Mannerist Poses

Jacob Binck
Drunken Silenus
ca. 1530
engraving
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

Jan Sadeler the Elder after Bartholomeus Spranger
Aristotle and Phyllis
ca. 1585
engraving
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel

Francesco Primaticcio
Venus and Cupid
ca. 1540-50
drawing
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Giorgio Ghisi after Francesco Primaticcio
Juno and two other Deities
(after now-destroyed ceiling of Ulysses Gallery at Fontainebleau)
ca. 1560-70
engraving
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

Perino del Vaga after Giovanni Jacopo Caraglio
Mercury and Herse
ca. 1540
engraving
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Giovanni Jacopo Caraglio after Rosso Fiorentino
Figure of Fury
ca. 1520-40
engraving
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Jean Cousin the Elder
Allegory of Drunkenness
ca. 1555
drawing
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Battista Franco (il Semolei)
The Annunciation
1559
engraving
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

Hendrik Goltzius
St Jude
1589
engraving
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel

Giorgio Vasari
Holy Family with St Anne
and young St John the Baptist
ca. 1542
drawing
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Enea Vico after Giorgio Vasari
Two Pilgrims resting at a Spring
1542
engraving
Hamburger Kunsthalle

Johann Ladenspelder
Jupiter
(series, Seven Planets)
before 1561
engraving
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

Giuseppe Porta (Giuseppe Salviati)
The Virgin swooning at the Crucifixion
ca. 1550
drawing (study for altarpiece)
Hamburger Kunsthalle

Adriaen Collaert after Jan van der Straet
Venus, Juno and Minerva
assembled for the Judgment of Paris
1587
engraving
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel

Francesco Mosca
Fall of Phaeton
ca. 1560
marble relief
Bode Museum, Berlin

Jacopo Tintoretto
The Flagellation
ca. 1585-90
oil on canvas
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Queen of Persia:  The rash Xerxes, I should tell you, was taught this way of thinking by associating with wicked men.  They said that whereas you had acquired great wealth for your children by warfare, he, from unmanliness, was being a stay-at-home warrior and doing nothing to increase the riches he had inherited.  It was because he had heard taunts like that, over and over again, from these wicked men, that he planned this military expedition against Greece.

Ghost of Darius:  And so he has completed an immense, never-to-be-forgotten achievement; nothing else that has befallen this city of Susa has ever emptied it like this, since Lord Zeus first granted us this honour, that one man should be supreme over the whole of sheep-rearing Asia, wielding the sceptre of directive authority.  Medus was the first leader of our host, and his son also achieved this position.  The third ruler in the succession from him was Cyrus, a man blessed by the gods, who gave peace to all those he cared for, since his intelligence was in control of his fighting spirit; he gained mastery over the peoples of Lydia and Phrygia, and overran all of Ionia by force.  God did not hate him, because he was wise.  The son of Cyrus was the fourth to direct the host.  The fifth ruler was Mardus, a disgrace to his country and to his ancient throne.  He was killed in his palace, by mens of a crafty plot, by the admirable Artaphrenes together with some friends who took on this duty and with myself; and I gained by chance the lot I desired.  And I invaded many lands with great armies, but I never inflicted on my state such harm as this.  My son Xerxes, though, is still a young man, thinking young man's thoughts, and he has not kept my instructions in mind.  I tell you this plainly, my old contemporaries: take all of us together who have held this kingship, and we will not be found to have caused this much suffering. 

– Aeschylus, from Persians (472 BC), translated by Alan H. Sommerstein (2008)