Wednesday, April 29, 2026

Lifted - I

Sigisbert-François Michel
Head of a Woman
1798
marble
Rhode Island School of Design, Providence

Egon Schiele
Self Portrait
modeled 1916, cast 1980
bronze
Belvedere Museum, Vienna

Jeremias Gottlob Rugendas
Head of a Man
ca. 1770
engraving
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel

Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun
Head of Young Woman
ca. 1785
drawing
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Johann Heinrich Lips after Henry Fuseli
St John the Evangelist
1779
etching (book illustration)
Graphische Sammlung, Zentralbibliothek Zürich

Jan de Bisschop
Bust of Emperor Galba
ca. 1660-70
engraving
Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich

Johann Friedrich August Tischbein
Portrait of Johann Reinhold Forster
ca. 1780-85
pastel on paper
Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel

Francesco Sesoni after Antonio Sebastiano
Head from Ancient Roman Painting
1746
etching and engraving
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden

attributed to Jean-François Garneray
Portrait of Louis-Michel Le Peletier de Saint-Fargeau
ca. 1793
oil on panel
Musée Carnavalet, Paris

Pietro Antonio Novelli
Portrait of Young Man
ca. 1795
drawing
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Carlo Maratti
Head of a Woman
ca. 1680
drawing
Morgan Library, New York

Christian Griepenkerl
Portrait of Young Woman
ca. 1900
drawing
Belvedere Museum, Vienna

Frans Floris
Study Head of Bearded Man
ca. 1560
oil on panel
Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp

Julia Margaret Cameron
The Angel in the House
1873
albumen silver print
Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Anonymous Swiss Artist
Portrait of artist Arnold Böcklin
ca. 1890
watercolor and gouache on paper
(design for stained glass)
Graphische Sammlung, Zentralbibliothek Zürich

Jacob de Wit
Study of Devout Woman
before 1754
drawing
Städel Museum, Frankfurt

On a Picture of Medea – The art of Timomachus mingled the love and jealousy of Medea as she drags her children to death.  She half consents as she looks at the sword, and half refuses, wishing both to save and to slay her children. 

On a Picture of Medea – When the hand of Timomachus painted baleful Medea, pulled in diverse directions by jealousy and love of her children, he undertook vast labour in trying to draw her two characters, the one inclined to wrath, the other to pity.  But he showed both to the full; look at the picture: in her threat dwell tears, and wrath dwells in her pity.  The intention is enough, as the sage said.  The blood of the children befitted Medea, not the hand of Timomachus. 

On a Picture of Medea – Who, lawless Colchian, chronicled thy wrath in the picture?  Who wrought thee, thus barbarous even in thy image?  Dost thou yet thirst for thy babes' blood?  Is some second Jason or another Glauce thy pretext?  Out on thee, murderess of thy children, even in the painted wax.  For the very picture feels that jealousy of thine that passed all bounds. 

On a Picture of Medea – Come, look on the child murderess in a picture; look on her image, the Colchian's, drawn by the hand of Timomachus.  The sword is in her hand, great is her wrath, wild is her eye, the tears are falling for her most unhappy children.  The painter has made a medley of all, uniting things most uncombinable, but he refrained from reddening his hand with blood.

To a Swallow, which had built its Nest on the Picture of Medea – How, twittering swallow, didst thou suffer to have as nurse of thy children the Colchian woman, the vengeful destroyer of her babes, from whose bloodshot eye still flashes murderous fire, from whose jaws white foam still drips, whose sword is freshly bathed in blood?  Fly from the fatal mother, who even in the wax is still slaying her children.

On a Statue of Medea – Though of stone thou art frenzied, and the fury of thy heart has hollowed thy eyes and made them meet to express thy anger.  Yet not even thy base shall hold thee back, but thou shalt leap forward in thy wrath, mad because of thy children.  Oh! who was the artist or sculptor who moulded this, who by his skill sent a stone mad? 

– from Book XVI (Epigrams of the Planudean Anthology) in the Greek Anthology, translated and edited by W.R. Paton (1918)