Sunday, June 5, 2016

16th-century Depictions of the Antique

Virgil Solis
Busts from Roman antiquity
1540
engraving
British Museum

Were I a king, I could command content;
    Were I obscure, unknown should be my cares;
And were I dead, no thoughts should me torment,
    Nor words, nor wrongs, nor loves, nor hopes, nor fears.
        A doubtful voice, of three things one to crave,
        A kingdom, or a cottage, or a grave.

 Anonymous (1594)

Jan Hermensz. Muller after a sculpture by Adriaen de Vries
Mercury and Psyche
ca. 1597
engraving
British Museum

Jan Hermensz. Muller after a sculpture by Adriaen de Vries
Mercury and Psyche
ca. 1597
engraving
British Museum

Jan Hermensz. Muller after a sculpture by Adriaen de Vries
Mercury and Psyche
ca. 1597
engraving
British Museum

Marco da Ravenna
Leda and the Swan
ca. 1510-27
engraving
British Museum

attributed to Agostino Veneziano
 Leda and the Swan
ca. 1510-27
engraving
British Museum

Georges Reverdy
Leda and the Swan
1550s
engraving
British Museum

Étienne Delaune after Rosso Fiorentino
Sacrificing to Castor and Pollux
with four altars and lion attack
ca. 1550-86
engraving
British Museum

Giovanni Ambrogio Figino
Figure from a fresco in the Farnesina, Rome
 late 16th century
drawing
Royal Collection, Great Britain

Giovanni Antonio da Brescia after Amico Aspertini
 Lion hunt from sarcophagus frieze
ca. 1515-20
engraving
British Museum

Marcantonio Raimondi
Putto feeding Satyr a grape
ca. 1510-27
engraving
British Museum

Taddeo Zuccaro
Drunken Silenus riding an ox
ca. 1550
drawing
British Museum

Bartolomeo Passarotti
Standing Boy with Banner
1570s
drawing
Morgan Library, New York

attributed to Bartolomeo Montagna
Standing Man leaning on a Pedestal
16th century
drawing
Morgan Library, New York

I know my body's of so frail a kind
As force without, fever within, can kill;
I know the heavenly nature of my mind,
But 'tis corrupted both in wit and will.

I know my Soul hath power to know all things,
Yet is she blind and ignorant in all;
I know I'm one of Nature's little kings,
Yet to the least and vilest things am thrall.

I know my life's a pain and but a span,
I know my Sense is mocked with every thing:
And, to conclude, I know myself a MAN,
Which is a proud, and yet a wretched thing.

 Sir John Davies (1599)