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Frequently Asked
Questions.
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| How did you get interested
in this line of research ? |
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I attended a presentation
given by Ufologist Bob Dean in 1994 in Leeds (hosted by UFO magazine). A
section of his talk featured some slides of old renaissance paintings depicting
UFOs. These included the De Gelder painting, the Ghirlandaio and the Piero
Della Francesca. This was the start point of my research into these artworks.
I found the De Gelder painting particularly captivating with the golden
disc hovering shining 4 beams of light down. After this presentation I quickly
forgot the titles and artists of these paintings.
Around 1995 I became interested in the Billy Meier contact case in Switzerland
and in June 1996 I set up a website devoted to the case. This site lasted
for about eight months until my internet bill became difficult to swallow:-) I achieved an ambiton of mine in April 2004 of meeting the man himself - click here for information on my visit.
Moving on into 1997, those historical artwork images were playing on my
mind and I wanted to find out as much as I could about them. I decided to
contact Graham Birdsall (who, sadly, recently passed away) at UFO Magazine UK informing him I was researching
into these old artworks and I asked him if he knew of the paintings Bob
Dean showed at the 1994 conference. Graham did not but kindly sent me a
copy of Cosmic Top Secret - a video of a presentation given by Bob Dean
in Leeds in 1996. When I watched this video Bob showed even more artworks
than he showed in 1994, including one of the Beaune tapestries, Dotremond
and the Decani Fresco. This time I was able to replay the video and make
a note of the titles and artists as Bob described them or at least a description
of them. Up to this point I had a list of about seven artworks. The next
important stage in my research came in 1998 when the now defunct Live TV
had a series called The Why Files. This was a short daily documentary featuring
various unexplained paranormal items. One day I happened to watch it and
this particular episode featured an elderly English gentleman discussing
his research into UFOs and old artworks. I can't remember his name but he
showed some of the ones I was familiar with plus a few more including the
one by Sano Di Pietro (which I can't find) and Crivelli's Annunciation.
So now my list of old artworks was pushing into double figures and I was
beginning to wonder how many there were floating around.
I decided that once I had the means I would buy a PC and create a website
listing all these pictures and around christmas 2000 I set up my site. I
scoured the net looking for the images I had on my list, along the way I
found some new ones. Initially my site had about 8 paintings - purely renaissance
and medieval. There was no "B.C." section at this point. Over
the next few weeks the site proved a big hit with the UFO community and
people started to send me pictures they had found. Consequently my site
became larger and larger. At this point people started asking me to create
a prehistory section and so the "B.C." section came into being.
And that's about it for this question. |
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| Are there any books
availible on this material ? |
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| See the "Book Project"
page here. |
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| Where can I get prints/slides
of these images ? |
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| Your best bet is to
contact the gallaries/churches concerned and see if they have a reproduction
service. I know the Fitzwilliam does reproductions of the De Gelder painting
for a fee. |
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| Which is your favourite
painting ? |
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| It has to be the "Baptism
of Christ" by Aert De Gelder. That's one of the first images I saw
back in 1994 and it has always stuck in my mind. |
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| Is there a mailing
list ? |
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| No, I do not have
a mailing list for when I find new images. Why don't you just bookmark my
site and visit it periodically ? :-) Alternatively, join the UFOartwork
Forum and meet and chat with our friends and other visitors. |
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| Can I take a sample
of your collection for my site ? |
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| Of course, just provide
a link to my site. |
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| May we exchange links? |
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| I don't run a links
page but you can link to mine if you wish. |
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| Do you have any more
images that aren't on your site? |
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| Of course. I ceased
adding artwork to my site in Sept. 2001, but I have been stockpiling material
which will be seen in my book. |
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| Site created 20 December
2000 and updated regularly. |
| This web site in its entirety
is Copyright © 2000-2003 Matthew Hurley. All rights reserved. |
