Saturday, October 31, 2015

Reaper

William Strang
The Reaper
1892
etching
British Museum

Of all things Homer said, one thing exceeds all others.
"The tragedy of man is the tragedy of leaves."
Yet few who've heard it have taken it to heart. 
For in youth we come to believe some things
will never die, that sickness, decrepitude
and age are mere phantasms of an alien mind.
Poor fools, how oversoon death will seem to them,
how like a dream, that momentary judder of existence.

 Simonides (556-468 BC)

From the fine anthology, Greek Lyric Poetry : a new translation by Sherod Santos (New York : Norton, 2005)

after Rosso Fiorentino
The Skeletons
1518
engraving
British Museum

Ed. Renaux
Le départ de la Commune
1870-71
lithograph
Victoria & Albert Museum

William Blake
Hamlet and his Father's Ghost
1806
drawing
British Museum

Francisco Goya
Flight of Witches
1797
Prado

Francisco Ribalta
Soul in Pain
c. 1605-10
Prado

Peter Paul Rubens
Man tormented by Demon
1621
drawing
Victoria & Albert Museum

Titian
Tityus
1548-49
Prado

Hendrik Goltzius
The Companions of Cadmus and the Dragon
1588
engraving
Metropolitan Museum

Jacopo Ligozzi
Chimera
c. 1590-1610
drawing
Prado