Renaissance Novella cover art
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Category: Progressive Music Lounges
Forum Name: Prog Polls
Forum Description: Create polls on topics related to progressive music
URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=134788
Printed Date: April 21 2025 at 16:43
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Topic: Renaissance Novella cover art
Posted By: bardberic
Subject: Renaissance Novella cover art
Date Posted: April 13 2025 at 19:57
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Renaissance's Novella was published with two versions of the cover art. the original was painted for the American first pressing of the album, but supposedly Annie Haslam was unhappy with that one and requested a new one be painted for future pressings. The one that was painted for the UK release would become the "main" cover art for the album in subsequent presses. Original American painting:  "Main" British painting: 
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Replies:
Posted By: bardberic
Date Posted: April 13 2025 at 20:05
| I like the typography and atmosphere of the original art, but the nun is just such an eyesore, and brown such an ugly color, that my preference is the much more vibrant, and british art with the more free-spirited woman |
Posted By: Awesoreno
Date Posted: April 13 2025 at 23:19
| ^Agreed. The colors, typography, and general background is better on the US version for me. And I have no problem with the placement of the characters either. But their faces are so weird looking! The "main" version has characters that looks much nicer, but I don't like that no one is looking at the book, and the colors are more washed out and pale. The ideal version for me would be the US version, but with faces drawn like the UK version. So I won't vote. |
Posted By: Cristi
Date Posted: April 14 2025 at 00:20
| second option |
Posted By: bardberic
Date Posted: April 14 2025 at 00:23
The way I view it, the original takes place in the middle ages (1200s or so) with the woman and children reading a contemporary story and are thus focused on the words of the book, whereas the redo takes place in the contemporary era (1970s) with the woman and chosen gazing up as they're imagining what the fairy tale contains But yeah, now that you've mentioned it, the art on the first does have a more classical feel, and I think the artist wanted to imitate artwork from the rensissance, whereas the second one looks very modern, as to fit in with other pieces of the 1970s,, such is why it seems so washed out. |
Awesoreno wrote:Posted By: Octopus II
Date Posted: April 14 2025 at 00:58
I actually quite like both. 
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Posted By: Cristi
Date Posted: April 14 2025 at 01:10
The second one has a fairy tale feel to it. I don't find it to be modern at all. |
Posted By: Mellotron Storm
Date Posted: April 14 2025 at 01:39
Same here, but I lean towards the second cover. ------------- "The wind is slowly tearing her apart" "Sad Rain" ANEKDOTEN |
Posted By: Saperlipopette!
Date Posted: April 14 2025 at 01:50
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Except for the fact that the artist has no idea how to paint a human being, I like the general esthetics of the American original a lot more than the British. But they both look amateurish. -Btw: it's so funny to me that someone can state that brown - or any natural/nature color really, is ugly. I guess tree trunks are ugly, and its pine cones, and of course many of the animals living in the forest. Brown eyes? Brown hair? Brown skin? |
Posted By: Sean Trane
Date Posted: April 14 2025 at 03:21
I also like both - Brown and beige are amongst my fave colours, whereas the UK version's colours background varied quite a bit (from turquoise to green to beige) depending on the country of release. ------------- let's just stay above the moral melee prefer the sink to the gutter keep our sand-castle virtues content to be a doer as well as a thinker, prefer lifting our pen rather than un-sheath our sword |
Posted By: BrufordFreak
Date Posted: April 14 2025 at 05:49
Schrödinger's cat! < defer="" ="https://static.cloudflareinsights.com/beacon.min.js/vcd15cbe7772f49c399c6a5babf22c1241717689176015" integrity="sha512-ZpsOmlRQV6y907TI0dKBHq9Md29nnaEIPlkf84rnaERnq6zvWvPUqr2ft8M1aS28on72PdrCzSjY4U6VaAw1EQ==" -cf-beacon=""rayId":"9302fc000958d197","Timing":"name":"cfExtPri":true,"cfL4":true,"cfSpeedBrain":true,"cfCacheStatus":true,"version":"2025.3.0","token":"717409392a644498b4dbcbfbeafd4181"" crossorigin="anonymous">
Neither is perfect--or fitting any particular historically-accurate art style--and the artist definitely doesn't do humans very well (it's the mouths that bug me the most), BUT it is Renaissance; it is Novella; it is my all-time favorite Renaissance album; in my not-so-humble opinion, it is one of the best representatives ever made of that which is the essence and range of pure progressive rock. It is what it is! ------------- Drew Fisher https://progisaliveandwell.blogspot.com/ |
Posted By: BrufordFreak
Date Posted: April 14 2025 at 05:51
Schrödinger's cat! Neither is perfect--or fitting any particular historically-accurate art style--and the artist definitely doesn't do humans very well (it's the mouths that bug me the most), BUT it is Renaissance; it is Novella; it is my all-time favorite Renaissance album; in my not-so-humble opinion, it is one of the best representatives ever made of that which is the essence and range of pure progressive rock. It is what it is! ------------- Drew Fisher https://progisaliveandwell.blogspot.com/ |
Posted By: Rexorcist
Date Posted: April 14 2025 at 07:02
| She's reading to Anakin. |
Posted By: progaardvark
Date Posted: April 14 2025 at 08:10
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I like the British version better. The castle adds a nice touch. Wikipedia says that both covers were done by the same artist. According to Haslam, the band found the portrayal of the woman on the American cover looking like a nun to be misleading. The American cover looks like it was rushed. I'm not an art theorist, but something doesn't seem right about the child's hand on the book, all three faces appear "off" a bit, the clothing seems "unfinished" for a lack of a better word, and it feels like its lacking some perspective or depth. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novella_%28album%29#Release_history_and_cover_art" rel="nofollow - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novella_(album)#Release_history_and_cover_art ------------- ---------- i'm shopping for a new oil-cured sinus bag that's a happy bag of lettuce this car smells like cartilage nothing beats a good video about fractions |
Posted By: Criswell
Date Posted: April 14 2025 at 08:26
Concur...the second a little less so, but still amateurish... < defer="" ="https://static.cloudflareinsights.com/beacon.min.js/vcd15cbe7772f49c399c6a5babf22c1241717689176015" integrity="sha512-ZpsOmlRQV6y907TI0dKBHq9Md29nnaEIPlkf84rnaERnq6zvWvPUqr2ft8M1aS28on72PdrCzSjY4U6VaAw1EQ==" -cf-beacon=""rayId":"9303e0e8f97fdadb","Timing":"name":"cfExtPri":true,"cfL4":true,"cfSpeedBrain":true,"cfCacheStatus":true,"version":"2025.3.0","token":"717409392a644498b4dbcbfbeafd4181"" crossorigin="anonymous">
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Posted By: Psychedelic Paul
Date Posted: April 14 2025 at 09:03
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The main British painting. I doubt if I would've bought the album if it had the original American art work.
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Posted By: moshkito
Date Posted: April 14 2025 at 09:41
Hi, I actually find the covers a bit scary and something that a record company would do to a band, and ignore their ideas and thoughts about the music. The hard part of the different covers, is that it tells you a completely different something about the album ... one is a bunch of neat stories, for the kids, and the other, yet another piece of religious art during that time period to suggest that the religion is right and artistic, and people/folks aren't! Thus the sad face, is like a comment that the artist can not do anything right, as he/she is being told what to do! So very American, that cover, where the movie studios originally owned everything music wise (they had the equipment for it) and then tried to get their stars to seem even better as singers. At that point, it was NOT about the story, but the fame that they could generate so folks would go to the theater, or buy the single. And it wasn't until the 1960's when black musicians broke the mold to smithereens! The art of album covers, is something that should have been more important and valuable, as HIPGNOSIS made it be ... but so many bands had their whole thing ruined by bad covers, and I would have to ask Annie about this one, as the idea behind the covers are totally different and bizarre in the end ... and really ... very stupid and confusing to fans, about the music itself! ------------- Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told! www.pedrosena.com |
Posted By: Mormegil
Date Posted: April 14 2025 at 09:53
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The less creepy British version. ------------- Welcome to the middle of the film. |
Posted By: Logan
Date Posted: April 14 2025 at 10:01
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Aesthetically, I actually prefer the American cover and don't mind the unrealistic depictions of people. I would not expect it, but with the British version, I would have rather something more to the fairy tale feel like a crouching knight on one knee with sword and shielding raised about to be stepped on by a giant cyclops, and an even more giant squid or octopus arm about to grab the giant cyclops. Or just make it more Grimm... I wish it was more nightmarish. Or some basic computer graphics of the lines of a novel (bringing the Renaissance into the 20th century, and maybe have had Kraftwerk and Gary Numan collaborate on the album). I can dream. Be nice if they would have a version with Annie Haslam's own art. ------------- "Questions are a burden to others; answers a prison for oneself" (The Prisoner, 1967). |
Posted By: Evolver
Date Posted: April 14 2025 at 13:23
This ------------- Trust me. I know what I'm doing. |
Posted By: NotAProghead
Date Posted: April 14 2025 at 13:49
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Both are pretty bad, British is slightly better. ------------- Who are you and who am I to say we know the reason why... (D. Gilmour) |
Posted By: someone_else
Date Posted: April 14 2025 at 14:59
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Not exactly fond of the British one, but the American is downright ugly. ------------- 
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Posted By: Hrychu
Date Posted: April 14 2025 at 21:07
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This is seriously some uncanny valley shіt. Would be more fitting for a King Crimson album or a horror themed compilation. ------------- 
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Posted By: Awesoreno
Date Posted: April 14 2025 at 23:39
And he's about to say: "are you an angel?" |
Posted By: rik wilson
Date Posted: April 19 2025 at 11:14
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As a former art teacher ; I want to weigh in on Renaissance covers. The American version looks Italian modernism to me: the circles as a mass focal point; the pseudo Art Nouveau flowers (in complementary colors) provide a color focal point against the neutral color -brown. The faces provide a measure of angst and sereness. These are found in the music Renaissance creates. For me a better cover. The other cover looks like a washed out pastel children's book of the 1940's. |
Posted By: Finnforest
Date Posted: April 19 2025 at 11:28
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I like them both, but I'd pick the original as my album cover if I were in the band. It just look more authentically old world, if that was the point. ------------- ...that moment you realize you like "Mob Rules" better than "Heaven and Hell" |
Posted By: ThyroidGlands
Date Posted: April 19 2025 at 22:56
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Both are dreadful. In the American one the kids and the woman look like shapeshifters, so the British one ------------- You don't know nothin' You don't know nothin' about You don't know nothin' You don't know nothin' at all |
Posted By: moshkito
Date Posted: April 20 2025 at 10:36
Hi, Not sure who made the call for that cover, but they both don't fit the album and its music at all, and I tend to think that they take away from the actual album itself. I kinda wished they had studied the idea for a cover a bit better, and the differences, are probably designed to show that the album did not do well in America? Really hard to figure out what is going on ... the whole thing seemed bad and I'm not sure it helped the band much! ------------- Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told! www.pedrosena.com |
Posted By: Valdez
Date Posted: April 20 2025 at 11:29
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Both of the young girls look to be drawn fine. ------------- https://bakullama1.bandcamp.com/album/new-2025-broken-hearts-troubled-minds |
Posted By: bardberic
Date Posted: April 20 2025 at 23:10
| The American one is definitely growing in me tbh. The more I compare them, the more I prefer that one, and would probably change my vote to that one now ifI could. It definitely had more of a unique character, and I really don't like how the woman in the British one is looking off to the distance. The British one is more immediately appealing, but after long exposure to them, I think it's more generic |