JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post (An entry in the “Found Absurdist” category)
There’s a series on this concentrating on unusual things found “floating” in the sky, bits and bobs that are odd, or visual non sequiturs (“sequuntur”?) that just happen to use a landscape as a decorative visual for the viewer, and so on. There are many varieties of this atmospheriana, including floating cities, bombing ladies, eyeballs, hands, extra-earths, alien populations, and the unexpected like. Today’s entry is less involved than those, showing a disarticulated arm and shoulder floating above a gentle landscape…all this is, in real life, is an engraving showing a number of different varieties of engraving, all presented on one leaf rather than using several. The explanation for the image is boring, but the stand-alone of the unexplained floating arm isn’t.
Source: Abraham Bosse, 1604-1676 (printmaker and artist), in his classic work on engraving and illustration, Traité des manières de graver en taille-douce…, 1645.