Mannered

Denys Calvaert
St Margaret
1589
drawing
British Museum

Mathieu Jacquet
Figure of Victory
1597
marble relief
(fragment of chimneypiece from Château de Fontainebleau)
Musée du Louvre

attributed to Léonard Limosin
Neptune and Doris
ca. 1550-75
enamel on copper
Musée du Louvre

Cornelis van Dalem
Baptism of Christ
before 1573
oil on copper
Musée du Louvre

Anonymous Sculptor
after Johann Gregor van der Schardt
Venus
later 16th century
bronze statuette
Musée du Louvre

attributed to Marcello Venusti
Holy Family with young St John the Baptist
ca. 1560-70
oil on panel
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Hans Heinrich Wägmann
Resurrection of Christ
1580
drawing
British Museum

attributed to Friedrich Sustris
St John the Baptist
before 1599
drawing
British Museum

Pietro Francavilla
David victorious over Goliath
ca. 1575-1600
marble
Musée du Louvre

Hans Memling
The Flight into Egypt
1562
oil on panel
Musée du Louvre

Cornelis Cort after Taddeo Zuccaro
Presentation of the Virgin
1570
engraving
Graphische Sammlung ETH Zürich

Pierre Reymond
Expulsion from Paradise
1560
enamel on copper
Musée du Louvre

Angelo Falconetto after Parmigianino
St Matthias
before 1567
etching
British Museum

Raffaellino da Reggio (Raffaele Motta)
Virgin and Child with Saint
before 1578
drawing
British Museum

Simon de Mailly (Simon de Chalons)
Incredulity of St Thomas
1535
oil on panel
Musée du Louvre

Anonymous Italian Sculptor
Figure with lifted arm
later 16th century
bronze
Musée du Louvre

Antonio Fantuzzi (Antonio da Trento) after Parmigianino
St John the Baptist in the Desert
before 1550
chiaroscuro woodcut
Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York

I tell you (you needn't believe it) – I have found now

    clearly with my hand the limits of art.

The boundary has been set now which none may pass over. 

    But no human deed has been blameless.

– Parrhasius (painter of the 4th century BC)

   translated from the Greek Anthology by Richard Evans

Forces - IV

Martin Brandenburg
Forest Promenade
1917
pastel on paper
Alte Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Anonymous German Printmaker
Pandora of the 18th Century
ca. 1795
etching
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel

Melchior Lorck
Basilisk
1548
engraving
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Antonio Scarpa
Dissection of the Shoulder Area
1804
engraving (book illustration)
Universitätsbibliothek, Heidelberg

Antoine-Jean Gros
Hercules battling Diomedes
1835
oil on canvas
Musée des Augustins de Toulouse

Eugen Hummel
A Bride against her Will
ca. 1835
oil on canvas
Belvedere Museum, Vienna

 

Cornelis de Vos (figures)
and Jan Wildens (landscape)
Sacrifice of Abraham
ca. 1631-35
oil on canvas
Städel Museum, Frankfurt

Gaudenzio Ferrari
Beheading of a Saint
ca. 1540
oil on panel
Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht

Léon Cogniet
Metabus fleeing with his daughter Camilla
(scene from the Aeneid)
1821
oil on canvas
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Chartres

Jan van Troyen after Giulio Romano
Pluto in his Chariot
ca. 1650-60
etching
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel

Jakob Matthias Schmutzer
Académie
ca. 1762-66
drawing
Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna

Jeremias Falck after Caravaggio
Fabrication of the Armour of Achilles
ca. 1665
engraving
Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig

Cherubino Alberti after Polidoro da Caravaggio
Pluto abducting Proserpine
ca. 1590
engraving
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

Egon Schiele
Self Portrait
1911
gouache on paper
Leopold Museum, Vienna

Grant Wood
Sultry Night
1937
lithograph
Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas

Olle Bauman
Hand and Figure III
1967
drawing
Moderna Museet, Stockholm

The tomb on the Thracian skirts of Olympus holds Orpheus, son of the Muse Calliope; whom the trees disobeyed not and and the lifeless rocks followed, and the herds of the forest beasts; who discovered the mystic rites of Bacchus, and first linked verse in heroic feet; who charmed with his lyre, even the heavy sense of the implacable Lord of Hell, and his unyielding wrath.

The fair-haired daughters of Bistonia shed a thousand tears for Orpheus dead, the son of Calliope and Oeagrus; they stained their tattooed arms with blood, and dyed their Thracian locks with black ashes. The very Muses of Pieria, with Apollo, the master of the lute, burst into tears mourning for the singer, and the rocks moaned, and the trees, that erst he charmed with his lovely lyre.

                                             *                            *                          *

O Aeolian land, thou coverest Sappho, who with the immortal Muses is celebrated as the mortal Muse; whom Cypris and Eros together reared, with whom Peitho wove the undying wreath of song, a joy to Hellas and a glory to thee. O ye Fates, twirling the triple thread on the spindle, why spun ye not an everlasting life for the singer who devised the deathless gifts of the Muses of Helicon?

When thou passest, O stranger, by the Aeolian tomb, say not that I, the Lesbian poetess, am dead. This tomb was built by the hands of men, and such works of mortals are lost in swift oblivion. But if thou enquirest about me for the sake of the Muses, from each of whom I took a flower to lay beside my nine flowers of song,* thou shalt find that I escaped the darkness of death, and that no sun shall dawn and set without memory of lyric Sappho.

– from Book VI (Sepulchral Epigrams) of the Greek Anthology, translated and edited by W.R. Paton (1917)

*i.e. nine books of verse

Artists Pictured

Thomas Ball
Death Mask of sculptor Hiram Powers
1873
plaster
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Koloman Moser
Self Portrait
ca. 1902
drawing
Dallas Museum of Art

Edward Weston
Walt Kuhn
ca. 1920
gelatin silver print
Archives of American Art, Washington DC

Walter Gramatté
Self Portrait
1922
etching
Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich

Georges Rouault
Self Portrait
1926
lithograph
Denver Art Museum

Tsugouharu Foujita
Self Portrait
1934
wood-engraving
National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC

Minna Citron
Self Portrait with Hat
ca. 1935
lithograph
National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC

Milton Avery
Raphael Soyer
ca. 1935-40
oil on board
Hirshhorn Museum, Washington DC

Antonio Saura
Self Portrait
1960
oil on linen
Hirshhorn Museum, Washington DC

Joseph Hirsch
Self Portrait
1964
drawing
National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC

Mimi Jacobs
Imogen Cunningham
ca. 1972
gelatin silver print
Archives of American Art, Washington DC

Mimi Jacobs
Ruth Asawa
1973
gelatin silver print
Archives of American Art, Washington DC

Salvatore Del Deo
Raphael Soyer
1978
oil on canvas
National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC

Hans Namuth
Louise Bourgeois
1978
gelatin silver print
National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC

Dmitri Kasterine
Barbara Kruger
1986
gelatin silver print
National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC

Chuck Close
Cindy Sherman
2002
inkjet print after daguerreotype
National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC

Jianping He
Keith Godard
2011
screenprint (exhibition poster)
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Love

I'll sing of Heroes, and of Kings;

In mighty Numbers, mighty things,

Begin, my Muse; but lo, the strings

To my great Song rebellious prove;

The strings will sound of nought but Love.

I broke them all, and put on new;

'Tis this or nothing sure will do.

These sure (said I) will me obey;

These sure Heroick Notes will play.

Straight I began with thundring Jove,

And all th' immortal Pow'rs but Love.

Love smil'd, and from my enfeebled Lyre

Came gentle airs, such as inspire

Melting love, and soft desire.

Farewel then Heroes, farewel Kings,

And mighty Numbers, might Things,

Love tunes my Heart just to my strings.

– from Anacreontea (short anonymous ancient Greek poems in the spirit of Anacreon)

as translated by Abraham Cowley (1656)