Alto

Anonymous Russian Artist
Astronomical Diagram
1917
lithograph
(poetic text by Vasily Kamensky)
Cabinet d'Arts Graphiques des Musées d'Art et d'Histoire, Genève

Walter Dexel
Bridge of Stars
1919
woodcut
Städtisches Museum, Braunschweig

Hans Burgkmair the Younger
Stars falling from the Sky
ca. 1550
drawing
(Bible illustration - Apocalypse)
Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna

Conrad Martin Metz
Centaur Chiron instructing Achilles in Astronomy
1804
drawing
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Anonymous German Artist
Suns and Moons with Faces
ca. 1575
woodcut
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel

Hans Wolff Glaser
Miraculous Face in the Moon over Nuremberg, seen by Many
1561
hand-colored woodcut and letterpress
(broadside)
Graphische Sammlung, Zentralbibliothek Zürich

Hans Schäufelein
Earthquake and Fire from Heaven
1523
woodcut
(Bible illustration - Apocalypse)
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Monogrammist IB
Sol
(series, Seven Planets)
1528
engraving
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

Monogrammist IB
Mercury
(series, Seven Planets)
1528
engraving
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

Monogrammist IB
Venus
(series, Seven Planets)
1528
engraving
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

Étienne Delaune
Venus
(series, Seven Planets)
1557
engraving
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

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

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

Jacques de Gheyn II
Portrait of astronomer Tycho Brahe
ca. 1595
engraving
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

Johann Theodor de Bry
Portrait of astrologer Luca Gaurico
ca. 1615
engraving
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel

Anonymous German Artist
Geometer and Astronomer
16th century
woodcut
Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig

But the contrary faction to the traitors being superior in number, whereby the gates were not opened presently, both they and Eucles the general, who was then there for the Athenians to keep the town, sent unto the other general, Thucydides, the son of Olorus, the writer of this history, who had charge in Thrace, and was now about Thasos (which is an island and a colony of the Parians, distant from Amphipolis about half a day's sail), requiring him to come and relieve them.  When he heard the news, he went thitherwards in all haste with seven galleys, which chanced to be with him at that time.  His purpose principally was to prevent the yielding up of Amphipolis; but if he should fail of that, then to possess himself of Eion before Brasidas' coming.

Brasidas, in the meantime, fearing the aid of the galleys to come from Thasos, and having also been informed that Thucydides possessed mines of gold in the parts of Thrace thereabouts, and was thereby of ability amongst the principal men of the continent, hasted by all means to get Amphipolis before he should arrive, lest otherwise at his coming the commons of Amphipolis, expecting that he would levy confederates both from the sea-side and in Thrace, and relieve them, should thereupon refuse to yield.  And to that end offered them a moderate composition.  . . .  When the commons heard this, their minds were turned; and the rather, because the Athenians amongst them were but few, and the most were a promiscuous multitude; and the kinsmen of those that were taken without flocked together within.  And in respect of their fear, they all thought the proclamation reasonable; the Athenians thought it so because they were willing to go out, as apprehending their own danger to be greater than that of the rest, and withal, not expecting aid in haste; and the rest of the multitude, as being thereby both delivered of the danger, and withal to retain their city with the equal form of government.  Insomuch that they which conspired with Brasidas now openly justified the offer to be reasonable; and seeing the minds of the commons were now turned and that they gave ear no more to the words of the Athenian general, they compounded, and upon the conditions proclaimed received him.  Thus did these men deliver ujp the city.  Thucydides with his galleys arrived in the evening of the same day at Eion.*

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

*This is a very impersonal statement of Thucydides' great failure as a military commander.  As he records later, he was disgraced for his failure to save Amphipolis and was banished from Athens. 

Efforts

Ruth Orkin
Waiting for a Train, Penn Station, NY
ca. 1958
gelatin silver print
Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton, New Brunswick

Tommi Parzinger
Design for Textile
ca. 1950
gouache on paper
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Étienne Picart
Portrait of Madame de Montespan
1668
engraving
Kupferstichkabinett, Kunstsammlungen der Veste Coburg

Ed Pien
Pond #8
1993
oil on canvas
Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Kingston, Ontario

Hobson Pittman
Still Life no. 1
ca. 1930
linocut
Reynolda House Museum of American Art,
Winston-Salem, North Carolina

Alex Prager
Kimberly
2008
C-print
North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh

George Agnew Reid
Portrait of Mary Hiester Reid
1898
oil on canvas
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto

Robert Riggs
Corner #1
ca. 1932-33
lithograph
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh

Michael Riley
Daryl
1989
gelatin silver print
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Alexander Rodchenko
Pioneer Girl
1930
gelatin silver print
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Florence Rodway
Portrait of a Woman
ca. 1907-1910
charcoal on paper
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Roman Empire
Fortuna
AD 50
marble
Allard Pierson Museum, Amsterdam

George Romney
Contemplation
ca. 1772
oil on canvas
Denver Art Museum

Salvator Rosa
Landscape with Figures
ca. 1660
oil on canvas
Princeton University Art Museum

Lewis Morris Rutherfurd
The Moon
1865
albumen silver print
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa

Marten Ryckaert
Landscape
ca. 1610
oil on panel
Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp

François Sallé
Anatomy Class at the École des Beaux-Arts
1888
oil on canvas
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

from Malpiglio, or, On the Court

(The young Giovanlorenzo Malpiglio wants to become a courtier; his father, Vincenzo, wishes Giovanlorenzo were less attracted to the court and more attentive to his studies; the Neapolitan Stranger, who functions as Tasso's spokesman, presents a cautiously balanced view.)

Neapolitan Stranger:  Then physical training, a good mind, and moral virtue, Signor Giovanlorenzo, are what make a courtier pleasing to his prince.

Giovanlorenzo Malpiglio:  So they are.

N.S.:  But are the virtues all esteemed equally in courts, or one more than another?

G.M.:  I suppose that courage and liberality are the most esteemed, because they are the most useful to everyone.

N.S.:  And perhaps the virtues which are most esteemed are also the ones which most impress the lord of the court.  It is reasonable for him to prefer those which are valued most highly.

G.M.:  It seems reasonable enough to me.

N.S.:  Well now, do we want the courtier to exercise only his body?  Or only that part of his soul which is subject to the passions?  Or his intellect too?

G.M.:  His intellect too.

N.S.:  Then he ought to learn mathematics and moral philosophy as well as natural science and theology, and he ought to be well acquainted with the historians, the poets, the orators, and with the noble arts, such as sculpture, painting, and architecture.  He ought to know enough about all these subjects so that no one can accuse him of ignorance.  Such knowledge will win high honor from his prince, and goodwill will follow honor.

G.M.:  In my opinion nothing is truer.  Love for what is not esteemed never seems to result from judgment but always from passion.

N.S.:  But is excellence in all these arts and virtues worthy of any envy?

G.M.:  Of a great deal, in fact.

N.S.:  Then those very things that win goodwill from princes cause envy in courtiers, and since it is impossible to attain both of the goals you mentioned earlier, we must either cease to care about being envied by the court or refrain from seeking the grace of princes with so much eagerness.

G.M.:  This is a great difficulty, for without both the prince's grace and the goodwill of other courtiers I do not see how the courtier can ever be happy.

N.S.:  If there is any way to achieve two such disparate goals, then, it will not be through great virtue or knowledge or other such qualities which call attention to themselves but through some other art.

G.M.  This is exactly what I have been waiting to hear about.

– Torquato Tasso (1585), translated by Dain A. Trafton (1973)

Nocturne

Anonymous Artist
Champa Street at Night, Denver, Colorado
ca. 1913
halftone print (postcard)
Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas

Pierre-Gaston Rigaud
Moonlight
ca. 1910
oil paint and pastel on canvas
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux

Donato Creti
Astronomical Observation - Venus
1711
oil on canvas
Pinacoteca Vaticana, Rome

Caspar David Friedrich
Shore in Moonlight
ca. 1835-36
oil on canvas
Hamburger Kunsthalle

Edvard Munch
Moonlight
1895
oil on canvas
Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo

Abraham Bosse after Claude Vignon
Group with Torches in a Boat at Night
1639
engraving
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

Jean Jouvenet
Last Supper
ca. 1705
oil on canvas
National Museum, Warsaw

Frans Francken the Younger
Christ and Nicodemus
ca. 1610
oil on panel
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Daniele Crespi
Dream of St Joseph
ca. 1620-30
oil on canvas
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Oswald Achenbach
Night Festival near Florence
1889
oil on canvas
Alte Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Anonymous German Artist
The Great Comet of 1664-65
1665
engraving
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel

Anonymous German Artist
Dark Moon and Pair of Comets
1540
hand-colored woodcut and letterpress (broadside)
Graphische Sammlung, Zentralbibliothek Zürich

Valentin Schönig
Arrival of a Comet
1577
hand-colored woodcut and letterpress (broadside)
Graphische Sammlung, Zentralbibliothek Zürich

Johan Christian Dahl
View of Dresden in Moonlight
1839
oil on canvas
Galerie Neue Meister (Albertinum), Dresden

Axel Fridell
By Lamplight
1928
drypoint
Moderna Museet, Stockholm

James Heath after Henry Fuseli
Shade of Patroclus beseeching Achilles for Burial
ca. 1820-30
etching
Graphische Sammlung, Zentralbibliothek Zürich

The stranger is Zoilus of Hermione, but he lies buried in a foreign land, clothed in this Argive earth, which his deep-bosomed wife, her cheeks bedewed with tears, and his children, their hair close cut, heaped on him. 

The stranger was brief; so shall the verse be. I will not tell a long story. "Theris, Aristaeus' son, a Cretan." – For me it is too long.  

The tomb is that of Protalidas of Lycastus who was supreme in love, war, the chase and the dance. Ye judges of the underworld, yourselves Cretans, ye have taken the Cretan to your company. 

Love gave to Protalides success in his pursuit of his boy-loves, Artemis in the chase, the Muse in the dance, and Ares in war. Must we not call him blest, the Lycastian supreme in love and song, with the spear and the hunting-net. 

Here Philippus laid his twelve-year-old son, Nicoteles, his great hope.

On Phrygian Aeschra, his good nurse, did Miccus while she lived besow every comfort that soothes old age, and when she died he erected her statue, that future generations may see how he rewarded the old woman for her milk. 

Hail, earth, mother of all! Aesigenes was never a burden to thee, and do thou too hold him without weighing heavy on him. 

Of a surety, Aretemias, when descending from the boat thou didst set thy foot on the beach of Cocytus, carrying in thy young arms thy babe newly dead, the fair daughters of the Dorian land pitied thee in Hades and questioned thee concerning thy death; and thou, thy cheeks bedewed with tears, didst give them these mournful tidings: "My dears, I brought forth twin children; one I left with Euphron my husband, and the other I bring to the dead."

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

Telescopic Views

Claude Mellan
Phases of the Moon - Last Quarter
1637
engraving
(based on telescope views by Pierre Gassendi)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Henri Matisse
Woman seated in an Armchair
1940
oil on canvas
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Hans Memling
The Canon Gilles Joye
1472
tempera and oil on panel
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts

Jean-Baptiste Mauzaisse
Putto as Allegorical Figure of Commerce
1828
oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre

Claude Mellan
Phases of the Moon - First Quarter
1637
engraving
(based on telescope views by Pierre Gassendi)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Henri Matisse
Still Life with Apples
1924
oil on canvas
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Hans Memling
Portrait of a Man with a Pink
ca. 1480
oil on panel
Morgan Library, New York

Jean-Baptiste Mauzaisse
Putto as Allegorical Figure of The Arts
1828
oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre

Claude Mellan
Phases of the Moon - Full
1637
engraving
(based on telescope views by Pierre Gassendi)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Henri Matisse
Still Life with Pineapple
1924
oil on canvas
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Hans Memling
Portrait of a Man
ca. 1470-75
oil on panel
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts

Jean-Baptiste Mauzaisse
Putto as Allegorical Figure of The Sciences
1828
oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre

Anonymous French Artist
Mirror Back with Chess Game
ca. 1300
ivory relief
Musée du Louvre

Henri Matisse
Vase de Fleurs et le Plat d'Huitres
1940
oil on canvas
Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York

Hans Memling
Portrait of a Young Man
ca. 1480
oil on panel
Kunsthaus Zürich

Jean-Baptiste Mauzaisse
Putto as Allegorical Figure of War
1828
oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre

Anonymous French Artist
Mirror Back with the Storming of the Palace of Love
ca. 1350-70
ivory relief
Musée du Louvre

A tomb on the Thracian approaches of Olympus holds

Orpheus, the one whom the Muse Calliope bore. 

The oaks could not but obey him, and the mindless

Rocks kept pace to his beat, and the woodland beast-packs.

He found out the occult initiation rites of Bacchus, and likewise

Structured the linked line in epic metre.

Spellbound, with his lyre, he held the heavy mind

Of Him Whom we speak well of, the unmollifiable,

And that wrath likewise which no enchantment can bind.

– from the Greek Anthology, translated by John Heath-Stubbs and Carol A. Whiteside