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| Paul Bril Landscape with the Death of St Peter Martyr ca. 1590 oil on panel Galleria Borghese, Rome |
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| Lattanzio Gambara Battle Scene (after an antique relief) before 1574 drawing Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna |
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| Marco Benefial Cain slaying Abel ca. 1730 drawing Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna |
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| Jacob Jordaens Odysseus threatening Circe ca. 1630-35 oil on canvas Kunstmuseum Basel |
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| Giovanni Antonio Molineri Martyrdom of St Paul ca. 1618-21 oil on canvas Galleria Sabauda, Turin |
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| François Perrier Olindo and Sophronia on the Pyre (scene from Gerusalemme Liberata by Torquato Tasso) ca. 1635-45 oil on canvas Musée des Beaux-Arts de Reims |
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| Michael Wolgemut Martyrdom of St Matthew 1493 woodcut and letterpress Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna |
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| Heinrich Ulrich after Paulus Meyer Battle of Tritons 1602 engraving Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich |
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| Palma il Giovane Venetians defending against the Siege by Pepin, King of the Franks ca. 1579-80 drawing (study for painting) Städel Museum, Frankfurt |
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| Giuseppe Peroni Martyrdom of St Lucy ca. 1762-63 oil on canvas Galleria Nazionale di Parma |
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| Giambattista Tiepolo Martyrdom of St Agatha ca. 1755 oil on canvas (altarpiece) Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin |
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| Bernardo Strozzi Martyrdom of St Justina ca. 1635 oil on canvas Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia |
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| Philips Wouwerman Battle Scene ca. 1655-60 oil on canvas Mauritshuis, The Hague |
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| Cornelis Bos after Luca Penni Battle of Lapiths and Centaurs ca. 1550 engraving (joined image produced from two plates) Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich |
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| Jacob Binck Cain slaying Abel before 1569 engraving Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich |
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| Oliviero Gatti after Pordenone Sacrifice of Abraham 1625 engraving Hamburger Kunsthalle |
On a Picture of Iphigenia – Iphigenia rageth furiously, but the face of Orestes recalls her to the sweet memory of kinship. Being stirred by wrath, and gazing, too, at her brother, her glance is as of one carried away by mixed fury and pity.
On a Statue of Niobe – From a living being the gods made me a stone, but Praxiteles from a stone made me alive again.
On a Picture of Niobe – Thou seest the veritable shape of unhappy Niobe as if she were still bewailing the fate of her children. But if it is not given to her to have a soul, blame not the artist for this: he portrayed a woman of stone.
On a Statue Group of Niobe and her Children – This is the daughter of Tantalus, who of old bore from a single womb twice seven children, victims of Phoebus and Artemis: for the Maiden sent untimely death to the maidens, the male god to the boys, the two slaying two companies of seven. She, once the mother of such a flock, the mother of lovely children, was not left with one to tend her age. The mother was not, as was meet, buried by her children, but the children were carried by their mother to the sorrowful tomb. Tantalus, thy tongue was fatal to thee and to thy daughter; she became a rock, and over thee hangs a stone to terrify thee.
On a Statue Group of Niobe and her Children – Stand near, stranger, and weep when thou lookest on the infinite mourning of Niobe, the daughter of Tantalus, who held not her tongue under lock and key; whose brood of twelve children is laid low now on earth, these by the arrows of Phoebus, and those by the arrows of Artemis. Now, her form compounded of stone and flesh, she is become a rock, and high-built Sipylus groans. A guileful plague to mortals is the tongue whose unbridled madness gives birth often to calamity.
On a Statue Group of Niobe and her Children – Why, woman, dost thou lift up to Olympus thy shameless hand, and let thy divine hair fall loose from thy godless head? Looking now on the heavy wrath of Leto, O mother of many children, bemoan thy bitter and froward strife. One of thy daughters is gasping beside thee, one lies lifeless, and heavy death is nigh descending on another. Yes, and this is not yet the end of thy woe, but the swarm of thy male children lies low likewise in death. O Niobe, weeping for the heavy day that gave thee birth, thou shalt be a lifeless rock consumed by sorrow.
– from Book XVI (Epigrams of the Planudean Anthology) in the Greek Anthology, translated and edited by W.R. Paton (1918)