Friday, September 29, 2017

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