Dark Grounds - II

Kjartan Slettemark
Oslo
1979
Polaroid as offset-print
Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo

Stephan Bundi
Sonnambula
(opera by Bellini)
2008
screenprint (poster)
Museum Folkwang, Essen

Max Ernst
Two Anthropomorphic Figures
1930
oil on canvas
Von der Heydt Museum, Wuppertal

Franz Radziwill
The Street
1928
oil on canvas
Museum Ludwig, Cologne

Leonetto Cappiello
Chocolat Klaus
1903
lithograph (poster)
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Simon Luttichuys
Still Life with Oysters
ca. 1650-55
oil on panel
Kunsthaus Zürich

Paul Cézanne
Still Life with Bread and Eggs
ca. 1865
oil on canvas
Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio

Antoine Vollon
Eggs
ca. 1875
oil on canvas
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon

Georg Hainz
Still Life with Beer Glass and Rolls
1665
oil on canvas
Hamburger Kunsthalle

Hendrik de Fromantiou
Garland
ca. 1670
oil on panel
Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht

Jean-Baptiste Monnoyer
Flowers
ca. 1665
oil on canvas
Musée des Augustins de Toulouse

Willem van Aelst
Still Life with Bouquet and Watch
1656
oil on canvas
Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel

Johann Helferich Cramer
Antique Bust of Caracalla
ca. 1750
oil on canvas
(grisaille, made in Rome)
Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel

Jacques-Fabien Gautier-Dagoty
Shell
1741
color mezzotint and etching
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel

Willis F. Lee
Bird of Paradise
1997
photogravure
Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas

Richard Mortensen
Untitled
1962
screenprint
Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Know Theognetus when thou lookest on him, the boy who conquered at Olympia, the dexterous charioteer of wrestling, most lovely to behold, but in combat nowise inferior to his beauty.  He won a crown for the city of his noble fathers. 

Mixing in harmony with the singer's voice the notes of his soft flute, Dorotheus, having come in touch with the deathless Graces, piped the mournful Trojans and Semele, slain in her labour by the levin-brand, and he piped the exploit of the horse.  He alone among the holy prophets of Dionysus escaped the nimble wings of Blame.  By birth he was a Theban, son of Sosicles, and in the temple of Dionysus he dedicated his mouth-band and reed-pipes.

On Marsyas – No longer in Phrygia, the nurse of pines, as erewhile, shalt thou play, speaking music through thy deftly-pierced reeds; nor in thy hands shall the craftsmanship of Tritonian Athena bloom again as erst it did, O Satyr, son of a Nymph.  For now thy wrists are bound tight with gyves, for that thou, a mortal, didst encounter Phoebus in a strife meet but for gods.  And the flutes that shrill a note as honeyed as his lyre's won for thee from the contest no crown but death.    

His valour and his glory are known throughout Greece, this man who wrought many things by his might and many by his counsels, the Arcadian warrior Philopoemen, the captain of the spearmen, whom great fame followed in the war.  The two trophies from the tyrants of Sparta speak to this; he did away with the growing servitude.  Therefore did Tegea set up the statue of the great-souled son of Craugis, the establisher of perfect freedom. 

Epitaph of Sardanapalus – Knowing well that thou wast born mortal, lift up thy heart, taking thy pleasure in feasting.  Once dead, no enjoyment shall be thine.  For I, too, who ruled over great Nineveh, am dust.  I have what I ate, and my wanton frolics and the joys I learnt in Love's company, but those many and rich possessions are left behind.  This is wise counsel for men concerning life.

The hand of Thasian Polygnotus made me, and I am that Salmoneus who madly imitated the thunder of Zeus, Zeus who in Hades again destroys me and strikes me with his bolts, hating even my mute presentment.  Hold back thy fiery blast, Zeus, and abate thy wrath, for I, thy mark, am lifeless.  War not with soulless images.

– from Book XVI (Epigrams of the Planudean Anthology) in the Greek Anthology, translated and edited by W.R. Paton (1918)