wiki-illiam #105: q7

[dubdobdee]

Who or what:
i: was watched at eye level?
ii: found room at one end for Victoria?
iii: is not trusted for the way he parts his hair?
iv: tale was found among the papers of the late Diedrich Knickerbocker?
v: painted an ecclesiastical decoration for a Flanders-based Florentine banker?
vi: under a changed name, was allegedly instructed to include all facial blemishes?
vii: turned to architecture following a relapse and provocation of the wife?
viii: took his name from the city of Sint-Janskathedraal?
ix: had a costly wetting in the Barry Burn?
x: revealed lives by invitation?

As with "bread" these will surely all cluster togehtewr very obviously. Nothing is ringing a bell except (iii) very slightly.

Comments

[marnameow.livejournal.com]

iii is this someone from a Kinks song? I don't know why I think this.

Mind, v and vi could both be artists, and also maybe x and vii are? In which case they might ALL be!

[marnameow.livejournal.com]

CONTINUING ON THIS THEME! I can construct an argument for ii being about a painting, iv being about a painter (although Knickerbocker? sounds like a fictional name. Dickens = monarch of that sort of thing, but it sounds a little crude for him, maybe?), several of them are about ppl, and could be ANY ppl.

(however I still know no ANSWERS so this is UNTESTED THEORY PROCEED WITH CAUTION)

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

Yes iv) sounds like the set-up for a C19th story: i.e. 'so and so's tale' or the tale of X.

[cis.livejournal.com]

iii reminded me of prufrock 'should i part my hair behind' but that's nothing to do with being trustworthy.

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

I SHALL WEAR THE BOTTOMS OF MY TROUSERS ROLLED

[cis.livejournal.com]

^^ DISTINCTLY SUSPICIOUS

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

I wonder if these are characters in fiction. i) is ringing a bell, but DDD should surely know if so, because it brings to mind an illustration of (I think) Alice in a tiny room with a large eyeball peering in at her (but possibly the other way around).

Is iii? a spy of some sort or a child - hair is parted on a different side in Europe so either this is someone not fitting in or someone being exposed as not what they seem.

vi) must be someone painting a portrait.

vii) 'the wife' (?) why the wife not his wife.

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

iii) sounds like a character in A Dance to the Music of Time or something like that.

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

i don't think there's a (canonic) tenniel illustration with a big eye and a tiny alice: the only large thing she's menaced by when small is the puppy

large alice gets trapped in the rbabbnit's little house, and the rabbit and the lizard are knocked into a cucumber frame by large alice's arm

also the pigeon thinks she's a serpent

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

ix) I think this is Jean van de Velde, the golfer - he was leading in the final round of the British Open a few years ago, choked, one of his balls went into the Barry Burn (which runs through the course) and he opted to roll up his trousers and go in the water to play it from there rather than take a penalty shot. Can't remember who won in the end but it wasn't him.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

vi) rings a few bells re: artists instructed to paint the subject warts and all?

[marnameow.livejournal.com]

He doesn't happen to have a sideline in portraiture?

[catsgomiaow.livejournal.com]

i sounds like the PANOPTICON!

[catsgomiaow.livejournal.com]

vi isn't that famous engraving (or whatever) of OLIVER CROMWELL with the grate bit wart (warts and all)?

[catsgomiaow.livejournal.com]

After googling I can hesitantly say that there APPEARS to be an o. cromwell connection, dunno about the 'changed name' bit so much tho

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

isn't he picture by like van eyck or someone?

[catsgomiaow.livejournal.com]

There is A picture by Jan van de Velde but it's not the picture I was thinking of! & I'm too busy at work to do srs g00gling for related anecdotes :(

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Pieter van de Faes (changed to Peter Lely)

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

i made me think "Van Der Valk" - as discussed here: http://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2007/09/the-simon-park-orchestra-eye-level/

And googling iii confirmed it for me.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Ah, Lex confirms my suspicions too - the theme is VAN!

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Sorry, it was iv I googled. iii I am still baffled by.

One of them must be van Gogh you'd think.

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

V - guessing van eyck if that's indeed the theme but there's probably a whole herd of Dutch vans

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

Google tells me I am stupid for not remembering straightaway!

oo oo

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

actually i briefly wondered about this when i first put the Q up but thought it was too slender an association viz KNICKERBOCKER is very part of the mythology of old (ie DUTCH) new york -- i know this from gore vidal's burr -- and that means RIP VAN WINKLE.

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

we need a check list of likely vans not ticked

i: van der valk <-- i should have known this, we played this theme tune in county orchestra when i was 15
ii:
iii:
iv: rip van winkle
v: van eyck
vi: painted cromwell, presumably not van eyck
vii:
viii:
ix: jean van der velde
x:

not assigned yet: van gogh, a. e. van vogt, van nostrand [who or what is this], don van vliet, van morrison

[anatol-merklich.livejournal.com]

Some vans:

Also painter: Van Dyck
Ditto (forger): Van Meegeren (sp?)
Vampire hunter: Abraham van Helsing
Unlikely here: Ludwig van Beethoven
Ditto: Van Diemen's land (former name of Tasmania) and its eponymist

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

van dyck also painted cromwell -- this is who i was thinkin of upthread, eyck, dyck -- but without warts that i can see!

if he is not here i am a dutchman

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

DICK VAN DYKE!

also also

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

ARMAND VAN HELDEN

Re: also also

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Jean Claude Van Damme!

viii

[anatol-merklich.livejournal.com]

Clearly named van [dutch or flemish city], but not really coming up with any... van Brugge? van Gent? van Leiden? van Leuwen? van Haag? hmmm is there a van Bosch? (prob no, just Hieronymus)...

Re: viii

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

How did you get to H. Bosch, anatol? (This is a sort of hint btw)

Re: viii

[anatol-merklich.livejournal.com]

Oh I am *always* down with H. Bosch, jeff.

(Hmm you saying I'm onto something?)

Re: viii

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Yes!

As with vi, name taken rather than given.

(VAN) DAMMIT !!!!

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

bah this was the question i worked loads out on, but you have already got the ones i knew :(

stupid work...

But they look like sneakers

[koganbot]

BRAINWAVE!

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

ii) Victoria is at the southern end of VANcouver Island!

Re: BRAINWAVE!

[anatol-merklich.livejournal.com]

Hurrah!

Bonus fact (that I learnt at a quiz last week): The name Vancouver is derived from "from Coevorden" (a Dutch town).