Gazing - IV

Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin
Boy with a Spinning Top
1738
oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre

Honoré Daumier
Chess Players
ca. 1863-67
oil on panel
Musée du Petit Palais, Paris

Christian Bernhard Rode
Three Vestal Virgins at a Sacrificial Altar
ca. 1753
oil on canvas
Deutsche Barockgalerie, Augsburg

 Edward Penfield 
Harper's, November
1895
lithograph (poster)
Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Giovanni Battista Langetti
Joseph in Prison interpreting Dreams
ca. 1650
oil on canvas
Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest

Théodore Géricault
Executioner and Victim
before 1824
drawing
Musée Bonnat Helleu, Bayonne

Artus Quellinus
Samson and Delilah
ca. 1640
terracotta
Bode Museum, Berlin

Francesco Cairo
St Catherine of Alexandria
gazing at Palm of Martyrdom
ca. 1650-53
oil on canvas
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Anonymous Mexican Artist
Retablo of Marciano Alcocer Castillo
(ex-voto to the Virgin of San Juan)
1967
oil paint on metal
Princeton University Art Museum

Claude Mellan
St John the Baptist in the Wilderness
1629
engraving and etching
(dedicated to Cardinal Francesco Barberini)
Národní Galerie, Prague

Drukkerij Senefelder (printer)
Ivens & Co. Foto-Artikelen
ca. 1899
lithograph (poster)
Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Oliviero Gatti after fresco by Pordenone
Judith with the Head of Holofernes
1606
engraving
Hamburger Kunsthalle

Giovanni da San Giovanni (Giovanni Mannozzi)
Venus combing Cupid's Hair
1627
oil on canvas
Galleria Palatina, Palazzo Pitti, Florence

Charles Turrell
Miniature Portrait of Lady Ventry and her Son
1877
watercolor on ivory
Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio

Sassoferrato (Giovanni Battista Salvi)
Adoration of the Child
ca. 1640-60
oil on canvas
Städel Museum, Frankfurt

 Francisco de Zurbarán
St Francis contemplating a Skull
ca. 1635
oil on canvas
Saint Louis Art Museum

"If shee were, O God," cri'd out Perissus, "what divelish spirit art thou, that thus dost come to torture me?  But now I see you are a woman; and therefore not much to be marked, and lesse resisted: but if you know charitie, I pray now practise it, and leave me who am afflicted sufficiently without your companie; or if you will stay, discourse not to me."

"Neither of these will I doe," said she.

"If you be then," said he, "some furie of purpose sent to vex me, use your force to the uttermost in martyring me; for never was there a fitter subject, then the heart of poore Perissus is."

"I am no furie," repli'd the divine Urania, "nor hither come to trouble you, but by accident lighted on this place; my cruell hap being such, as onely the like can give me content, while the solitarinesse of this like Cave might give me quiet, though not ease; seeking for such a one, I happened hither; and this is the true cause of my being here, though now I would use it to a better end if I might: Wherefore favour me with the knowledge of your griefe; which heard, it may be I shall give you some counsell, and comfort in your sorrow."

– from The Countesse of Mountgomeries Urania, by the right honourable the Lady Mary Wroath, daughter to the right noble Robert, Earle of Leicester, and neece to the ever famous and renowned Sʳ Phillips Sidney knight, and to ye most excellant Lady Mary Countess of Pembroke, late deceased (London: John Marriott and John Grismand, 1621)

Ian Hamilton Finlay

Ian Hamilton Finlay
Lead Us
1968
painted wood
Tate Modern, London

Ian Hamilton Finlay
Names of Barges - Names for Barges
ca. 1968
color letterpress
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Ian Hamilton Finlay
Evening Will Come
1970
screenprint
British Museum

Ian Hamilton Finlay
Homage to Modern Art
1972
screenprint
British Museum

Ian Hamilton Finlay
Sailing Barge Redwing
1974
screenprint
Tate Modern, London

Ian Hamilton Finlay
Arcadia
(series, National Flags) 
1974
offset-print (postcard)
British Museum

Ian Hamilton Finlay
Cythera
(series, National Flags)
1974
offset-print (postcard)
British Museum

Ian Hamilton Finlay
Utopia
(series, National Flags)
1975
offset-print (postcard)
British Museum

Ian Hamilton Finlay
Valhalla
(series, National Flags)
1975
offset-print (postcard)
British Museum

Ian Hamilton Finlay
Apollo and Daphne after Bernini
1977
screenprint
Tate Modern, London

Ian Hamilton Finlay
Someone Somewhere wants a Cable from You
1981-82
screenprint
Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands

Ian Hamilton Finlay
The Birch Tree
1982
woodcut
Tate Modern, London

Ian Hamilton Finlay
Gateway to a Grove
(series, The Garden Proposals)
1985
lithograph
Tate Modern, London

Ian Hamilton Finlay
Urn (Garden Poem)
1986
lithograph
Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands

Ian Hamilton Finlay
Laconic: Homage to Neo-Classicism
1987
screenprint
Tate Modern, London

Ian Hamilton Finlay
After Bernini
1987
screenprint
Tate Modern, London

Ian Hamilton Finlay
La Révolution devrait faire pour le peuple ce que
le Cubisme a fait pour le couteau, la fourchette et la cuillère
1998
screenprint
Tate Modern, London

Angel

Above my desk, whirring and self-important

(Though not much larger than a hummingbird)

In finely woven robes, school of Van Eyck,

Hovers an evidently angelic visitor.

He points one index finger out the window

At winter snatching to its heart,

To crystal vacancy, the misty

Exhalations of houses and of people running home

From the cold sun pounding on the sea;

While with the other hand

He indicates the piano

Where the Sarabande No. 1 lies open

At a passage I shall never master

But which has already, and effortlessly, mastered me. 

He drops his jaw as if to say, or sing,

"Between the world God made

And this music of Satie,

Each glimpsed through veils, but whole,

Radiant and willed,

Demanding praise, demanding surrender,

How can you sit there with your notebook?

What do you think you are doing?"

However he says nothing – wisely: I could mention

Flaws in God's world, or Satie's; and for that matter

How did he come by his taste for Satie?

Half to tease him, I turn back to my page,

Its phrases thus far clotted, unconnected.

The tiny angel shakes his head.

There is no smile on his round, hairless face.

He does not want even these few lines written.

– James Merrill (1962)

Gazing - III

Per Christian Brown
Alchemical Study 1
2014
C-print
KORO (Public Art Norway), Oslo

Edgar Degas
After the Bath - Woman combing her Hair
ca. 1895-1900
pastel on paper
Ordrupgaard Art Museum, Copenhagen

Ferdinand Bol
Portrait of Catharina van der Voort and her brother Jan
1661
oil on canvas
Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp

Anonymous French Artist
Venus with a Mirror
16th century
oil on panel
Musée des Ursulines de Mâcon

Hans Rudi Erdt
Conrad Jacobsberg - Damenmoden, Königsberg
1911
lithograph (poster)
Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Hans Ryggen
Sunday Afternoon
1939
oil on canvas
Trondheim Kunstmuseum, Norway

Francisco de Zurbarán
St Andrew
ca. 1635-40
oil on canvas
Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest

Privat-Livemont
La Réforme (newspaper)
1895
lithograph (poster)
Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Francisco Goya
Francisco Téllez Girón, 10th Duke of Osuna
1816
oil on canvas
Musée Bonnat Helleu, Bayonne

Christian Krohg
Braids
1888
oil on canvas
Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo

William Tylee Ranney
The Retrieve
1850
oil on canvas
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Master FP after Parmigianino
Personification of Astrology
ca. 1530-50
etching
Hamburger Kunsthalle

Bernardo Strozzi
St John the Baptist Preaching
ca. 1644
oil on canvas
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Jean Lecomte du Nouÿ
Bird Charmer
1870
oil on canvas
Musée des Beaux-Arts de, Reims

Mikkel McAlinden
Milk
1984
C-print
Lillehammer Kunstmuseum, Norway

B.A. Huseby
Søren (Eye)
2015
C-print
KORO (Public Art Norway), Oslo

With that he fell from complaining into such a passion, as weeping and crying were never in so wofull a perfection, as now in him; which brought as deserved a compassion from the excellent Shepherdesse, who already had her heart so tempered with griefe, as that it was apt to take any impression that it would come to seale withall.  Yet taking a brave courage to her, shee stept unto him, kneeling downe by his side, and gently pulling him by the arme, she thus spake.

"Sir," said she, "having heard some part of your sorrowes, they have not only made me truly pitie you, but wonder at you; since if you have lost so great a treasure, you should not lie thus leaving her and your love unrevenged, suffering her murderers to live, while you lie here complaining; and if such perfections be dead in her, why make you not the Phoenix of your deeds live againe, as to new life rais'd out of the revenge you should take on them? then were her end satisfied, and you deservedly accounted worthie of her favour, if shee were so worthie as you say."  

– from The Countesse of Mountgomeries Urania, by the right honourable the Lady Mary Wroath, daughter to the right noble Robert, Earle of Leicester, and neece to the ever famous and renowned Sʳ Phillips Sidney knight, and to ye most excellant Lady Mary Countess of Pembroke, late deceased (London: John Marriott and John Grismand, 1621)

Calder

Alexander Calder
Firemen's Dinner for Brancusi
ca. 1926
oil on burlap
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Alexander Calder
Half-Circle, Quarter-Circle and Sphere
1932
painted metal and wood
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Alexander Calder
Hollow Egg
1939
painted metal rod and wire
Phillips Collection, Washington DC

Alexander Calder
Necklace
ca. 1940
brass and cord
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Alexander Calder
Constellation with Quadrilateral
1943
painted wood and steel wire
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Alexander Calder
Snake on a Post
1944
bronze
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Alexander Calder
The Acrobats
1944
plaster
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Alexander Calder
Octopus
1964
painted steel
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis

Alexander Calder
Three Quintains
1964
painted sheet metal
Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Alexander Calder
Exhibition Poster
1965
lithograph
Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Alexander Calder
The Spinner
1966
painted aluminum and steel
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis

Alexander Calder
Sun Rays on Clouds
1970
gouache on paper
Dallas Museum of Art

Alexander Calder
Totem
1970
painted metal
Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia

Alexander Calder
Untitled
1971
gouache on paper
Guggenheim Museum, New York

Alexander Calder
Contour Plowing
1975
lithograph
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Alexander Calder
On Yellow
1976
lithograph
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Alexander Calder
The Horse
1976
lithograph
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Event Without Particulars

Something will be hanging from the ceiling –

A dagger fern in chains? Shroud of a chandelier?

One feebly blinking bulb? Be that as it may,

Something you notice right away.

Something will decorate the wall – a calendar?

A looking glass? A scorched place? One never can say.

And something lies on the table – a teacup or book

You may care to read if you dare to look.

Then comes the opening of the door.

Somebody enters – young, face deep in a nosegay,

Or with a drink, or a crutch and milk-blind eyes.

In any case you will rise

And go to her over whatever is underfoot

To make you feel at home, since you have come to stay –

Black and white marble might be used for some;

For others, roses of linoleum.

– James Merrill (1962)