy of Ollantay for him. This copy was rather damaged, having sat in a damp convent for eighty years, but the monks obliged and did the best they could. Rugendas brought this copy back to Germany when he returned to Europe in 1846, where it became a curiosity as an example of the Quechua language. He also brought back word that an undamaged copy existed in some priest’s rectory. An Englishman with an interest in Inca history decided that he was going to find this undamaged version and write an English translation, and so in 1853 Sir Clements Markham9 added “find and translate Ollantay” to his agenda for an upcoming expedition to the Andes. He succeeded, finding that other priest who held that other copy and meticulously copying every word of Ollantay in both Quechua and Spanish, then translating that to English. And so we can read, watch, and perform Ollantay, the play that launched a thousand ships. The Story Ollantay is a love story.10 The lovers are the titular Ollantay and Cusi Coyllur Ñusta - he the chief of the Anti people (to be clear, Anti is the Quechua name of the clan; they’re not anti-people) and she the daughter of the Inca emperor. As the play begins, they have already been clandestine lovers for quite some time and the princess is secretly pregnant by Ollantay. But Ollantay, being simply a regional warlord, is not a suitable match for a princess. The play begins with Ollantay pining to his page - who fills the only role of “comic relief”11 - that he must marry Coyllur: Have I not already said That e’en if death’s fell scythe was here, If mountains should oppose my path Like two fierce foes who block the way, Yet will I fight all these combined And risk all else to gain my end, And whether it be life or death I’ll cast myself at Coyllur’s feet. The two run into the high priest, whose introductory soliloquy is a paean to the blood of llamas: O giver of all warmth and light O Sun! I fall and worship thee. For thee the victims are prepared, A thousand llamas and their lambs Are ready for thy festal day. The sacred fire’ll lap their blood, In thy dread presence, mighty one, After long fast thy victims fall. The priest and Ollantay then discuss how Ollantay can definitely not marry the princess and it’s a really bad idea for him to try. Ollantay reiterates his desires, to which the priest can only give one final warning: Put a seed into the ground, It multiplies a hundredfold; The more thy crime shall grow and swell, The greater far thy sudden fall. Ollantay then approaches the emperor and asks for the hand of his daughter with a long soliloquy. The emperor waves him off in four lines: Ollantay, thou dost now presume. Thou art a subject, nothing more. Remember, bold one, who thou art, And learn to keep thy proper place. And so in the next scene, Ollantay swears vengeance: When flames rise to the heavens. Cuzco shall sleep on a bloody couch, The King shall perish in its fall; Then shall my insulter see How numerous are my followers. When thou, proud King, art at my feet, We then shall see if thou wilt say, ‘Thou art too base for Coyllur’s hand.’ He returns home and gathers an army. The emperor then dispatches his own army to go hunt down Ollantay, but Ollantay’s men successfully ambush them in a mountain pass and destroy the Inca army without losing a man: A rain of stones both great and small Down on the crowd of warriors crashed, On every side destruction flashed, Thy heart the slaughter did appall. Like a strong flood the blood did flow, Inundating the ravine; So sad a sight thou ne’er hast seen— No man survived to strike a blow. Ollantay doesn’t press his advantage, though, and is content instead to build up his base of power in his home province. This proves to be a mistake. General Rumi-Ñaui, the general who lost the battle in the mountain pass, comes up with a different, better plan. He begs the emperor for another chance, and the emperor grants it. Rumi-Ñaui shows up to Ollantay, beaten and bloody, and spins a tale of betrayal by the emperor. Ollantay takes the bait and invites him into his capital, then tells him that they will shut the gates and party for three days straight: It will be so. For three whole nights We drink and feast, to praise the Sun, The better to cast all care aside We shall be shut in Tampu fort. Rumi-Ñaui waits for Ollantay’s whole army to be passed-out drunk. Then he opens the gates and invites his army to come in and kill or capture the lot of them. Ollantay is brought back to Cuzco in chains. Things are looking bad for him. I’ll let the play take it from here (Túpac Yupanqui is the emperor, and tocarpus are execution stakes): TÚPAC YUPANQUI: Know that tocarpus are prepared. Remove those traitors from my sight, Let them all perish, and at once. RUMI-ÑAUI: Take these three men without delay To the dreaded execution stakes; Secure them with unyielding ropes, And hurl them from the lofty rocks. TÚPAC YUPANQUI: Stop! Cast off their bonds. (The guards unbind them. They all kneel.) (To Ollantay, kneeling). Rise from thy knees; come to my side. (Rises.) Now thou hast seen death very near, You that have shown ingratitude, Learn how mercy flows from my heart; I will raise thee higher than before. Thou wert Chief of Anti-suyu, Now see how far my love will go; I make thee Chief in permanence. Receive this plume as general, This arrow emblem of command. That’s right! Ollantay swore eternal vengeance on the emperor, seceded, set himself up as a king, destroyed an entire Inca army, and is rewarded for his betrayal by being made viceroy. Rumi-Ñaui has no problem with this, saying: Prince Ollantay! Incap Ranti! Thy promotion gives me joy. As the play concludes, Ollantay mentions that he would still very much like to marry Coyllur.12 The emperor of course thinks this is a marvelous idea, and so the two are reunited for the first time in ten years and, oddly enough, the first time in the play. Ollantay is the kind of love story where the lovers only actually speak to each other once, at the very end. And so the play concludes with these words from the emperor: Thy wife is now in thy arms; All sorrow now should disappear, Joy, new born, shall take its place. Which is the Inca version of “and they all lived happily ever after”. Ollantay is not a particularly good play. There’s a reason it has only entered the repertoire of Peruvian high school drama. The whole premise that Ollantay is trying to get back to his lover is dropped in Act II and only resurfaces at the very end of the play, almost as an afterthought. None of the characters evolve; Ollantay is the exact same person at the end of the play that he was at the start. And the resolution is comically abrupt. All the foreshadowing, and there is foreshadowing, implies that both Ollantay and Coyllur will end up dead, but instead they end up married and with a ten-year-old daughter. Turns out the priest was wrong! The seed put in the ground that multiplies a hundred fold won’t precipitate a sudden fall after all! Thematically, Ollantay is not thematic. Ollantay acts virtuously and is rewarded for it. Rumi-Ñaui acts wickedly and is rewarded for it. Coyllur acts…well she doesn’t really act, she just bemoans her fate in Act I and then spends the rest of the play literally hidden behind a stone wall. And it’s not like Ollantay tells us anything about Incan society that would make it valuable from an anthropological perspective. Valdez may have been adapting a traditional Quechua play, but his own Spanish and Catholic background definitely seeped in. As we’ll see, there’s an ongoing debate as to how much of the play is Quechua and how much is Valdez.13 The Same Story But even if Ollantay is not that valuable from an artistic perspective or an anthropological perspective, it is valuable from a historic perspective. You may have noticed some similarities between the plot of Ollantay and the story of Túpac Amaru II. By which I mean that it’s beat-for-beat the same story. A powerful local chief despairs of his inability to <marry a princess / lighten the free labor burden>. After consulting with a local priest, he launches an armed rebellion against the imperial authorities in Cuzco from his home base in the mountains, and quickly raises a large army. He easily defeats the initial army sent to capture him, but instead of marching on Cuzco he focuses on building up his own local power base. This proves to be an error, and he loses control of his own army, leading to military defeat and his own capture. He is taken to Cuzco in chains and <forgiven and made viceroy / brutally tortured and executed>. Pretty much all of the questions surrounding the Túpac Amaru rebellion vanish if you assume that Túpac was not fighting a rebellion but following a script. Why did Túpac not immediately attack Cuzco? Because Ollantay didn’t. Why was he seemingly okay with his army losing its discipline? Because Ollantay was. Why did he put his army in a position to lose? Why was he okay with being taken alive, knowing how the Spanish dealt with rebels? Because Túpac was following the path set by Ollantay: First, declare yourself in rebellion.
Inline links: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13
Garden1 mentions across 1 issues

Garden is a recurring artwork in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between November 20, 2024 and November 20, 2024. The archive places it in contexts such as "This is “Garden” by David Hockney". It most often appears alongside /r/ImaginaryWarhammer, 19th Century, Abstract/Modern.

Reference entry
Garden
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
November 20, 2024
Last seen
November 20, 2024
Outbound links
Issue trail
Related pages
Source context
How Did You Do On The AI Art Turing Test?
November 20, 2024 · Original source
8: Praying In Garden
Human. This is “Agony In The Garden” by Andrea Mantenga, 1455.
Inline links: “Agony In The Garden”
9: Tropical Garden
Lippi’s Madonna1 mentions across 1 issues

Lippi’s Madonna is a recurring artwork in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between April 01, 2025 and April 01, 2025. The archive places it in contexts such as "But I think it means the same thing as Lippi’s Madonna". It most often appears alongside Afghanistan, AI, anime.

Reference entry
Lippi’s Madonna
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
April 01, 2025
Last seen
April 01, 2025
Outbound links
Issue trail
Related pages
Source context
The Colors Of Her Coat
April 01, 2025 · Original source
...house. You could hear him twenty times a day if you wanted. The real thing in Naples would just be more Caruso. And I thought of computer monitors. If you wanted to see Lippi’s Madonna and Child when it was first painted in 1490, you would have to go to Florence and convince Lorenzo de Medici to let you in his house. Now you can see a dozen Lippi paint...
...it depicts how things feel from the inside, not how they really are. People say AI art isn’t art because it doesn’t mean anything. But I think it means the same thing as Lippi’s Madonna: unless you become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
...ny kids, but GPT is an lmpressionist - it depicts how things feel from the inside, not how they really are. People say AI art isn’t art because it doesn’t mean anything. But I think it means the same thing as Lippi’s Madonna: unless you become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Living Saint Hazel1 mentions across 1 issues

Living Saint Hazel is a recurring artwork in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between November 20, 2024 and November 20, 2024. The archive places it in contexts such as "This is “Living Saint Hazel” by LJ Koh, as seen at /r/ImaginaryWarhammer". It most often appears alongside /r/ImaginaryWarhammer, 19th Century, Abstract/Modern.

Reference entry
Living Saint Hazel
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
November 20, 2024
Last seen
November 20, 2024
Outbound links
Issue trail
Related pages
Source context
How Did You Do On The AI Art Turing Test?
November 20, 2024 · Original source
Human. This is “Living Saint Hazel” by LJ Koh, as seen at /r/ImaginaryWarhammer.
Inline links: “Living Saint Hazel”
Madonna and Child1 mentions across 1 issues

Madonna and Child is a recurring artwork in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between April 01, 2025 and April 01, 2025. The archive places it in contexts such as "Madonna and Child, by Filipp". It most often appears alongside Afghanistan, AI, anime.

Reference entry
Madonna and Child
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
April 01, 2025
Last seen
April 01, 2025
Outbound links
Issue trail
Related pages
Source context
The Colors Of Her Coat
April 01, 2025 · Original source
Madonna and Child, by Filippino Lippi To us moderns, this seems bizarrely specific. But the Catholic Church had united Europe in a single symbolic language, with lots of rules like "this style is only used for such-and-such a saint”. Within this context, “ultramarine = Virgin Mary’s coat” was a normal piece of symbolic vocabulary.
Inline links: Filippino Lippi
And I thought of computer monitors. If you wanted to see Lippi’s Madonna and Child when it was first painted in 1490, you would have to go to Florence and convince Lorenzo de Medici to let you in his house. Now you can see a dozen Lippi paintings in a sitting by typing their names into Wikipedia - something you never do. Why would you? They’re just more Lippi.
Malabar1 mentions across 1 issues

Malabar is a recurring artwork in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between November 20, 2024 and November 20, 2024. The archive places it in contexts such as "This is “Malabar” , by Wojtek Kapusta". It most often appears alongside /r/ImaginaryWarhammer, 19th Century, Abstract/Modern.

Reference entry
Malabar
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
November 20, 2024
Last seen
November 20, 2024
Outbound links
Issue trail
Related pages
Source context
How Did You Do On The AI Art Turing Test?
November 20, 2024 · Original source
Human. This is “Malabar”, by Wojtek Kapusta.
Inline links: “Malabar”
St. Anthony Abbot Tempted By A Heap Of Gold1 mentions across 1 issues

St. Anthony Abbot Tempted By A Heap Of Gold is a recurring artwork in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between November 20, 2024 and November 20, 2024. The archive places it in contexts such as "This is “St. Anthony Abbot Tempted By A Heap Of Gold”". It most often appears alongside /r/ImaginaryWarhammer, 19th Century, Abstract/Modern.

Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
November 20, 2024
Last seen
November 20, 2024
Outbound links
Issue trail
Related pages
Source context
How Did You Do On The AI Art Turing Test?
November 20, 2024 · Original source
Human. This is “St. Anthony Abbot Tempted By A Heap Of Gold”, by the “Ozzervanza Master”, an unknown Italian Renaissance painter from around 1435. Apparently it used to have a heap of gold in the bottom corner tempting St. Anthony, but this was “scraped out”. If I had known that originally, I would have disqualified this one too, since it might spoil something uniquely human about the integrity of the composition.
Inline links: “St. Anthony Abbot Tempted By A Heap Of Gold”
The Ghetto Tarot1 mentions across 1 issues

The Ghetto Tarot is a recurring artwork in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between March 03, 2021 and March 03, 2021. The archive places it in contexts such as "The Ghetto Tarot is an artist’s attempt to replicate Tarot cards in the slums of Port-au-Prince, Haiti". It most often appears alongside 9-11, Argentina, Austin Allred.

Reference entry
The Ghetto Tarot
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
March 03, 2021
Last seen
March 03, 2021
Outbound links
Issue trail
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Source context
Links For March
March 03, 2021 · Original source
...t should take only one step, one day, and $200 to get it in Prospera. Some locals seem skeptical and concerned , though the project denies it will use eminent domain. 5: The Ghetto Tarot is an artist’s attempt to replicate Tarot cards in the slums of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. EG: 6: Those of you interested in cost disease might enjoy this in-depth breakdown...
...ould take only one step, one day, and $200 to get it in Prospera. Some locals seem skeptical and concerned , though the project denies it will use eminent domain. 5: The Ghetto Tarot is an artist’s attempt to replicate Tarot cards in the slums of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. EG: 6: Those of you interested in cost disease might enjoy this in-depth breakdown...
...t should take only one step, one day, and $200 to get it in Prospera. Some locals seem skeptical and concerned , though the project denies it will use eminent domain. 5: The Ghetto Tarot is an artist’s attempt to replicate Tarot cards in the slums of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. EG: 6: Those of you interested in cost disease might enjoy this in-depth breakdown of Harvard’s budget in 2004 vs. in 2019 when it was 22% more expensive. Not a lot of...
Tragic Prelude1 mentions across 1 issues

Tragic Prelude is a recurring artwork in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between September 28, 2023 and September 28, 2023. The archive places it in contexts such as "John Curry’s “Tragic Prelude”, a mural honoring John Brown in the Kansas capitol". It most often appears alongside 2020 election, @eigenrobot, @jeremychrysler.

Reference entry
Tragic Prelude
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
September 28, 2023
Last seen
September 28, 2023
Outbound links
Issue trail
Related pages
Source context
Links For September 2023
September 28, 2023 · Original source
46: Related: @jeremychrysler discusses John Curry’s “Tragic Prelude”, a mural honoring John Brown in the Kansas capitol:
Inline links: discusses John Curry’s “Tragic Prelude”