"The bas-relief was a rough rectangle; obviously of modern origin. Its designs, however, were far from modern in atmosphere and suggestion; for, although the vagaries of cubism and futurism are many and wild, they do not often reproduce that cryptic regularity which lurks in prehistoric writing. And writing of some kind the bulk of these designs seemed certainly to be; though my memory, despite much familiarity with the papers and collections of my uncle, failed in any way to identify this particular species, or even hint at its remotest affiliations.
Above these apparent hieroglyphics was a figure of evidently pictorial intent, though its impressionistic execution forbade a very clear idea of its nature. It seemed to be a sort of monster, or symbol representing a monster, of a form which only a diseased fancy could conceive. If I say that my somewhat extravagant imagination yielded simultaneous pictures of an octopus, a dragon, and a human caricature, I shall not be unfaithful to the spirit of the thing. A pulpy, tentacled head surmounted a grotesque and scaly body with rudimentary wings; but it was the general outline of the whole which made it most shockingly frightful. Behind the figure was a vague suggestion of a Cyclopean architectural background."
-HP Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu
The piece is roughly 18"/14" hand sculpted from polymer clay. Hand painted and clear coated.
Lovecraft saw the scene in a dream, the sourse of many ideas for his stories. What he saw engraved on the tablet (a procession of priests) was far more prosaic than a pulpy gelatinous squid-face monster on a throne, but the dialogue was almost verbatim.
Lovecraft saw the scene in a dream, the sourse of many ideas for his stories. What he saw engraved o
