Signals - II

Anonymous French Artist after Guido Reni
Hercules on the Pyre
ca. 1650
drawing
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Artemisia Gentileschi
Cleopatra
ca. 1620
oil on canvas
Fondazione Cavallini Sgarbi, Ferrara

Jacopo de' Barbari
Cleopatra
ca. 1510
engraving and drypoint
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

Lucas Cranach the Elder
Lucretia
ca. 1535-40
oil on panel
Kunstmuseum Basel

Albrecht Dürer
Arm and Hand with Sword
1508
drawing
(study for painting, Death of Lucretia)
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Francesco Francia (Francesco Raibolini)
Lucretia
ca. 1502
oil on panel, transferred to canvas
Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden

Frans Crabbe van Espleghem
Lucretia
ca. 1520-30
engraving
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Domenico Maria Canuti
Lucretia supported by Father and Husband
ca. 1670-80
drawing
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Sebald Beham
Lucretia
before 1550
engraving
Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig

Josef Abel
Socrates preparing to drink Hemlock
ca. 1790
watercolor on paper
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Jacques-Louis David
Drapery Study for Death of Socrates
(Mourning Follower)
ca. 1787
drawing
Musée Bonnat-Helleu, Bayonne

Virgil Solis
Ajax Slaying Himself
ca. 1550-60
woodcut
(illustration to the Metamorphoses of Ovid)
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel

Jean Duvet
Remorse and Suicide of Judas
ca. 1550-60
engraving
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Georg Pencz
Marcus Curtius leaping into the Chasm
before 1550
engraving
Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig

Georg Pencz
Death of Artemisia
ca. 1540
engraving
Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna

Anonymous French Artist
Martyrdom of St Cecilia
ca. 1620-25
oil on canvas
Musée Fabre, Montpellier

On a Picture of Philoctetes – Parrhasius painted this, Philoctetes' likeness, after verily seeing the long-suffering hero from Trachis.  For in his dry eyes there lurks a mute tear, and the wearing pain dwells inside.  O best of painters, great is thy skill, but it was time to give rest from his pains to the much tried man. 

On a Bronze Statue of Philoctetes – My foe, more than the Greeks, was my maker, a second Odysseus, who put me in mind again of my evil, accursed hurt.  They were not enough, the rock-cave, the rags, the pus, the sore, the misery, but he wrought in the brass even the pain.

On a Picture of Philoctetes – I know Philoctetes when I look on him, for he makes manifest his pain to all, even to those who gaze on him from a distance.  He is all shaggy like a wild man; look at the locks of his head, squalid and harsh-coloured.  His skin is parched and shrunk to look at, perchance feels dry even to the finger's touch.  Beneath his dry eyes the tears stand frozen, the sign of sleepless agony. 

On a Statue of Alexander of Macedon – Lysippus, sculptor of Sicyon, bold hand, cunning craftsman, its glance is of fire, that bronze thou didst cast in the form of Alexander.  No longer do we blame the Persians: cattle may be pardoned for flying before a lion. 

On a Statue of Heracles – No, by Heracles the ox-eater, ye country lads, no longer shall wily wolves set their feet here, and thieves shall refuse to tread the path of pilfering, even if the villagers lie in imprudent sleep.  For Dionysius withal, not without a vow, hath set me, Heracles, here to be the place's good defender. 

On a Picture of Ulysses – Ever is the sea unkind to the son of Laertes; the flood hath bathed the picture and washed off the figure from the wood.  What did it gain thereby?  For in Homer's verse the image of him is painted on immortal pages. 

– from Book XVI (Epigrams of the Planudean Anthology) in the Greek Anthology, translated and edited by W.R. Paton (1918)