Sunday, June 30, 2019

European Drawings (16th century to 19th century)

Anonymous German Artist
Three Blacksmiths crafting Armour at an Anvil
16th century
drawing
Morgan Library, New York

Bartolomeo Cesi
Holy Family with St John the Baptist, adored by an unidentified figure
ca. 1590-1600
drawing
Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Johann von Aachen
Salomé with the Head of John the Baptist
ca. 1605-1610
drawing
Art Institute of Chicago

Claude Lorrain
Study of Tree Trunks
ca. 1640
drawing
Teylers Museum, Haarlem

Prologue to Daphnis and Chloe

"When I was hunting in Lesbos, I saw the most beautiful sight I have ever seen, in a grove that was sacred to the Nymphs: a painting that told a story of love.  The grove itself was beautiful – thickly wooded, flowery, well watered; a single spring nourished everything, flowers and trees alike.  But the picture was lovelier still, combining great artistic skill with an exciting, romantic subject.  Many people were attracted by its fame and came, even from abroad, to pray to the Nymphs and to look at the picture."

"The picture: women giving birth, others dressing the babies, babies exposed, animals suckling them, shepherds adopting them, young people pledging love, a pirates' raid, an enemy attack – and more, much more, all of it romantic.  I gazed in admiration and was seized by a yearning to depict the picture in words."

"I searched out an interpreter of the picture and produced the four volumes of this book, as an offering to Love, the Nymphs, and Pan, and something for mankind to possess and enjoy.  It will cure the sick, comfort the distressed, stir the memory of those who have loved, and educate those who haven't.  For certainly no one has ever avoided Love, and no one will as long as beauty exists, and eyes can see.  As for me – may the god Love let me write about others' passions but keep my own self-control."

– written in Greek by Longus (2nd century AD), translated by Christopher Gill (1989)

Eustache Le Sueur
Study for St Gervasius
ca. 1652
drawing
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Michel Dorigny
Study for the Muse Urania
before 1665
drawing
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Karl Dankwart
Christ crowned with Thorns
before 1704
drawing
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Jacques de Lajoue and François Le Moyne
Fireworks Display celebrating the Convalescence of Louis XV
1726
drawing
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Francesco Guardi
Architectural Capriccio - Garden Entrance to a Palace
before 1793
drawing
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Felice Giani
Design for Ceiling Decoration
ca. 1800-1823
drawing
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Pietro Antonio Novelli
Seated Slave
before 1804
drawing
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Anton von Maron
Judith with the Head of Holofernes
before 1808
drawing
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Augustin Pajou
Lion Statue
(formerly in the Villa Medici, Rome - now in the Loggia dei Lanzi, Florence)
before 1809
drawing
Princeton University Art Museum

Vincenzo Camuccini
Adam and Eve mourning the dead Abel
before 1844
drawing
Groeningemuseum, Brussels

Alfred-Émile-Léopold Stevens
Sheet of Studies for a General of the French Revolution
ca. 1890
drawing
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts