Monday, May 12, 2025

Narrative Tendencies (1553-1620)

Nicolas Beatrizet after Francesco Salviati
Sacrifice of Iphigenia
ca. 1553-55
engraving
British Museum

Gillis Coignet
Diana and Callisto
ca. 1575
oil on canvas
Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest

Paolo Veronese
St Anthony of Padua preaching to the Fish
ca. 1580
oil on canvas
Galleria Borghese, Rome

attributed to Nicolas Bollery
The Actors
ca. 1590
oil on canvas
John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida

Master of the Egmont Albums
Battle of Tritons
ca. 1590-95
drawing
Yale University Art Gallery

Joachim Wtewael
Cephalus and Procris
ca. 1595-1600
oil on canvas
Saint Louis Art Museum

Anonymous Flemish Artist
Tarquin and Lucretia
17th century
oil on canvas
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux

Francesco Villamena
The Quarrel
1601
engraving
Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest

Alessandro Allori
St Giovanni Gualberto and the Miracle of the Grain
1603
oil on canvas
(altarpiece)
Palazzo Pretorio, Prato

Hendrik Goltzius
Hermes presenting Pandora to King Epimetheus
(episode from Hesiod)
1611
oil on canvas
Kunstmuseum Basel

Giovanni Lanfranco
Rinaldo abandoning Armida
(scene from Gerusalemme Liberata of Torquato Tasso)
1614
oil on canvas
Kunsthaus Zürich

Peter Paul Rubens
Ixion, King of the Lapiths, deceived by Juno
1615
oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre

Jacob Jordaens
Atalanta and Meleager
ca. 1617-18
oil on canvas
Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp

Giovanni Francesco Guerrieri
Joseph interpreting Dreams in Prison
ca. 1618
oil on canvas
Galleria Borghese, Rome

François Perrier
Looting of a Classical City
ca. 1620
drawing
Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen

Nicolas Tournier
Tobias taking Leave of his Family
ca. 1620
oil on canvas
John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida

But as the rarest Jewell is not to be had but at the highest rate: so her peerelesse perfections must have all this businesse to gaine her; but now she is wonne, and he almost lost, not daring to thinke so, or ventring to winne it: He would with his eyes tell her his heart, with kissing her delicate hand, with a more than usuall affection, let her feele his soule was hers: She found it, and understood what hee would have her understand, nay, shee would answer his lookes with as amorous ones of her part, as straightly, and lovingly would she hold his hand, but knowing modesty forbid, shee would sigh, and in her soule wish that he would once speake; but bashfulnesse with-held him, and woman modestie kept her silent; till one afternoon, walking into a most curious and dainty Garden, where all manner of sweets were ready in their kind to entertaine them; Flowers of all sorts for smell and colour; Trees of all kinds of fruits, and walkes divided for most delight, many Birds singing, and with their notes welcomming them to that place: At last, a payre of innocent white Turtles came before them, in their fashion wooing each other, and so wonne, enjoying their game in billing, and such like pretty joy.

– from The Countesse of Mountgomeries Urania, by the right honourable the Lady Mary Wroath, daughter to the right noble Robert, Earle of Leicester, and neece to the ever famous and renowned Sʳ Phillips Sidney knight, and to ye most excellant Lady Mary Countess of Pembroke, late deceased (London: John Marriott and John Grismand, 1621)

Claes Oldenburg

Claes Oldenburg
Store Window - Yellow Shirt, Red Bow-Tie
1961
watercolor and crayon on paper
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York


Claes Oldenburg
Ice box
1963
watercolor and crayon on paper
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Claes Oldenburg
Study for a Soft Sculpture
in the form of a Giant Lipstick

1967
watercolor and crayon on paper
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Claes Oldenburg
Proposed Colossal Monument
for End of Navy Pier, Chicago - Bed Table Lamp

1967
watercolor and crayon on paper
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Claes Oldenburg
Giant Fireplug sited in Civic Center, Chicago
1968
watercolor and crayon on paper
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Claes Oldenburg
Fire-Plug Souvenir
(August - Chicago - 1968)

1968
painted plaster
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

Claes Oldenburg
Typewriter Erasers - Position Studies
1970
watercolor and colored pencil on paper
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Claes Oldenburg
Self Portrait
1971
lithograph
National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC

Claes Oldenburg
Hats - Vesuvius
1973
lithograph
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Claes Oldenburg
Typewriter Eraser as Tornado
1973
offset-lithograph (exhibition poster)
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Claes Oldenburg
Colossal Eraser on Alcatraz Island
1976
lithograph
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis

Claes Oldenburg
Floating Three-Way Plug
1976
etching and aquatint
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis

Claes Oldenburg
Screw Arch Bridge
1981
aquatint, monotype and etching
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

Claes Oldenburg
Proposal for a Civic Monument
in the Form of Two Windows

1982
lithograph
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Anonymous photographer for Leo Castelli Gallery
Claes Oldenburg and Leo Castelli
ca. 1985
gelatin silver print
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC

Claes Oldenburg
Soft Pencil Sharpener
1989
lithograph
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

An Abdication

First I looked at water. It was good.
Blue oblongs glinted from afar. From close
I saw it moving, hueless, clear
Down to a point past which nothing was clear
Or moving, and I had to close
My eyes. The water had done little good.

A second day I tried the trees. They stood
In a rich stupor, altogether
Rooted in the poor, the hard, the real.
But then my mind began to reel –
Elsewhere, smoother limbs would grow together.
How should the proffered apple be withstood?

One dusk upon my viewless throne
I realized the housecat's tyrant nature,
Let her features small and grave
Look past me as into their shallow grave.
No animal could keep me from a nature
Which existed to be overthrown.

Man at last, the little that I own
Is not long for this world. My cousin's eye
Lights on a rust-red, featherweight
Crown of thoughts. He seems to wait
For me to lift it from my brow (as I
Now do) and place it smartly on his own.  

– James Merrill (1969)

Sunday, May 11, 2025

Narrative Tendencies (1380-1550)

Bartolo di Fredi
Scenes from the Lives of the Holy Hermits
ca. 1380-90
tempera on panel
Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Gabriel Mälesskircher
St Vitus, St Modestus and St Crescentia in the Lion's Den
1476
oil on panel
Staatsgalerie in der Burg zu Burghausen

Master of Frankfurt
Festival of the Archers
ca. 1490
oil on panel
Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp

attributed to Benedetto Bordone
Leda giving Birth to Two Eggs
1499
woodcut illustration
(from the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili of Francesco Colonna
published in Venice by Aldus Manutius)
Hamburger Kunsthalle

Girolamo di Benvenuto
St Catherine of Siena interceding with Christ
to release the dying Sister Palmerina from her pact with the Devil

ca. 1505
tempera on panel
(predella fragment)
Harvard Art Museums

Marcantonio Raimondi
Human-Headed Serpent addressing a Youth
ca. 1505
engraving
Hamburger Kunsthalle

Bacchiacca (Francesco Ubertini)
Search for and Discovery of the Stolen Cup
(scenes from the story of Joseph)
1515
oil on panel
Galleria Borghese, Rome

Hans Baldung
Martyrdom of St Dorothy
1518
tempera on panel
Národní Galerie, Prague

Domenico Campagnola
The Judgment of Midas
ca. 1520
drawing
Hamburger Kunsthalle

Valerio Belli
The Sacrifice of Iphigenia
ca. 1525
bronze relief
Bode Museum, Berlin

Jörg Breu the Elder
The Story of Samson
ca. 1525-30
oil on panel
Kunstmuseum Basel

Lucas Cranach the Elder
The Fountain of Youth
1546
oil on panel
Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Giorgio Ghisi after Giovanni Battista Scultori
Capture of Troy by the Greeks
ca. 1546-50
engraving
Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo

Jan van Hemessen
The Calling of Matthew
ca. 1548
oil on panel
Romanian National Museum of Art, Bucharest

Anonymous Netherlandish Artist
Abraham's Servant discovering Rebecca as Bride for Isaac
ca. 1550
drawing
Kupferstichkabinett, Kunstmuseum Basel

Anonymous Italian Artist
Odysseus and Polyphemus
ca. 1550
drawing
Kupferstichkabinett, Kunstmuseum Basel

Thus discoursing, tossing upon her Bed, she remain'd; fed not, nor slept all that night: the next morning, early going to the Garden Woods, whither she sooner came then Pamphila, where being a while, and sitting under the same Ashe, wherein the other affectionate afflicted princesse had written the Sonnet, shee was invited, either by her owne passion, or the imitation of that excellent Lady, to put some of her thoughts in some kind of measure, so as shee perplexed with love, jealousie, and losse as shee beleev'd, made this Sonnet, looking upon the Sunne, which was then of a good height.

The Sunne hath no long journey now to goe
     While I a progresse have in my desires,
     Disasters dead-low-water-like do show
     The sand, that overlook'd my hop'd for hyres.

Thus I remaine like one that's laid in Briers,
     Where turning brings new paine and certaine woe,
     Like one, once burn'd bids me avoid the fires,
     But love (true fire) will not let me be slow. 

Obedience, feare, and love doe all conspire
     A worth-lesse conquest gain'd to ruine me,
     Who did but feele the height of blest desire
     When danger, doubt, and losse, I straight did see.
Restless I live, consulting what to doe,
And more I study, more I still undoe.

"Undoe," cride she, "alas I am undone, ruind, destroyed, all spoild by being forsaken, restlesse affliction which proceeds from forsaking: yet would I bee beholding to this Enemie of mine, if forsaking in my torments would possesse me, so I might remaine forsaken by them: but that must not bee, I must onely know pleasure, happinesse, and the chiefe of happinesses love, from my beloved.  Forsake mee, but paine, torture, and shame will still abide, and dwell with me."

– from The Countesse of Mountgomeries Urania, by the right honourable the Lady Mary Wroath, daughter to the right noble Robert, Earle of Leicester, and neece to the ever famous and renowned Sʳ Phillips Sidney knight, and to ye most excellant Lady Mary Countess of Pembroke, late deceased (London: John Marriott and John Grismand, 1621)

Irene Rice Pereira

Irene Rice Pereira
Boat Composite
1932
oil on linen
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York


Irene Rice Pereira
Sketch for Machine Composition #2
ca. 1936
drawing
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Irene Rice Pereira
Machine Composition #2
1937
oil on canvas
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Irene Rice Pereira
Abstract Composition
ca. 1938
drawing
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Irene Rice Pereira
Black and White
1940
gouache and ink on board
Guggenheim Museum, New York

Irene Rice Pereira
Quadrangels in Two Planes
1945
oil on glass, mounted on panel
Art Institute of Chicago

Irene Rice Pereira
Rose Planes
1945
oil on vellum
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis

Irene Rice Pereira
Transversion
1946
oil on glass, mounted on panel
Phillips Collection, Washington DC

Irene Rice Pereira
Composition
1948
drawing
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis

Irene Rice Pereira
Oblique Progression
1948
oil, enamel and ink on canvas
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Irene Rice Pereira
Evaporating Night
1951
oil on canvas
Dallas Museum of Art

Irene Rice Pereira
Heart of Light
1954
oil on linen
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Irene Rice Pereira
Landscape of the Absolute
1955
oil and enamel on canvas
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Irene Rice Pereira
Midnight Sun
before 1959
oil on canvas
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis

Irene Rice Pereira
The Celestial Gate Sways on the Ringing Swells
1961
oil on canvas
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Irene Rice Pereira
Heart of Flame
before 1971
oil on canvas
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Irene Rice Pereira
Vertical Flow
before 1971
oil on canvas
Phillips Collection, Washington DC

from Kostas Tympakianákis

The girl I loved left me for a Rhodiot.
I should be broken-hearted but it's strange, I'm not. 
Take me with you when you sail next week,
You'll see a different cosmos through the eyes of a Greek.

Or write my story down for people. Use my name.
And may it bring you all the wealth and fame
It hasn't brought its bearer. Here, let's drink our wine!
Who could have imagined such a life as mine?

– James Merrill (1969)