Giovanni Francesco Penni Madonna and Child in Glory with Saint ca. 1514-20 drawing Teylers Museum, Haarlem |
Domenico Campagnola Temple of Vesta, Rome ca. 1530-60 drawing Teylers Museum, Haarlem |
Anonymous Roman artist after Michelangelo Right arm, with head study ca. 1550-1600 drawing Teylers Museum, Haarlem |
Marco Marchetti Roman General receiving tribute from Barbarians before 1588 drawing Royal Collection, Windsor |
A QUINCE PRESERVED THROUGH THE WINTER, GIVEN TO A LADY
I'm a quince, saved over from last year, still fresh,
my skin young, not spotted or wrinkled, downy as the new-born,
as though I were still among my leaves. Seldom
does winter yield such gifts, but for you, my queen,
even the snows and frosts bear harvests like this.
– an epigram by Antiphilus of Byzantium, from the Palatine Anthology, translated by W.S. Merwin
Federico Zuccaro Demons in grotesque attitudes before 1609 drawing Royal Collection, Windsor |
Andrea Sacchi St Anthony of Padua raising man from the dead ca. 1632-33 drawing for altarpiece British Museum |
ON THEODOROS
Someone is glad that I, Theodoros, am dead
Another will be glad when that someone is dead
We are all in arrears to death
– an epigram by Simonides (ca. 556-466 BC), translated by Peter Jay
Claude Lorrain View of the Tiber at Rome ca. 1635-40 wash drawing Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City |
Anonymous Roman artist Figure astride clouds, di sotto in su ca. 1640-80 drawing Teylers Museum, Haarlem |
ACHILLES GIVES THE BODY OF HECTOR TO PRIAM
Then Achilles called the serving-women out:
"Bathe and anoint the body –
bear it aside first. Priam must not see his son."
He feared that, overwhelmed by the sight of Hector,
wild with grief, Priam might let his anger flare
and Achilles might fly into fresh rage himself,
cut the old man down and break the laws of Zeus.
So when the maids had bathed and anointed the body
sleek with olive oil and wrapped it round and round
in a braided battle-shirt and handsome battle-cape,
then Achilles lifted Hector up in his own arms
and laid him down on a bier, and comrades helped him
raise the bier and body on to the sturdy wagon . . .
Then with a groan he called his dear friend by name:
"Feel no anger at me, Patroclus, if you learn –
even in the House of Death – I let his father
have Prince Hector back."
– from the Iliad of Homer (book 24), translated by Robert Fagles
Giuseppe Belloni Constantine the Great commissions Basilica of S. Giovanni in Laterano ca. 1656-76 drawing Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf |
Giovanni Battista Gaulli St Augustine's vision of the Trinity before 1689 drawing for engraving British Museum |
Luigi Garzi Minerva descending with her aegis to protect Arts and Sciences from Time before 1721 drawing for ceiling fresco British Museum |
Jacob Frey after Carlo Maratti Drawing Academy 1728 engraving (after Carlo Maratti drawing) Royal Collection, Windsor |
Luigi Vanvitelli Design for a marble throne for statue of St Peter at the Vatican 1754 drawing Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
Jean-Baptiste Lallemand Piazza del Popolo, Rome ca. 1754 drawing Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |