Wednesday, May 29, 2024

Figures - III

Hendrik Goltzius
Man of Sorrows with Chalice
1614
oil on panel
Princeton University Art Museum

Johan Christian Dahl after Nicolai Abildgaard
Académie
1811
drawing
National Gallery of Norway, Oslo

Louis Boullogne the Younger
Académie
ca. 1710
drawing
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Anonymous Italian Artist
Standing Warrior
ca. 1600
drawing
National Gallery of Norway, Oslo

Gaston Lachaise
Man
1930-34
bronze
Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia

Girolamo Mazzola Bedoli
Figure Studies
before 1569
drawing
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

John Singer Sargent
Gondolier, Venice
1912
drawing
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Louis Germain
Académie
ca. 1760
drawing
Princeton University Art Museum

Anonymous Italian Artist
Figure Studies
17th century
drawing
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Jacopo da Empoli (Jacopo Chimenti)
Seated Man
ca. 1590
drawing
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Alphonse Legros
Figure Study
ca. 1880
drawing
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Anton Raphael Mengs
Académie
1778
drawing
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Henry Moore
Thirteen Standing Figures
1958
lithograph
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri

Bernard Picart
Académie
1720
drawing
Morgan Library, New York

Ignacio Pinazo Camarlench
Young Faun
1888
oil on panel
Museo del Prado, Madrid

Randolph Schwabe
Académie
ca. 1905
drawing
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

     "The pope continued to pray in his chapel, "unable," wrote Cellini, "to believe that they would enter." The pope fled in haste. He had no sooner left with fourteen cardinals than the imperials entered the Vatican. It is easy to imagine how close he came to being captured or even killed. What happened was that Clement was able to steal into the long corridor on top of the fortified wall. Paolo Giovio relates how he covered the pontiff with his own purple bishop's cloak to prevent Clement from being recognized in his white garments. Cardinals, ambassadors, the Curia personnel, all poured into Castel Sant' Angelo. . . . This conquest may have been desired by many political figures, but none believed in its likelihood. The aura, the religious prestige, of the city seemed to everyone but Lutherans to protect it from destruction. Everyone was carried away far beyond normal expectations. The city did not have to endure a siege, but it did fall prey to sustained, atrocious pillage that was thorough yet disorganized, given the absence of a powerful commander.  . . .  The emperor, somewhat belatedly impressed by the news, saw the hand of God in that unexpected victory. What political action to follow it with was not clear. Charles's prolonged hesitation proved fatal to the city. The absurd situation of a pope encircled in that fortified mass of stone, familiar to the entire Christian world, by enemy troops dragged on indecisively. The Lutheran lansquenets agitated for his deposition."

– André Chastel, The Sack of Rome, 1527, translated by Beth Archer, 1983 (expanded from the A.W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts, 1977, and published by Princeton University Press and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.)