THE FLYING ASS

BY W. ROTHENSTEIN

The half-tone reproduction of an etching is in landscape orientation. The image shows a flying donkey being ridden by a man in armour up in the air and over a guarded town square. In the top half of the page the flying donkey and armoured man are foregrounded and slightly to the left. The donkey and man are facing away from the viewer, and the donkey’s backend is central. The donkey’s legs are folded up towards his stomach and his tail hangs long behind him. He has wings attached to his sides that span three-quarters of the page in width. The wings are feathered and alike eagle wings that arc upwards. The man sitting on the donkey has one leg hanging over either side of the donkey’s body and is wearing knee-high boots with pants. On the man’s top half he wears armour that covers his torso, shoulder, arms, and head: specifically a tasset, fauld, plackart, breastplate, pauldron, rerebrace, couter, vambrace, gauntlet, gorget, helm, and largely plumed comb. The knight also holds a long spear vertically tucked under his right arm. The donkey’s tall ears are tipped in black and stick out from behind the man. They are flying above a backgrounded city that fills the bottom half of the page. In the bottom left corner is the roof of a large building. In the central bottom of the page there are about ten men standing in a row within the town square surrounded by two-storey buildings. The group of men are facing away from the viewer and dressed in robes with a soldier cap and a bayonet hung on a sash across their torsos. To the right of the group are two soldiers similarly dressed to the others and walking diagonally and towards the left away from the pack. In the bottom right corner is a large stone slab, perhaps a monument, and to the right of it sits a fountain. Behind the fountain is a large building that rises up to the skyline. To the left of that building and set deeper into the background is a group of buildings that meld into one another and form the far side of the town square. The roofs of the buildings in the distance have many chimneys and smoke plumes out of them into the cloudy sky above. In about the middle of the square is a large box taller than the two men standing to the left of it dressed in the same soldier clothing as the rest of the soldiers. Against the wall of the buildings in the distance seems to be a large group of indiscriminate people watching what is happening at the box. It might be a hanging happening on the opposite side of the box, which is not visible to the viewer.

MLA citation:

Rothenstein, W. “The Flying Ass.” The Savoy, vol. 1, January 1896, p. 147. The Savoy Digital Edition, edited by Christopher Keep and Lorraine Janzen Kooistra 2018-2019. Yellow Nineties 2.0, Ryerson University Centre for Digital Humanities, Ryerson University Centre for Digital Humanities, 2019, https://1890s.ca/savoyv1_rothenstein_flying/

magazine_images The Savoy 1 The Flying Ass W. Rothenstein Half-tone from an etching Paul Naumann France and Europe Boots, Flying donkey, Wings, and Spear Soldier/ Military Personnel/ Warrior, Armour, Plackart, Tasset, Fauld, Breastplate, Pauldron, Rerebrace, Couter, Vambrace, Gauntlet, Gorget, Helm, and Largely plumed comb Day, Outdoor setting, City, Town square, City centre, and Gathering