From Below - I

Johan Christian Dahl
Clouds over Rooftops
1847
oil on canvas
KODE (Art Museums Complex), Bergen, Norway

Pellegrino Tibaldi
Figure Study
ca. 1575
drawing
Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen

Alexander Rothaug
Dido
1935
oil on canvas
Belvedere Museum, Vienna

Anonymous Italian Artist
Il Tempo
1949
lithograph (poster)
High Museum of Art, Atlanta

Jacob Philipp Hackert
Temple of Juno at Agrigento
1782
gouache on board
Hamburger Kunsthalle

Edward S. Curtis
Watching the Dancers
1906
platinum print
Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas

Giandomenico Tiepolo
Sacrifice of Iphigenia
ca. 1760
oil on canvas
Schlossmuseum Weimar

Harry Sternberg
Construction
1932
etching and aquatint
Addison Gallery of American Art,
Phillips Academy Andover, Massachusetts

Louis Ducis
Bianca Cappello in 1563
running away to Florence with her Lover
1824
oil on canvas
Musée Thomas Henry, Cherbourg

Henry Fuseli
Capriccio of the Horse Tamers in Rome
ca. 1810-15
drawing
Auckland Art Gallery, New Zealand

Charles Le Brun
Louis XIV taking the Government into his own Hands
1661
oil on canvas (mounted on ceiling)
Château de Versailles

Calvert Richard Jones
Study of the Spires of Lichfield Cathedral
ca. 1845-50
salted paper negative
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Christiaen van Couwenberch
Baker with Fresh Bread sounding Horn
1650
oil on canvas
Museum Mayer van den Bergh, Antwerp

Anna Maria Punz
Still Life with Onion and Kohlrabi
1754
oil on canvas
Belvedere Museum, Vienna

Giulia Lama
Martyrdom of St John the Evangelist
1720
oil on canvas
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Quimper

Anonymous Italian Artist
Rex Meus et Deus Meus
16th century
oil on panel
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes

Chorus:  I respect your father's tomb as if it were an altar, and as you bid me, I will speak my mind out. 

Electra:  Do so, just as you have shown respect for my father's burial place.

Chorus:  As you pour, speak good words for those who are friendly.

Electra:  And which of those close to me should I designate in that way?

Chorus:  In the first place yourself, and everyone who hates Aegisthus.

Electra:  In that case, don't you see, I'll be making this prayer for me and for you, is that right?

Chorus:  Consider that for yourself; you already know the answer.

Electra:  Well, who else should I also add to this group?

Chorus:  Mention Orestes – even if he's abroad, mention him all the same.

Electra:  That's far from the least of the good advice you've given me. 

Chorus:  Then mention those guilty of the murder, and against them –

Electra:  What should I say?  Explain and instruct me; I have no experience. 

Chorus:  Ask for some god, or some mortal, to come against them –

Electra:  Do you mean a judge, or an avenger?

Chorus:  Say simply: one who will take life for life.

Electra:  And is this a righteous thing for me to ask of the gods?

Chorus:  How could it not be – to return your enemy evil for evil?

– Aeschylus, from The Libation-Bearers (458 BC), translated by Alan H. Sommerstein (2008)