Letter and Image - II

Heinrich Vogtherr the Elder
Abnormal Rye Plant foretelling the Apocalypse
1542
hand-colored woodcut and letterpress
Graphische Sammlung, Zentralbibliothek Zürich

Hans Zimmermann
Miraculous Wheat Plant with 73 Ears
found near Augsburg and foretelling Divine Favor
1569
hand-colored woodcut and letterpress
Graphische Sammlung, Zentralbibliothek Zürich

Hans Wolff Glaser
Two-Legged Cow that walks like a Human
1556
hand-colored woodcut and letterpress
Graphische Sammlung, Zentralbibliothek Zürich

Anonymous German Printmaker
Ex Libris - Jöcher
ca. 1700-1750
etching
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel

Anonymous German Printmaker
Ex Libris - Staudner
ca. 1750-1800
etching
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel

Albrecht Dürer
Ex Libris - Willibald Pirckheimer
ca. 1497
woodcut
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Lucas Cranach the Younger
The Last Supper (for Protestants) and the Descent into Hell (for Catholics)
1546
hand-colored woodcut and letterpress
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Leonhard Blümel
The Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre (of Protestants) at Paris
1572
hand-colored woodcut and letterpress
Graphische Sammlung, Zentralbibliothek Zürich

Anonymous Italian Printmaker
Pressmark of Benedict Hector, Bologna
1564
woodcut and letterpress
Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna

Tobias Stimmer
Pressmark of Sigmund Feyerabend, Frankfurt
1576
woodcut and letterpress
Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna

Anonymous French Printmaker
Pressmark of Pierre Regnault, Paris
1532
woodcut
Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna

Christoph Jamnitzer
Title Page to Neues Groteskenbuch
1610
etching
Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig

Anonymous Dutch Printmaker
Heraldic Half Title-Page
ca. 1610-25
engraving and letterpress
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki
"Come, you spirits . . ."
(Lady Macbeth on stage)
1784
etching
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel

Jacques Callot
Holy Family at Table
ca. 1620-30
etching
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

Anonymous Austrian Photographer
Streetcar Pass (Vienna)
ca. 1916
carte-de-visite photograph with printed sticker
Museum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte, Dortmund

I am the fountain of Nychea, daughter of Ocean and Tethys, for so the Teleboae named me. I pour forth a bath for the Nymphs and health for mortals. It was Pterelas, the son of Ares, who placed me here. 

This gate, built of polished stone, both an ornament for Argos and an object of admiration for travellers, was erected by Cleadas, the husband of gentle and noble Clea. He was the excellent hierophant of the sanctuary of Lerna, and enjoyed the generosity of powerful monarchs.

Demetrius the governor erected this temple of Fortune, feeling compassion for the city, like the son of Hierius he was. He built it on his own initiative, not the city's, and at his own, not at the public expense.

The artist moulded Eurotas fresh from his bath of fire, as if still wet and immersed in his stream. For all his limbs are pliant and liquid as water, and he moves flowingly from his head to the tips of his fingers and toes. Art vied with the river. Who was it that coaxed the bronze statue to riot along more liquidly than water?

These cows are Thessalian, and by the gates of Itonian Athena they stand, a beautiful gift, all of bronze, twelve in number, the work of Phradmon, all wrought from the spoil of the naked Illyrians. 

Unless the bronze glistened and betrayed  the work to be a product of Hephaestus' cunning art, one looking from afar would think that Scylla herself stood there, transferred from sea to land, so threatening is her gesture, such wrath does she exhibit, as if dashing ships to pieces in the sea!

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