Sunday, December 2, 2018

Ambitious Drawings and Prints Created before 1800

Anonymous artist
Portrait of artist Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin in old age
ca. 1770-80
pastel drawing
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Francisco Goya
Self-portrait bound into Los Caprichos
1797-98
etching and aquatint, colored by a 19th-century hand
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Hinrich Degener
Temptation of St Anthony (Allegory of Patience)
ca. 1615
wash drawing
Morgan Library, New York

Patience of an Angel

You can beat me, beat me! beat me, said the demon who
stood near the stoup of holy water, but you cannot destroy
me.  I am the rebel angel but I am an angel and my face
that you so often mar bears at least the trace of one virtue:
patience.  You can beat me! beat me!  My time will come.

– Max Jacob, translated by Elizabeth Bishop (published in Poetry, May 1950)

Charles Le Brun
Allegory in honor of Cardinal Richelieu
1641
drawing
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Charles Le Brun
The Relief of Candia
before 1650
drawing
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Claude Mellan
David strangling the Lion
1631
engraving
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

François Perrier
Michelangelo's statue of David in a niche
1633
etching
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Domenico Piola
Two Putti with Flowers on a Ledge
ca. 1650-1700
drawing
National Gallery of Canada

Hell is Graduated

When I was employed at Cooperative Fashions, in spite of
the dark, ugly old maid, I tried to steal some garters.  I
was pursued down the superb staircases, not for the theft,
but for my laziness at work and for my hatred of the in-
nocent finery.  Descend, you are  pursued.  The staircases
are less beautiful in the offices than in the part open to
the public.  The staircases are less beautiful in the "service"
quarters than in the offices.  The staircases are still less
beautiful in the cellar!  But what can I say of the marsh
where I arrived?  What can I say of the laughter?  Of the
animals that brushed by me, and of the whisperings of
unseen creatures?  Water gave place to fire, to fear, to un-
consciousness; when I came to myself I was in the hands
of silent and nameless surgeons.

– Max Jacob, translated by Elizabeth Bishop (published in Poetry, May 1950)

Domenico Piola
Thetis entrusting the infant Achilles to the centaur Chiron
ca. 1650-1700
drawing
National Gallery of Canada

Andrea Pozzo
Study for the Altar of St Luigi Gonzaga in the Church of St Ignazio, Rome
ca. 1697
drawing
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Jean Restout le jeune
Seated Nude
ca. 1740
drawing
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

George Stubbs
Lion resting on a Rock
1788
engraving
Tate Gallery

Albrecht Dürer
St John devouring the Book (from the Apocalypse)
1498
woodcut
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Albrecht Dürer
Bearing of the Cross (from the Large Passion)
1498-99
hand-colored woodcut
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston