PeppersGhost

SCP-4505 - A Brief History of Anomalous Artwork in the Renaissance by PeppersGhost

1/4505 LEVEL 1/4505

CLASSIFIED

Item #: SCP-4505

Object Class: Safe

SCP-4505-081 undergoing restoration.

Special Containment Procedures: The SCP-4505 collection is housed in Reliquary Site-14 for storage and display. A minimum of three Foundation archivists are to facilitate appropriate care and study of the collection. Any personnel involved in the research and/or containment of anomalous artwork may be granted gallery access for educational purposes.1 SCP-4505 items featured in the observation gallery are to be rotated on a bi-monthly basis.

Description: SCP-4505 is the collective designation for 265 Safe-class anomalous artworks created between the 14th and 17th centuries as part of the cultural movement known as the Renaissance.2 The collection is available as an educational resource for Foundation employees.

The following is a truncated list of artifacts consolidated under SCP-4505. Staff members involved in the containment of any SCP-4505 item must familiarize themselves with the entire collection before beginning work.3 Note that items are numbered in order of acquisition, not creation.

Title

Pietà

Serial #
Artist
Year

SCP-4505-035
Tondino
1623

Description: Animate marble sculpture depicting the Madonna weeping over the deceased Christ. Inspired by Michelangelo's sculpture of the same name, Tondino's piece diverges from the original by posing the Madonna knelt over her prone son. The figures are non-sentient and unresponsive to stimuli.

The Madonna shakes her son and pantomimes sobs, but produces no sound. The deceased Christ is not independently animate and makes no movements other than those instigated by the Madonna's physical interactions. Both figures feature realistic anatomy, visually emulating the elasticity and malleability of soft tissue within the context of the piece's internal action; however, physical contact from external sources will interact with the figures as solid marble.

Several historical records pertaining to the piece describe an incident wherein a child's fingers were severed after playfully inserting them into the Madonna's mouth. These accounts are supported by recent internal imaging of the Madonna's stomach, which has revealed the presence of 11 fingers from no fewer than 3 different parties, as well as a large amount of coinage in various denominations.

Title

The Judgement of the Unrighteous

Serial #
Artist
Year

SCP-4505-089
Unknown
1434

Description: Bronze door with sculpted relief panels depicting various scenes in Hell as described in Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. Anomalous phenomena occur when it is viewed by a person who has recently committed an act deemed sinful by 15th century Catholic doctrine.

Subjects who meet the above criteria will experience a cognitohazard-induced hallucination wherein they are surrounded by indistinct, red-hooded figures. These figures are often observed holding and consuming the severed heads of cephalophoric saints. Effects subside entirely within twenty to thirty minutes.

Title

Cardinal del Monte

Serial #
Artist
Year

SCP-4505-118
Unknown
1554

Description: Life-size oil portrait on canvas with accompanying section of wall. The painting depicts Innocenzo Ciocchi del Monte, adopted nephew and possible lover of Pope Julius III.

The painting was removed from the Papal Palace multiple times after the death of Julius III in 1555, but always reappeared in the same place the following day. Attempts to destroy the piece were similarly undone. After several weeks' effort, it was decided that the entire section of wall where the painting hung was to be detached from the building and removed from the premises.

Title

The Elation of Saint Paul

Serial #
Artist
Year

SCP-4505-122
Jean Brodel
1495

Description: Oil on panel. The painting features an anomalous chiaroscuro effect which causes the lighting of the scene to change over a 24 hour period, with the movement of the sun, moon, and stars progressing in real time.

The rest of the scene (which is otherwise static) features Paul the Apostle standing before a crowd in what is presumably the artist's interpretation of a Jewish synagogue. All figures are dressed in Italian formal wear common to the period.

Paul is posed as though preaching to the assembly, albeit with a thick stream of honey pouring from his mouth. The heads of doves protrude from where his eyes would normally be found, and his fingers expel a milky substance which pools beneath him. Several bystanders are gathered around the puddle, using their hands to drink.4

Title

Lorenzo de' Medici

Serial #
Artist
Year

SCP-4505-164
Unknown
1502

Description: An oil painting depicting the body of Lorenzo de' Medici in an advanced state of decomposition. It is one of the earliest known attempts at crafting a fully animate and intelligent reproduction of an existing human within a two-dimensional space. Due to split opinions regarding the sanctity of the piece, it remained out of view in deep storage at the Medician Academy of Occult Arts until 1944.5

Lorenzo allegedly commissioned the painting after he was drawn in by the artist's offers of immortality. The artist—whose identity remains unknown—succeeded in creating a painted likeness of Lorenzo that could hold conversations with viewers and move within the confines of its 126 cm × 104 cm surface as if it were a three-dimensional space.

However, the depiction of Lorenzo proved to be more lifelike than intended, and perished due to starvation several weeks after the painting was completed. Before its death, it reportedly subsisted on a bowl of fruit the artist had painted in the foreground, as well as an animate bird painted on a windowsill.

Title

Saint Peter

Serial #
Artist
Year

SCP-4505-201
Unknown
1518

Description: Animate bronze sculpture created under the patronage of Pope Leo X. The piece was originally envisioned as a living idealization of Saint Peter that could interact with the public and educate them on matters of Biblical history and Catholic doctrine.

Though the project was initially successful, the piece began to question its own existence and subsequently developed a sense of individual identity, eventually culminating in a renunciation of Christian belief. The Church quickly removed the statue from public display. Records indicate the piece was scheduled to be destroyed, but for unknown reasons, was instead gagged and buried in an unmarked plot, and remained there until it was accidentally discovered by a construction company nearly five centuries later.

The figure has since been taken into Foundation care and given extensive counseling, though it still displays severe mental instability and social impediment as a consequence of its prolonged isolation.6 The figure can be violent, but poses negligible threat to viewers as it cannot leave its 0.7m x 0.7m base.

Title

The Mercy Stoup

Serial #
Artist
Year

SCP-4505-213
Agnolio Celloni
1441

Description: A plain gold basin set into an ivory stand with various scenes from the crucifixion of Jesus carved along its circumference. Any liquid poured into the basin gradually transmutes into blood over the course of ten to twelve minutes.

Originally created to hold Holy Water, the piece showed no anomalous properties until the artist's death in 1446. It was acquired from an unknown vendor in 1961 by the Horizon Initiative for its apparent eucharistic properties. The group presented it as a gift to the Foundation in 1992 after a scientific examination revealed the transmuted blood to be from a male Lipizzan horse.

Title

The Lamentation of St. Bartholomew

Serial #
Artist
Year

SCP-4505-254
Garsuccotti
1576

Description: An unfinished oil painting on wood depicting Saint Bartholomew in the process of being flayed from the heels up. The piece emits constant vocalizations of pain which intensify in response to physical or auditory stimuli. No other animate characteristics have been observed.

A notable degree of attention has been paid to the details in Bartholomew's exposed musculature, possibly influenced by anatomical drawings created by Andreas Vesalius in the years prior. The figures carrying out Bartholomew's flaying are dark and indistinct; it is unknown if this was a creative decision or merely a consequence of the painting's incomplete state. The skin removed from Bartholomew's legs has been twined and knotted into a noose. The posing of the figures suggests that the noose is drawn closer to Bartholomew's head with every inch of skin peeled from his back.

Title

Trinity of the Red Court

Serial #
Artist
Year

SCP-4505-265
[DATA RESTRICTED]
1586

Description: Oil on canvas. Christ is suspended in a dark void, hanging by the neck from a rope which extends out of frame. Those who view the painting for a prolonged period of time will gradually notice changes in its content.

The effect resets after the viewer has looked away for ten or more seconds. Changes are consistent among different viewers and viewing sessions and occur in the same sequence:

Lacerations appear across the deceased Christ's body.

A jester is added to the lower left corner of the painting, pointing at the deceased Christ.

Young children appear behind the jester in a long line that extends into the darkness.

A hooded figure mounted on a horse is added to the bottom right corner of the painting. The heels on the rider's shoes end in bloodstained spikes.

Numerous puncture wounds appear on the side of the horse's body.

Heavy chains appear around the hooded figure, binding its arms to its torso.

The deceased Christ raises his arms toward the jester and rider.7

Christ's expression changes to a broad grin.

Footnotes

1. Pending the completion and approval of Employee Access Request RS14-EA3.

2. The original 130 pieces were previously listed as individual SCP objects until their eventual consolidation and sub-designation under the parent number of SCP-4505 as part of the SEK Object Class Initiative in 1914. Additional works have been acquired and added to the collection in subsequent years.

3. See An Anomalous History of Art volumes 23-34.

4. Several sources suggest that the surreal imagery corresponds to Paul's martyrdom as described in The Golden Legend.

5. During the second World War, numerous anartworks were disguised as traditional pieces and entrusted to the MFAA for protection, which subsequently allowed pieces such as SCP-4505-164 to be discovered and acquired by Foundation resources. (See An Anomalous History of Art volume 81.)

6. A psychiatric evaluation carried out in 1986 can be found in Chapter 6 of An Annotated History of Art-Based Life by Dr. Gertrude Blau.

7. See Archetypes in Anart chapter 5, "King, Clown, and Consul".