we're taught that surrealism really existed in the 20th century. clearly its existed before then but just not in the main arts stream. just like how they claim christopher columbus found america when really the vikings knew of its existence way before they claimed.
so i came across a few of these pictures on an old book archive linked through BibliOdyssey (--> links). This guy created a book of 'strange figures' in 1624. the last image i saved looks a lot like the futuristic fantasy characters you see around today. this guy was totally ahead of his time. definitley a genius. his name? Braccelli Giovanni Battista.
