Déesses

Peter Candid
Minerva as Friedensbringerin
ca. 1615-20
oil on canvas
Alte Pinakothek, Munich

Simon Fokke
Minerva displaying a Painting of the Holy Family
1741
etching
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Piero Paolo Galeotti
Minerva in Armor
1562
bronze medallion
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Isaac de Joudreville
Minerva in her Study
ca. 1631
oil on panel
Denver Art Museum

Gottfried Bernhard Göz
Maximilian III Joseph of Bavaria instructed by Minerva
ca. 1745
etching
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Constantin Hansen
Birth of Pallas Athena
1869
oil on canvas
Kunsten Museum, Aalborg, Denmark

Paris Bordone
Athena scorning the Advances of Hephaestus
ca. 1555-60
oil on canvas
Museum of Art and Archaeology,
University of Missouri, Columbia

Nicoletto da Modena
Pallas Athena
ca. 1500-1510
engraving
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Bartholomeus van der Helst
Diana the Huntress
ca. 1640-50
oil on canvas
Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille

Michel Dorigny
Goddess Diana as Huntress
1612
oil on canvas
Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, Texas

Alessandro Gherardini
Diana resting with Putto and Hounds
ca. 1705
detached fresco
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot
Bath of Diana
ca. 1869-70
oil on canvas
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Johann Heiss
Artemis of Ephesus as Allegory of Fertility
ca. 1680-90
oil on canvas
private collection
(image from Galerie Neuse, Bremen, 2021)

Crispijn de Passe the Elder
Juno and Jupiter
ca. 1620
engraving
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel

Domenico Maria Fratta after Donato Creti
The Enchantress Circe
before 1763
etching
British Museum

Cristofano Robetta after Filippino Lippi
Two Muses
ca. 1520
engraving
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

Anonymous Italian Artist after Annibale Carracci
The Nymph Clytie tempted by Cupid
ca. 1630-50
oil on panel
Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio

from Hymn to Aphrodite

Sing, Muse, the Force, and all-informing Fire

Of Cyprian Venus, Goddess of Desire:

Her Charms, th' Immortal Minds of Gods can move,

And tame the stubborn Race of Men to Love.

The wilder Herds and ravenous Beasts of Prey,

Her Influence feel, and own her kindly Sway.

Thro' pathless Air, and boundless Ocean's Space,

She rules the feather'd Kind and finny Race;

Whole Nature on her sole Support depends,

And far as Life exists, her Care extends.

– Homeric Hymns (8th-6th century BC), translated by William Congreve (1710)

Compositions with Ordeals

Master I.A.M. of Zwolle (Netherlandish printmaker)
The Agony in the Garden
ca. 1485-90
engraving
British Museum

Master N.A. D.A.T. (Italian printmaker)
Two Armies at the Battle of Ravenna
ca. 1512-15
engraving
British Museum

Master with the Mousetrap (Italian printmaker)
Battle of Ravenna
ca. 1512-15
drawing (print study)
Kupferstichkabinett, Hamburger Kunsthalle

Lucas van Leyden
Pyramus and Thisbe
1514
engraving
British Museum

Master of the Aeneid Legend (French enameller)
Aeneas deserting Dido
ca. 1530-35
enamel on copper (Limoges)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Master of the Die (Italian printmaker) after Raphael
Aeneas carrying Anchises out of Troy
ca. 1530-60
engraving
British Museum

Girolamo Mazzola Bedoli
Polyptych with Ecce Homo and Saints
1538
oil on panel
Galleria Nazionale di Parma

Master-KIP-(French-enameller)-
The Calumny of Apelles
ca. 1540-50
enamel on copper (Limoges)
British Museum

Master of the Story of Cadmus (French printmaker) after Giulio Romano
Agamemnon slaying Odius
ca. 1545
etching (School of Fontainebleau)
British Museum

Master C.C. (French printmaker)
The Last Judgment
1547
engraving
British Museum

Master of the Egmont Albums (Netherlandish draughtsman)
Allegory of the Last Judgment
16th century
drawing
British Museum

Marten de Vos the Elder
Ecce Homo
ca. 1590
drawing (print study)
British Museum

Alessandro Maganza
St Lawrence before the Judge
before 1630
drawing
British Museum

Benjamin West
Samson Bound
1788
watercolor on paper
British Museum

Joseph Anton Koch
St Francis and the Devil
battling for the Soul of Guido da Montefeltro
(episode in Dante's Hell)
1808
etching
British Museum

Carle Vernet
Battle of Quatre Bras
ca. 1815-20
watercolor on paper
British Museum

G.H. Miles
Assassin Edward Oxford shooting at Queen Victoria
1840
watercolor on paper
British Museum

    That Children committed unto the school of Nature, without institution would naturally speak the primitive language of the world, was the opinion of ancient heathens, and continued since by Christians; who will have it our Hebrew tongue, as being the language of Adam. That this were true were much to be desired, not only for the easie attainment of that usefull tongue, but to determine the true and primitive Hebrew. For whether the present Hebrew be the unconfounded language of Babel, and that which remaining in Heber was continued by Abraham and his posterity; or rather the language of Phaenicia and Canaan, wherein he lived, some learned men I perceive doe yet remain unsatisfied. Although I confesse probability stands fairest for the former; nor are they without all reason, who think that at the confusion of tongues, there was no constitution of a new speech in every family, but a variation and permutation of the old, out of one common language raising severall dialects; the primitive tongue remaining still entire. Which they who retained might make a shift to understand most of the rest. 

– John Evelyn from Pseudodoxia Epidemica (1646)

Mannerist Groupings

Nicolò dell'Abate
Courtiers attending a Stag Hunt
ca. 1560
oil on canvas
Galleria Borghese, Rome

El Greco
Adoration of the Shepherds
ca. 1596-1600
oil on canvas
(fragment of altarpiece installation)
Romanian National Museum of Art, Bucharest

Antonio Campi
Christ carrying the Cross
ca. 1560-70
oil on panel
Galleria Sabauda, Turin

Anonymous Tuscan Artist
Incredulity of Thomas
ca. 1590
oil on panel
Galleria Nazionale di Parma

Giorgio Ghisi after Giulio Romano
Cupid and Psyche
ca. 1573-74
engraving
Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo

Orazio Farinati after Paolo Farinati
Virgin and Child with young St John the Baptist
ca. 1580
engraving
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

Raphael Sadeler after Nicolas de Hoey
Sodomites stricken Blind
1583
engraving
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel

Juan de Juanes
Dead Christ supported by Angels
ca. 1570-75
oil on panel
Dallas Museum of Art

Christoph Schwarz
St Nicholas of Tolentino and St Sebastian
ca. 1580
oil on panel
Deutsche Barockgalerie, Augsburg

Domenico Tibaldi after Agostino Carracci
The Transfiguration
ca. 1582
engraving
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

Michiel Coxie
Martyrdom of St George
ca. 1550
oil on panel
(altarpiece fragment)
Royal Museum of Fine Arts
Antwerp

Palma il Giovane
Study for Crucifixion
ca. 1590
drawing
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Girolamo Siciolante
Crucifixion with the Virgin
and St John the Evangelist
ca. 1573
oil on canvas
Galleria Borghese, Rome

Marten de Vos the Elder
Beheading of St John the Baptist
1574
oil on panel
(altarpiece fragment)
Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp

Niccolò Vicentino after Parmigianino
Sheet of Studies
ca. 1530-40
chiaroscuro woodcut
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

Anonymous Fontainebleau School Artist
Woman choosing between Young Man and Old Man
(commedia dell'arte figures)
ca. 1575
oil on canvas
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes

Chorus of Persian Elders:  What then, lord Darius?  To what conclusion to your words lead?  After this, how can we, the Persian people, get the best possible outcome for the future?

Ghost of Darius:  By not invading the land of the Greeks, not even with a Median army still greater than before!  Their country itself fights as their ally. 

Chorus:  How to you mean?  In what way does it fight as their ally?

Ghost:  By starving to death a multitude that is too vastly numerous.

Chorus:  Well, we'll raise a picked, well-equipped expedition.

Ghost:  No, not even the army that has now been left in the land of Greece will gain a safe return home. 

Chorus:  What do you mean?  Hasn't the whole of the Eastern army crossed back from Europe over the strait of Helle? 

Ghost:  Few out of many, if one is to place any credence in the oracles of the gods, looking at what has now happened – for oracles are not fulfilled by halves.  If that is indeed so, Xerxes, seduced by vain hopes, has left behind a large, select portion of his army.  They remain where the Asopus waters the plain with its stream, bringing welcome enrichment to the soil of the Boeotians.  There the destiny awaits them of suffering a crowning catastrophe, in requital for their outrageous actions and their godless arrogance.  When they came to the land of Greece, they did not scruple to plunder the images of the gods and set fire to temples: altars have vanished, and the abodes of deities have been ruined, uprooted, wrenched from their foundations.  Because of this evil they have done, they are suffering evil to match it in full measure, and have still to suffer more: the fountain of suffering has not stopped flowing – more of it is still gushing forth, so great will be the clotted libation of slain men's blood on the soil of the Plataeans, shed by the Dorian spear.  The heaps of corpses will voicelessly proclaim to the eyes of men, even to the third generation, that one who is a mortal should not think arrogant thoughts: outrage has blossomed, and has produced a crop of ruin, from which it is reaping a harvest of universal sorrow.     

– Aeschylus, from Persians (472 BC), translated by Alan H. Sommerstein (2008)