Saturday, November 15, 2025

Some Symmetry

Bernardino Campi
Half-Length Group of Roman Figures
ca. 1550
drawing
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden


Albert Flamen
Scroll Design for Ornamental Title-Page
ca. 1648-64
drawing
British Museum

Giovanni Battista Falda
Catafalque with Candelabra
for the Vatican Funeral of Pope Clement X

1676
engraving
British Museum

Ciro Ferri
Cornice supported by Herms
before 1689
drawing
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Paul Fourdrinier after William Kent
Design for Chimney-Piece Wall
1743
etching
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Marco Carlone
Ceiling with Ball Players
(after ancient Roman paintings in the Baths of Titus)
ca. 1775-80
watercolor and gouache on paper
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Giacomo Casa
Decorative Scheme for Fireplace Wall
ca. 1860
watercolor on paper
Cooper-Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum

Raoul Dufy
Console with Violin (J.S. Bach)
ca. 1910
watercolor and ink on paper
Dallas Museum of Art

Letterio Calapai
Labor in a Diesel Plant
ca. 1940
wood-engraving
Seattle Art Museum

Minnie Evans
Untitled
1948
ink, graphite and crayon on paper
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Paul Feeley
Gomelza
1965
acrylic on canvas
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Arthur Cohen
Baroque Chapel #3
1973
oil on linen
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Jimmy Ernst
Untitled
1975
gouache and ink on paper
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Gene Davis
Untitled
1980
screenprint
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

James Casebere
Storefront
1982
gelatin silver print
Guggenheim Museum, New York

Sophie Calle
Father Mother (The Graves #17)
1991
gelatin silver prints (diptych)
Guggenheim Museum, New York

Sarah Crowner
Totem
2015
acrylic on three canvases
Guggenheim Museum, New York

[Punishment in Hell]

Hither at Death all mortal Minds descend,
And, undistinguish'd, their last Lot attend.
Stripp'd of their Honours and their Titles vain,
Kings here are mingled with the Vulgar Train.
Minos, the dire Inquisitor, sublime
Plac'd on his Throne, examines ev'ry Crime,
Divides the Guilty from the Just; and those
Who, with Defiance to confess refuse,
To his fierce Brother's Rod he hurrys thence,
To bear the Pains of hard Impenitence:
For near him Radamanthus sits, who weighs
The Life at large, and rigidly surveys;
To Crimes the proper Punishments assigns, 
And Criminals in Shapes of beasts confines.
The Cruel, Bears, the Robbers, Wolves become,
The Traytors Foxes, by impartial Doom;
Those who in Sloth, and wanton Lust and Wine,
Indulging Riot, sunk their Hours supine,
Are sent into the Limbs of sordid Swine.
The pratling Babler, who with leaky Tongue
Bewray'd all Secrets, to his Neighbour's Wrong,
Swims a mute Fish, and in the Watry Maze
For Tatling with Eternal Silence pays. 

– Claudian (AD 370-404), translated by Jabez Hughes (before 1731)