Glazed

Christiaan Johannes Lanooy
Three Vessels
1920
glazed earthenware
Museum de Fundatie, Zwolle, Netherlands

Anonymous German Potter
Tile with Crucifixion Scene
ca. 1560-1600
lead-glazed earthenware stove tile
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Florentine Imitator of Giovanni della Robbia
Judith and Holofernes
ca. 1800-1850
maiolica
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Giovanni della Robbia
Virgin and Child with St John the Baptist and St Jerome
ca. 1525
glazed terracotta
Bode Museum, Berlin

Staffordshire Potteries
Dessert Dish
ca. 1755-65
lead-glazed earthenware
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Anonymous Potter working in Delft
Birdcage
ca. 1700-1730
tin-glazed earthenware
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Staffordshire Potteries
Medici Venus
ca. 1815-20
lead-glazed earthenware figurine
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne the Younger
Portrait of Louis XV
ca. 1745
lead-glazed earthenware (faience)
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts

Brislington Pottery (near Bristol)
Posset Pot
1699
tin-glazed earthenware
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Bow Porcelain Manufactory (London)
Youth as Personification of Autumn
ca. 1765-70
porcelain
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Patanazzi Family (Urbino)
Inkstand with River God
ca. 1575-1605
maiolica
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

attributed to Domenico da Venezia
Pharmacy Jar
ca. 1560-70
maiolica
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

attributed to Domenico da Venezia
Pharmacy Jar
ca. 1560-70
maiolica
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Brislington Pottery (near Bristol)
Wash-Basin as Scallop-Shell
1683
tin-glazed earthenware
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Anonymous British Potter
Game Board
1723
tin-glazed earthenware
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Anonymous Japanese Potter
Hare
18th century
porcelain
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

When old Fuseli made the famous remark that Constable's landscapes made him call for his greatcoat and umbrella, he showed he understood the kind of truth the master was aiming at.  Not the dry but the humid, not the linear but the atmospheric, not the lasting but the transient.  As Constable himself said in the preface to his published landscapes, to give "one brief moment caught from fleeting time a lasting and sober existence."  Lasting and sober.  We do well to remember these beautiful honest words before we rashly fall in with the view that Constable's finished paintings are less interesting, less artistic than his sketches.

The source of this preference is clear.  We prefer suggestions to representations, we have adjusted our expectations to enjoy the very act of guessing, of projecting.  And we rationalize this preference by fancying that the sketch must be nearer to what the artist saw and to what he felt than the finished work.  I do not deny that artists are human and sometimes spoil their works.  But I consider it a heresy to think that any painting as such records a sense impression or a feeling.  All human communication is through symbols, through the medium of a language, and the more articulate that language the greater the chance for the message to get through.  

– E.H. Gombrich, Art and Illusion: a Study in the Psychology of Pictorial Representation (Princeton University Press, 1960)

Familiars

Emmy Klinker
Portrait of a Young Woman
ca. 1920
oil on cardboard
Von der Heydt Museum, Wuppertal

Ernst Barlach
Lilith
1923
woodcut
(illustration to Goethe's Faust)
Goethe Haus, Frankfurt

Jan Sadeler the Elder after Marten de Vos the Elder
Geometry
(series, Seven Liberal Arts)
ca. 1590
engraving
Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna

Georg Pencz
Superbia
(series, Seven Deadly Sins)
ca. 1541
engraving
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

Hieronymus Wierix
Allegory of Wisdom and Innocence
ca. 1573
engraving
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel

Ditlev Conrad Blunck
The Nightmare
1846
oil on canvas
Nivaagaard Museum, Denmark

Francesco Salviati
Portrait of a Young Man
ca. 1543-48
oil on panel
Liechtenstein Museum, Vienna

Emil Orlik
Woman on a Sofa
ca. 1900
color etching
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Félix Vallotton
La Flûte
(series, Les Instruments de Musique)
ca. 1895
woodcut
Cabinet d'Arts Graphiques
des Musées d'Art et d'Histoire, Genève

Jacob Jordaens
Old Man and Young Woman feeding a Parrot
ca. 1638-40
oil on canvas
Liechtenstein Museum, Vienna

Hans Wechtlin
The Owl
ca. 1515
woodcut
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Jost Amman after Johann Melchior Bocksberger
St Luke writing his Gospel
ca. 1570
hand-colored woodcut
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel

Rembrandt
St Jerome reading at the Foot of a Tree
1634
etching
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Cavaliere d'Arpino (Giuseppe Cesari)
St Jerome
ca. 1600
oil on canvas
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Brest

Bartholome Zeitblom
St Anthony Abbot
ca. 1482-85
oil on panel
Staatsgalerie im Hohes Schloss Füssen

Artus Wolfaerts
The Four Evangelists
ca. 1620
oil on canvas
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux

One of the most influential teachers of art in nineteenth-century France, Lecoq de Boisbaudran, who was an ardent reformer and advocate of memory training, provides another instance of this interaction.  Critical of accepted life-class routines and eager to guide the student toward "the immense field, almost unexplored, of living action, of changing, fugitive effects," he obtained permission to let models pose in the open air and made them move freely, as Rodin was to do: "Once our admiration rose to the height of enthusiasm.  One of our models, a man of splendid stature with a great sweeping beard, lay at rest upon the bank of the pond, close to a group of rushes, in an attitude at once easy and beautiful.  The illusion was complete – mythology made true lived before our eyes, for there, before us was a river god of old, ruling in quiet dignity over the course of his waters . . ."

What an opportunity, we may infer, to test tradition and improve upon it.  It is examples such as these which explain the gradual nature of all artistic changes, for variations can be controlled and checked only against a set of invariants. 

Does not the experience of Lecoq de Boisbaudran suggest the revolutionary work of a much greater innovator, Manet's Déjeuner sur l'herbe?  It is well known that this daring exploit of naturalism was based, not on an incident in the environs of Paris as the scandalized public believed, but on a print from Raphael's circle which none other than Fréart de Chambray had extolled as a masterpiece of composition.  Seen from our point of view this borrowing loses much of its puzzling nature.  The systematic explorer can afford less than any one else to rely on random actions.  He cannot just splash colors about to see what happens, for even if he should like the effect he could never repeat it.  The naturalistic image, as we have seen, is a very closely knit configuration of relationships which cannot be varied beyond certain limits without becoming unintelligible to artist and public alike.  Manet's action in modifying a compositional schema of Raphael's shows that he knew the value of the adage "One thing at a time."  Language grows by introducing new words, but a language consisting only of new words and a new syntax would be indistinguishable from gibberish.

– E.H. Gombrich, Art and Illusion: a Study in the Psychology of Pictorial Representation (Princeton University Press, 1960)

Predators

Ancient Greek Sculptor
Lion
325 BC
marble
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri

Anonymous German Sculptor
Lion
15th century
bronze
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

attributed to Baccio Bandinelli
Hercules and the Nemean Lion
1518
marble
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Jean de Gourmont the Elder
Samson and the Lion
ca. 1530-40
engraving
British Museum

Bartholomäus Reiter
St Corbinian and the Bear
1609
drawing (print study)
British Museum

François Anguier
Lion attacking Boar
ca. 1661-63
marble tomb element
Musée du Louvre

Pietro da Cortona
Daniel in the Lions' Den
1663-64
oil on canvas (altarpiece)
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

Anonymous French Makers
Basin with Lion Masks and Drunken Bacchus
ca. 1680
maiolica
Musée du Louvre

Laurent Delvaux
Samson vanquishing the Lion
1755
marble
Musée du Louvre

attributed to Giuseppe Franchi
Lion
(one of pair carved in Rome, after antique Medici lions)
ca. 1775-1800
marble
Musée du Louvre

Francesco Hayez
Self Portrait with Tiger and Lion
ca. 1830
oil on panel
Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan

Edward Poynter
Egyptian Granite Lion at the British Museum
ca. 1867
drawing
British Museum

Jean-Léon Gérôme
Lion in the Desert
ca. 1885
oil on canvas
Buffalo AKG Art Museum, New York

Ludwig Hohlwein
Munich Zoo (Leopard and Panther)
1912
lithograph (poster)
Museum of Modern Art, New York

Cecilia Vicuña
Black Panther and Me (ii) Bogotá
1978
oil on canvas
Museum of Modern Art, New York

Thornton Dial
The Longest Tail Tiger in the United States
1989
acrylic paint and rope on panel
Milwaukee Art Museum, Wisconsin

Tom Knechtel
Lion devouring a Monkey
1995
drawing
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

    Such expressions as: 'to subsist in bones and be but pyramidally extant' – 'sad and sepulchral pitchers which have no joyful voices' – 'predicament of chimaeras' – 'the irregularities of vain glory, and wild enormities of ancient magnanimity' – are examples of this consummate mastery of language, examples of which, with a multitude of others, singly deserve whole hours of delicious gustation, whole days of absorbed and exquisite worship.  It is pleasant to start out for a long walk with such a splendid phrase upon one's lips as: 'According to the ordainer of order and mystical mathematicks of the City of Heaven,' to go for miles and miles with the marvellous syllables still rich upon the inward ear, and to return home with them in triumph.

– Lytton Strachey on Sir Thomas Browne (1906)

Upon

Sebald Beham
Triton and Nereid
1523
engraving
Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig

Jacopo de' Barbari
Old Woman riding Triton
before 1516
engraving
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Albrecht Altdorfer
Arion and Nereid
ca. 1515-25
engraving
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Adam Elsheimer
Neptune and Triton
1600
drawing
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden

Elias Nessenthaler
Neptune borne by Tritons
ca. 1695
etching and engraving
Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig

Sebald Beham
Ornamental Panel with Genii riding Chimeras
1544
engraving
Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig

Lucas van Leyden
St Luke
ca. 1508
engraving
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

Heinrich Aldegrever
Putto with Vase and Goat
before 1561
engraving
Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig

Anonymous German Artist
Apollo as Sun
(series, Seven Planets)
ca. 1550-75
woodcut
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel

Albrecht Dürer
Allegorical Figure of Justice
ca. 1490
engraving
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

Giandomenico Tiepolo
Punchinello riding a Camel
ca. 1795-1800
drawing
Getty Museum, Los Angeles

attributed to Jan Luyken
Elephants in Procession of Turkish Sultan to Mosque
ca. 1690
drawing
Städel Museum, Frankfurt

Hans Baldung
Aristotle and Phyllis
1515
woodcut
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Georg Pencz
Aristotle and Phyllis
ca. 1545-46
engraving
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

Anonymous German Artist
Allegory of Temperance
ca. 1520-50
engraving
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

Garofalo (Benvenuto Tisi)
St Christopher
ca. 1530-40
oil on panel
Liechtenstein Museum, Vienna

Besides the present affliction, the reception of the country-people and of their substance into the city oppressed both them and much more the people themselves that so came in.  For having no houses but dwelling at that time of the year in stifling booths, the mortality was now without all form; and dying men lay tumbling one upon another in the streets, and men half-dead about every conduit through desire of water.  The temples also where they dwelt in tents were all full of the dead that died within them.  For oppressed with the violence of the calamity and not knowing what to do, men grew careless both of holy and profane things alike.  And the laws which they formerly used touching funerals were all now broken, every one burying where he could find room.  And many for want of things necessary, after so many deaths before, were forced to become impudent in the funerals of their friends.  For when one had made a funeral pile, another getting before him would throw on his dead and give it fire.  And when one was in burning, another would come and, having cast thereon him whom he carried, go his way again. 

And the great licentiousness, which also in other kinds was used in the city, began at first from this disease.  For that which a man before would dissemble and not acknowledge to be done for voluptuousness, he durst now do freely, seeing before his eyes such quick revolutions, as of the rich dying and men worth nothing inheriting their estates.  Insomuch as they justified a speedy fruition of their goods even for their pleasure, as men that thought they held their lives but by the day.  As for pains, no man was forward in any action of honour to take any because they thought it uncertain whether they should die or not before they achieved it.  But what any man knew to be delightful and to be profitable to pleasure, that was made both profitable and honourable.  Neither the fear of the gods nor laws of men awed any man, not the former because they concluded it was alike to worship or not worship from seeing that alike they all perished, nor the latter because no man expected that lives would last till he received punishment of his crimes by judgment.  But they thought there was now over their heads some far greater judgment decreed against them before which fell, they thought to enjoy some little part of their lives. 

– from The Peloponnesian War as written by Thucydides (5th century BC) and translated by Thomas Hobbes (1628) and edited by David Grene (1959)