Paganism in Relief (Vienna)

Ignaz Elhafen
Diana and her Nymphs
ca. 1695
ivory relief
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ignaz Bendl
Apollo and Diana slaying the Children of Niobe
1684
ivory relief
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Christoph Maucher
Hercules battling the Hydra
(fragments from the throne of Emperor Leopold I)
1677
amber relief-plaques
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Daniel Neuberger
Neptune
ca. 1666
wax relief on agate
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Sonnet VII

Whither is gone the wisdom and the power
That ancient sages scattered with the notes
Of thought-suggesting lyres? The music floats
In the void air; e'en at this breathing hour,
In every cell and every blooming bower
The sweetness of old lays is hovering still:
But the strong soul, the self-constraining will,
The rugged root that bare the winsome flower
Is weak and withered. Were we like the Fays
That sweetly nestle in the fox-glove bells,
Or lurk and murmur in the rose-lipped shells
Which Neptune to the earth for quit-rent pays,
Then might our pretty modern Philomels
Sustain our spirits with their roundelays.

– Hartley Coleridge (1833)

Gérard van Opstal
Putti playing with a Goat
ca. 1650-65
ivory relief
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Georg Schweigger
Sleeping Diana
1650
limestone relief
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ottavio Miseroni
Ceres
ca. 1602-1605
cameo in commesso relief
(agate, jasper, chalcedony, with enameled-gold mount)
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Hendrik Goltzius
Bacchus, Venus, Ceres and Cupid
1595
silver printing plate
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Antonio Abondio
Toilette of Venus
ca. 1587
bronze plaquette
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Giovanni Maria Mosca
Artemis, Protectress of Wild Animals
ca. 1525
bronze plaquette
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Hans Daucher
Judgment of Paris
1522
limestone relief
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Galeazzo Mondella (called Moderno)
Hercules and the Nemean Lion
ca. 1488-89
bronze plaquette
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Roman Empire
Abduction of Persephone
3rd century AD
marble sarcophagus
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Roman Empire
Apollo at the Omphalos
2nd century AD
marble relief
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Devotional Relief-Work in Vienna

Antonio Rossellino
Madonna and Child
ca. 1465-70
marble relief
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

attributed to Andrea Mantegna
Entombment
ca. 1480
bronze relief (partially gilt)
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Hans Daucher
Holy Family with Angels
1518
limestone relief
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Anonymous Italian Maker
Angels supporting the Dead Christ
ca. 1600-1620
gilt-bronze relief
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Zacharias Lencker
Adoration of the Christ Child
1609
silver relief
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

from Davideis

      When Gabriel (no blest spirit more kind or fair)
Bodies and clothes himself with thickened air,
All like a comely youth in life's fresh bloom
(Rare workmanship, and wrought by heavenly loom!),
He took for skin a cloud most soft and bright
That e'er the midday sun pierced through with light;
Upon his cheeks a lively blush he spread,
Washed from the morning beauties' deepest red.
An harmless flaming meteor shone for hair,
And fell adown his shoulders with loose care.
He cuts out a silk mantle from the skies,
Where the most sprightly azure pleas'd the eyes.
This he with starry vapours spangles all,
Took in their prime ere they grow ripe and fall.
Of a new rainbow, ere it fret or fade,
The choicest piece took out, a scarf is made.
Small streaming clouds he does for wings display,
Not virtuous lovers' sighs more soft than they.
These he gilds o'er with the sun's richest rays,
Caught gliding o'er pure streams on which he plays.
     Thus dressed the joyful Gabriel posts away,
And carries with him his own glorious day
Through the thick woods; the gloomy shades a while
Put on fresh looks, and wonder why they smile.
The trembling serpents close and silent lie,
The birds obscene far from his passage fly.
A sudden spring waits on him as he goes,
Sudden as that by which creation rose.

– Abraham Cowley (1656)

Ottavio Miseroni
Mary Magdalen
ca. 1610
cameo in commesso relief
(agate, jasper, carnelian, chalcedony)
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Adam Lenckhardt
Flagellation
ca. 1650-60
ivory relief
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Leonhard Kern
Lamentation
ca. 1614-20
ivory relief
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Georg Schweigger
Baptism of Christ
1645
limestone relief
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Daniel Neuberger
Conversion of Saul
ca. 1655-60
colored wax relief
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Meister der Sebastiansmartyrien
Martyrdom of St Sebastian
1655
ivory relief
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Johann Caspar Schenck
Death of Christian Martyrs
ca. 1665-74
ivory relief
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Magnus Berg
Entombment
1710
ivory relief (rilievo schiacciato)
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Leonhard Stainhart
Disrobing of Christ
before 1721
ivory relief
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Grecian Marbles in Vienna

Ancient Greece
Fragment from the Northern Frieze of the Parthenon
442-438 BC
marble
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

This fragment with two young horsemen came from the northern frieze of the Parthenon.  It was probably acquired in Venice by Marchese Tommaso degli Obizzi (died 1805) for his collection at Catajo Castle near Este (also known as the Este-Catajo collection).  Much of the temple had been destroyed in 1687 during the siege by Venetian troops, and this fragment was likely carried home as a war souvenir at that time.  The general European prestige of the Parthenon sculptures did not then exist, only evolving toward the end of the 18th century.  Catajo Castle and its contents passed into the hands of the Austrian royal family by inheritance during the 19th century.     

Ancient Greece
Wounded Amazon
ca. 400-350 BC
marble relief
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

This relief was found in front of the theater in the ruined city of Ephesus on the Ionian coast (now part of Turkey).  There, it was installed in the street pavement.  Presumably it was originally created for the late classical Temple of Artemis (or the Artemision) of Ephesus, which was one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world.  The wounded Amazon is believed to have composed part of the frieze ornamenting that structure.  It came to Austria in the early 20th century as a gift from the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II to Emperor Franz Joseph. 

Ancient Greece
Battle of Greeks and Amazons
ca. 350-300 BC
marble sarcophagus
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

The sarcophagus was discovered on the island of Cyprus in 1557 and taken to Venice.  By 1567 it was in the possession of the Venetian branch of the Fugger family, prominent traders from Augsburg.  The Hapsburgs acquired it in the early 17th century and brought it to Vienna.  There, it was installed in a palace garden.  By the early 19th century the sarcophagus had been brought indoors as part of the Antikenkabinett, later incorporated into the Kunsthistorisches Museum.

Ancient Greece
Muse
ca. 330-320 BC
marble statue
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

The Muse's arms and hands (holding flutes) are not original, but are products of a modern restorer's fantasy.  This statue is classified by the Kunsthistorisches Museum as late 4th-century Greek work, but then also (confusingly) described as a later Roman copy.  The same obscure curatorial discrepancy between label and description applies to several of the other "Greek" pieces shown below.

Ancient Greece
Head of Eros
3rd century BC
marble
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ancient Greece
Female Figure
3rd century BC
marble statue
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ancient Greece
Head Arsinoe III (Ptolomaic Queen)
ca. 225-200 BC
marble
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ancient Greece
Figure of Young Man
ca. 200 BC
marble relief
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ancient Greece
Centaur
2nd-1st century BC
marble statue
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ancient Greece
Dancing Muse
2nd-1st century BC
marble statuette
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ancient Greece
Head of Satyr
2nd century BC
marble
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ancient Greece
Grave Stele of Dionysios and Melitine
ca. 125-100 BC
marble
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ancient Greece
Head of Artemis
ca. 120 BC
marble
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ancient Greece
Portrait Statue of a Man
ca. 100 BC
marble fragment
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Roman Divinities in Vienna

Rome
Jupiter
1st-2nd century AD
bronze relief-appliqué
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Rome
Head of Medusa
1st century AD
sardonyx cameo
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Rome
Head of Medusa
1st-2nd century AD
glass cameo
(16th-century Italian mount)
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Rome
Hermes
ca. AD 150
marble
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Rome
Hercules
1st-2nd century AD
bronze
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Rome
Apollo
2nd century AD
marble
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Rome
Serapis and Isis
2nd century BC
onyx
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Rome
Satyr
1st century AD
amethyst cameo
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

from The Strayed Reveller 

They see the ferry
On the broad, clay-laden
Lone Chorasmian stream – thereon,
With snort and strain,
Two horses, strongly swimming, tow
The ferry-boat, with woven ropes
To either bow
Firm harnessed by the mane, a chief
With shout and shaken spear
Stands at the prow and guides them, but astern
The cowering merchants in long robes
Sit pale beside their wealth
Of silk-bales and of balsam-drops,
Of gold and ivory,
Of turquoise-earth and amethyst,
Jasper and chalcedony,
And milk-barred onyx-stones.

– Matthew Arnold (1849)

Rome
Hygeia
1st-2nd century AD
marble
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Rome
Ares
1st-2nd century AD
marble
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Rome
Sol
2nd-3rd century AD
bloodstone intaglio
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Rome
Psyche
ca. 50-25 BC
sard intaglio
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Rome
Diana
2nd century AD
sardonyx cameo
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Rome
Mask of Zeus Ammon
2nd century AD
marble
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna