Sea Dwellers

Nicolas Beatrizet
Rana Piscatrix from Aquatilium Animalium Historiæ
1554
engraving (book illustration)
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel

Nicolas Beatrizet
Sepia Sopina from Aquatilium Animalium Historiæ
1554
engraving (book illustration)
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel

Nicolas Beatrizet
Serpens Marina from Aquatilium Animalium Historiæ
1554
engraving (book illustration)
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel

Giovanni Andrea Maglioli
Sea Monster
before 1610
engraving
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel

Cherubino Alberti
Leviathan with Putto
before 1615
engraving
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

Roman Empire
Jonah Cast Up
AD 280-290 (early Christian)
marble 
Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio

Barthel Beham
Triton and Nereid
ca. 1524
engraving
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich
Combat of Tritons
1763
engraving
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

Lucas Kilian after Georg Pecham
Equestrian Nymphs in the Waves
ca. 1620
engraving
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel

Lucas Killian
Ornamental Banner supported by Mermen
1610
engraving
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel

Alexander Rothaug
On a Northern Beach (Mermaid)
ca. 1910
oil on canvas
Leopold Museum, Vienna

Albert Bierstadt
Farallon Island
1887
oil on canvas
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh

Jan Sadeler the Elder after Dirck Barendsz
Four Elements - Neptune as Water
1587
engraving
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel

Virgil Solis
Neptune shaking the Earth with his Trident
ca. 1550-60
woodcut
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel

Auguste Préault
The Wave
1856
terracotta
Musée Magnin, Dijon

James Ensor
The Skate
1892
oil on canvas
Musée Fin-de-Siècle, Brussels

[Athena has come to the urns and is now standing over them, voting-token in hand.] 

Athena:  This is now my task, to be the last to judge this case; and I shall cast this ballot for Orestes. There is no mother who gave birth to me, and I commend the male in all respects (except for joining in marriage) with all my heart: in the fullest sense, I am my Father's child. Therefore, I shall not set a higher value on the death of a woman, when she had killed her husband, the guardian of her house.  [She drops her ballot into the urn for acquittal.] The defendant wins, even if the judges' votes on him are equally divided. Empty the ballots from the urns at once, you of the judges to whom this function has been assigned. 

[Athena returns to her seat. While the next few lines are being spoken, two of the judges go up to the urns and turn them upside down on the table.]  

Orestes:  O Phoebus Apollo, how will the verdict turn out?

Chorus of Furies:  O black Mother Night, do you see this?

Orestes:  Now for me it's either the fatal noose, or the light of day. 

Chorus:  And for us it's either ruin, or continuing to enjoy our privileges.

[The tellers now lift aside the urns, revealing the two piles of votes, which they count during the following speech.]

Apollo:  Count the emptied ballots correctly, gentlemen, scrupulously respecting justice in determining the outcome. A lack of good judgement can cause great harm, and a single vote can set an afflicted house on its feet. 

[The tellers go up to Athena and quietly inform her of the result of the count.]

Athena [rising and extending her right arm towards Orestes]:  This man stands acquitted of the charge of bloodshed. The votes have been counted, and they are equal.  

– Aeschylus, from Eumenides (458 BC), translated by Alan H. Sommerstein (2008)

Down-Weighing

Max Beckmann
Carrying the Cross
1911
oil on canvas
Hamburger Kunsthalle

Luca Cambiaso
Descent from the Cross
ca. 1572-75
drawing
Rhode Island School of Design, Providence

Peter Paul Rubens
Descent from the Cross
ca. 1617-18
oil on canvas
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Gerard David
Descent from the Cross
ca. 1495-1500
oil on canvas
Frick Collection, New York

Hans Mielich
Descent from the Cross
1536
oil on panel
Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris

Jacopo Bassano
Study for The Entombment
ca. 1568
drawing (colored chalks)
Hamburger Kunsthalle

Paolo Farinati
The Entombment
ca. 1590
drawing
Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen

Parmigianino (Francesco Mazzola)
Kanephoros
(leading ancient sacrificial procession)
ca. 1533-35
drawing
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

John Baptist Jackson after Parmigianino
Kanephoros
1731
chiaroscuro woodcut
(dedicated to the collector, consul Joseph Smith)
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Bartholomeus Spranger
Venus and Cupid on a Dolphin
ca. 1580-85
drawing
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Giuseppe Maria Mitelli after Annibale Carracci
Ignudo and Harpy
ca. 1675
engraving
(after fresco in Palazzo Ghisilardi Fava, Bologna)
Hamburger Kunsthalle

Annibale Carracci
Study for Hercules supporting the Globe
ca. 1595-97
drawing
Biblioteca Reale, Turin

Joseph Caspar after Karl Friedrich Schinkel
Caryatids from Four Ancient Buildings
ca. 1820-30
etching and engraving
(from design manual)
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Anonymous French Artists
Bowl supported by Mermaids
ca. 1790
marble, gilt-bronze and porphyry
Detroit Institute of Arts

Felix H. Man
Wrestlers
1939
gelatin silver print
Museum Ludwig, Cologne

 

Leonardo Cremonini
L'Uomo che porta la carne
1957-58
oil on canvas
Princeton University Art Museum

Faustus [alone, in his study]:

These Metaphisicks of Magitians

And Negromantick bookes are heavenly.

Lines, Circles, Signes, Letters, and Characters,
I these are those that Faustus most desires. 
O what a world of profite and delight,

Of power, of honour, and omnipotence,
Is promised to the Studious Artizan?
All things that move betweene the quiet Poles

Shall be at my command: Emperors and Kings,
Are but obey'd in their severall Provinces:
Nor can they raise the winde, or rend the cloudes:
But his dominion that exceeds in this,
Stretcheth as farre as doth the mind of man:
A sound Magitian is a Demi-god,

Here tire my braines to get a Deity. 

– Christopher Marlow, Doctor Faustus, Act I, scene i (1592)

The Mermaid !!!

George Cruikshank
The Mermaid !
Now Exhibiting at the Turf Coffee House
1822
hand-colored etching
British Museum

"A mummified creature poised erect on the curve of a fish's body, just above the tail, stands in a glass case, directed to the left.  The grotesque and hideous head of simian type is bent back and gazes upwards; arms, hands, shoulders, and pendent breasts are quasi-human, the body that of a fish of the salmon type with fins curiously arranged in pairs."

Issac Robert Cruikshank
The Mermaid (two views)
1822
etching
British Museum

"This object, bought by a sea-captain in Batavia for 5,000 dollars, was believed to be concocted of 'the blue faced monkey' and the prepared skin and fins of a salmon." The Times, 16 Nov. 1822

"It was the subject of an application to the Chancellor to prevent its removal, ownership being in dispute between the sea-captain and the owner of seven-eighths of his brig, which the former had sold, buying the creature with the proceeds."

– curator's notes from the British Museum

James Barry
The Angelic Guards
ca. 1802
etching
British Museum

"Angels seated at the edge of a cliff with clouds below to right and all around, the foremost with one foot on a rock, a key at his feet, holding his spear in both hands, others pointing outwards to right with spears.  Figures surrounding the angels include, in a row above them, left to right – Charles I, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Cassiodorus and another monk, Francis I and Agrippa; top row, left to right – Sir Joshua Reynolds, Giles Hussey, vestal and angel, Annibale Carracci, Domenichino, and an unidentified youth."

– curator's notes from the British Museum

Max Klinger
Secession (cover illustration)
 1893
etching, mezzotint
British Museum

Pietro Santi Bartoli
Tomb of Paolo Veronese (died 1588)
ca. 1650-1700
etching
British Museum

Giovanni Battista Mercati
Roundel with Roman Emperor hunting Bear
from a relief on the Arch of Constantine
 1642
etching dedicated to Francesco Borromini, Roman architect
British Museum

Giovanni Battista Mercati
Executioner presenting the Head of John the Baptist to Salome
1626
etching dedicated to Nicolao Alemanno, Prefect of the Vatican Library
British Museum

Giovanni Battista Mercati
St Bibiana refusing to sacrifice to pagan deities
1626
etching dedicated to Marcello Sacchetti, Roman art patron
British Museum

Giovanni Battista Mercati
Roundel with St Catherine of Alexandria seated in Glory
ca. 1620-40
etching
British Museum

Wenceslaus Hollar
View of Whitehall and Lambeth
1640s
etching
Teylers Museum, Haarlem

Wenceslaus Hollar
Spring
1643
etching
Royal Collection, Windsor

Claude Mellan
Sheet of 20 portraits of Mercedarian martyrs
(religious order dedicated to ransoming Christian captives from the Moors)
ca. 1624-36
etching
British Museum

The individual portraits with names and dates of martyrdom have been cut out of a larger engraving and pasted individually onto a separate sheet. The originally engraving printed at Rome under the sponsorship of the Mercedarians contained double this number of portraits. The British Museum preserves copies of the others also, pasted onto a partner sheet.

Jean Mignon
Transformation of Actaeon
ca. 1540-50
etching
Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf

Battista Franco
Bacchantes with Apollo and Daphne
ca. 1530-61
etching
British Museum