File:Pictureinthehouse.jpg

"The Picture In the House" - De Bry's original woodcut illustration for Fillipo Piggafetta's "A Report of the Kingdom of Congo, and the Surrounding Countries, Drawn Out of the Writings and Discourses of the Portuguese, Duarte Lopez (1591)". This picture served as the inspiration for Lovecraft's story, "The Picture in the House":

"When I opened it to the title page my wonder grew even greater, for it proved to be nothing less rare than Pigafetta’s account of the Congo region, written in Latin from the notes of the sailor Lopez and printed at Frankfort in 1598. I had often heard of this work, with its curious illustrations by the brothers De Bry, hence for a moment forgot my uneasiness in my desire to turn the pages before me. The engravings were indeed interesting, drawn wholly from imagination and careless descriptions, and represented negroes with white skins and Caucasian features; nor would I soon have closed the book had not an exceedingly trivial circumstance upset my tired nerves and revived my sensation of disquiet. What annoyed me was merely the persistent way in which the volume tended to fall open of itself at Plate XII, which represented in gruesome detail a butcher’s shop of the cannibal Anziques.... 'What d'ye think o' this — ain't never see the like hereabouts, eh? [...] Here a body kin see all they is to it [...] thet feller bein' chopped up gives me a tickle every time I look at 'im — I hev ta keep lookin' at 'im — see whar the butcher cut off his feet? Thar's his head on thet bench, with one arm side of it, an' t'other arm's on the graound side o' the meat block.'" HPL - "The Picture in the House"