Postures

Adriaen van Ostade
Peasant Dance in a Barn
1635
oil on panel
Liechtenstein Museum, Vienna

Maarten van Heemskerck
Concert of Apollo and the Muses on Mount Helicon
1565
oil on panel
Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia

Dirck Hals
Merry Company
ca. 1614-18
oil on panel
Národní Galerie, Prague

Valentin de Boulogne
Music-Makers and Fortune-Teller
1631
oil on canvas
Liechtenstein Museum, Vienna

Daniel Hopfer after Andrea Mantegna
Bacchanal
before 1536
etching
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

attributed to Giovanni Francesco Penni
Putti dancing around a Palm
ca. 1510
drawing
(after Vatican tapestry)
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden

Anonymous Italian Artist after Andrea Mantegna
Four Dancing Muses
ca. 1497
engraving
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

Jacques de Gheyn II
Masked Revelers
1595-96
engraving
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Jacques de Gheyn II
Masked Revelers
1595-96
engraving
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Jacques de Gheyn II
Masked Revelers
1595-96
engraving
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Marcantonio Raimondi
Orpheus and Eurydice
ca. 1500-1503
engraving
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Israel van Meckenem
Knight and Lady
ca. 1470
engraving
Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig

Andries Both
Street Musicians
ca. 1635
drawing
Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands

Claude Lorrain
Shepherdess and Shepherd making Music
ca. 1648
drawing
(study for painting)
Städel Museum, Frankfurt

Anonymous French Artist
Bacchus and Father Time
ca. 1700-1750
drawing
(study for theatrical costumes)
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Pinturicchio (Bernardino di Betto)
Dancing Woman with Tambourine
ca. 1490-1500
drawing
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

The Peloponnesians, when they saw the Athenians would not enter the gulf and strait, desiring to draw them in against their wills, weighed anchor and betime in the morning having arranged their galleys by four and four in a rank, sailed along their own coast within the gulf, leading the way in the same order as they had lain at anchor, with their right wing.  In this wing they had placed twenty of their swiftest galleys to the end that if Phormio, thinking them going to Naupactus, should for safeguard of the town sail along his own coast likewise within the strait, the Athenians might not be able to get beyond that wing of theirs and avoid the impression but be inclosed by their galleys on both sides. Phormio, fearing (as they expected) what might become of the town now without guard, as soon as he saw them from anchor, against his will and in extreme haste went aboard and sailed along the shore with the land forces of the Messenians marching by to aid him.  The Peloponnesians, when they saw them sail in one long file, galley after galley, and that they were now in the gulf and by the shore (which they most desired), upon one sign given turned suddenly everyone as fast as he could upon the Athenians, hoping to have intercepted them every galley.  But of those the eleven foremost, avoiding that wing and the turn made by the Peloponnesians, got out into the open sea.  The rest they intercepted and, driving them to the shore, sunk them.  The men, as many as swam not out, they slew; and the galleys some they tied to their own and towed them away empty, and one with the men and all in her they had already taken.  But the Messenian succours on land, entering the sea with their arms, got aboard of some of them and fighting from the decks recovered them again after they were already towing away. 

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

Postures

Lynn Chadwick
Dance V - Composition with Two Figures
1955
painted iron and concrete
Museum Folkwang, Essen

Jakob Becher
Dancer's Legs
ca. 1860
drawing
Städel Museum, Frankfurt

Ernst Deutsch (called Dryden)
Richard's Grill Room, Berlin
1913
lithograph (poster)
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Peter Cornelius
Rue Pigalle, Paris
ca. 1957
C-print
Museum Folkwang, Essen

François Dequevauviller
Dancing School
ca. 1780
engraving
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Pau

Edmond Aman-Jean
Venetian Festival
1923
oil on canvas
Ohara Museum of Art, Kurashiki, Japan

Edgar Degas
La Fête de la Patronne
1878-79
pastel over monotype
Musée Picasso, Paris

Otto Dix
To Beauty
1922
oil on canvas
(central figure is self portrait)
Von der Heydt Museum, Wuppertal

Urs Graf the Elder
Landsknecht
1527
woodcut
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Monogrammist IK
Soldier waving Banner
16th century
woodcut
Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna

Franz Marc
Letter to Else Lasker-Schüler with Dancer
ca. 1910
drawing
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Oskar Schlemmer
Dancer (The Gesture)
1922-23
oil and tempera on canvas
Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich

Virgil Solis
Four Acrobats and an Ape
before 1562
engraving
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

workshop of Jean-François de Troy
Luncheon with Figures in Masquerade Dress
1725
oil on canvas
Detroit Institute of Arts

Jean-Baptiste Pater
Fête Champêtre at Grape Harvest
ca. 1730-32
oil on canvas
Dallas Museum of Art

Joseph von Führich
The Painters Koch, Dräger and Führich
outside Osteria Scozzese in Rome
ca. 1825-30
oil on canvas
Liechtenstein Museum, Vienna

After this the Peloponnesians, seeing their engines availed not and thinking it hard to take the city by any present violence, prepared themselves to besiege it.  But first they thought fit to attempt it by fire, being no great city, and when the wind should rise, if they could, to burn it, for there was no way they did not think on to have gained it without expense and long siege.  Having therefore brought faggots, they cast them from the mount into the space between it and their new wall, which by so many hands was quickly filled, and then into as much of the rest of the city as at that distance they could reach and, throwing amongst them fire, together with brimstone and pitch, kindled the wood and raised such a flame, as the like was never seen before made by the hand of man.  For as for the woods in the mountains, the trees have indeed taken fire; but it hath been by mutual attrition and have flamed out of their own accord.  But this fire was a great one, and the Plataeans that had escaped other mischiefs wanted little of being consumed by this.  For near the wall they could not get by a great way, and if the wind had been with it (as the enemy hoped it might), they could never have escaped.  It is also reported that there fell much rain then with great thunder and that the flame was extinguished and the danger ceased by that. 

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

Upon

Johannes Zainer
Jason and Medea with the Head of her brother Absyrtus
1473
hand-colored woodcut
(illustration to De Mulieribus Claris of Boccaccio)
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Michael Wolgemut and Wilhelm Pleydenwurff
Conversion of St Paul
1493
woodcut and letterpress
(illustration to  the Nuremberg Chronicle)
Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna

Luca Signorelli
St James the Greater with Living and Dead Pilgrim
ca. 1508
oil on panel
Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest

Riccio (Andrea Briosco)
St George and the Dragon
ca. 1510
bronze plaquette
Bode Museum, Berlin

Hans Schäufelein
Woman on Horseback
ca. 1510
drawing
Kupferstichkabinett,
Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden

Jan Swart van Groningen
Mounted Arabian Lancers
1526
woodcut
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Melchior Lorck
Warrior with Winged Helmet
1576
woodcut
Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna

Jost Amman
Knight on Horseback
1578
woodcut
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel

Anonymous Artist
Woman on Caparisoned Mount followed by Attendant
ca. 1595-1605
drawing
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Antonio Tempesta
Semiramis
(series of figures from Orlando Furioso)
1597
etching
Kupferstichkabinett,
Staatliche Kunstsammlungen,Dresden

Cesare Agostino Bonacina
Woman on Rearing Horse
ca. 1650
drawing
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Andreas Schlüter
Elector Friedrich Wilhelm of Brandenburg
1712
bronze figures on alabaster base
(reduced copy of monument)
Bode Museum, Berlin

Johann Nepomuk Hoechle
Russian Cavalryman
ca. 1810-15
watercolor on paper
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Arnold Böcklin
The Adventurer
1882
tempera on canvas
Kunsthalle Bremen

Fritz Roeber
Before the Ride
1898
oil on canvas
Von der Heydt Museum, Wuppertal

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Cavalryman
before 1901
drawing
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

After the second invasion of the Peloponnesians the Athenians, having their fields now the second time wasted and both the sickness and war falling upon them at once, changed their minds and accused Pericles, as if by his means they had been brought into these calamities, and desired earnestly to compound with the Lacedaemonians, to whom also they sent certain ambassadors, but they returned without effect.  And being then at their wits' end, they kept a stir at Pericles.  And he, seeing them vexed with their present calamity and doing all those things which he had before expected, called an assembly (for he was yet general) with intention to put them again into heart and, assuaging their passion, to reduce their minds to a more calm and less dismayed temper.  And standing forth, he spake unto them in this manner:

"Your anger towards me cometh not unlooked for, for the cause of it I know.  And I have called this assembly, therefore, to remember you and reprehend you for those things wherein you have either been angry with me or given way to your adversity without reason.  For I am of this opinion, that the public prosperity of the city is better for private men than if the private men themselves were in prosperity and the public wealth in decay.  For a private man, though in good estate, if his county come to ruin, must of necessity be ruined with it; whereas he that miscarrieth in a flourishing commonwealth shall much more easily be preserved.  Since then the commonwealth is able to bear the calamities of private men, and everyone cannot support the calamities of the commonwealth, why should not everyone strive to defend it and not, as you now, astonished with domestic misfortune, forsake the common safety and fall a-censuring both me that counselled the war and yourselves that decreed the same as well as I?  And it is I you are angry withal, one, as I think myself, inferior to none either in knowing what is requisite or in expressing what I know,  and a lover of my country, and superior to money.  For he that hath good thoughts and cannot clearly express them were as good to have as nothing at all.  He that can do both and is ill affected to his country will likewise not give it faithful counsel.  And he that will do that too yet if he be superable by money will for that alone set all the rest to sale.  Now if you followed my advice in making this war, as esteeming these virtues to be in me somewhat above the rest, there is sure no reason that I should now be accused of doing you wrong."

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

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)