Picasso

Pablo Picasso
Study of Fernande Olivier
1906
gouache on paper
Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde, Stockholm

Pablo Picasso
The Harem
1906
oil on canvas
Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio

Pablo Picasso
Guitar
1912
oil on canvas
Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo

Pablo Picasso
Bottle, Guitar and Pipe
1912-13
oil on canvas
Museum Folkwang, Essen

Pablo Picasso
Guitar
1919
oil paint and sand on canvas
Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands

Pablo Picasso
Woman Reading
1920
oil on canvas
Musée de Grenoble

Pablo Picasso
Portrait of Olga
1921
drawing (charcoal and colored chalks)
Musée de Grenoble

Pablo Picasso
Modèle et Grande Sculpture de Dos
1933
etching
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Pablo Picasso
Le Minotaure
1933
gouache on paper
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon

Pablo Picasso
Woman with Blue Collar
1941
oil on canvas
Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Pablo Picasso
Woman in Blue
1942
oil on canvas
Museum Folkwang, Essen

Pablo Picasso
Sea Creatures
1946
oil on board
Göteborgs Konstmuseum, Sweden

Pablo Picasso
Lobster and Siphon
1948
oil on canvas
Von der Heydt Museum, Wuppertal

Pablo Picasso
Head of a Woman Reading
1953
oil on panel
Museum Ludwig, Cologne

Pablo Picasso
Head of a Woman
1957
oil on canvas
Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Pablo Picasso
Raphael and La Fornarina
1968
etching
Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo

Danaus:  Now honour this common altar of all the Lords, and sit in this holy place like a flock of doves in fearful flight from hawks, their fellow-birds, hostile kindred who defile their race. How could a bird eat of another bird, and not be polluted? How could a man marry the unwilling daughter of an unwilling father, and not become unclean? After doing such a thing he will surely not escape the punishment of his folly, even in Hades after death: there too, so they say, there is another Zeus who pronounces final judgement on the dead for their sins. [Looking off towards the city, as if the armed party whose approach he had announced is now close at hand.] Be careful to reply in the way I spoke of, so that this action may end well and victoriously for you. 

[By now, the Chorus are all seated close to the altar, on which they have laid some of their suppliant-branches. Pelasgus enters from the direction of the city, in a chariot, escorted by soldiers.]

Pelasgus:  From what place does this company come that I am addressing, in un-Greek garb, wearing luxurious barbarian robes and headbands? The dress of these women is not from the Argive region, nor from any place in Greece. And how you dared to come to this land so fearlessly, under the protection neither of heralds nor of native sponsors, and without guides – that is astonishing. And yet suppliant-branches are lying beside you, before the Assembled Gods, in accordance with our customs: only in that respect would 'Greece' be a reasonable guess. About other things, too, it would be proper to make many more conjectures, if there were not a person here with a voice to explain to me.  

Chorus:  What you have said about our attire is perfectly true; but how should I address you – as a private individual, or a temple-warden carrying a sacred staff, or the leader of the city?*

Pelasgus:  So far as that is concerned, you can answer and speak to me with confidence.  I am Pelasgus, ruler of this city, son of earth-born Palaechthon; and this land is cultivated by the race of the Pelasgians, appropriately named after me their king. I am master of all the land through which flows the holy Strymon, on the side of the setting sun, and I mark as my boundary the land of the Paeonians, and the parts beyond Pindus near the Perrhaebians, and the mountains of Dodona; the limit that cuts it short is the watery sea. I rule what is on the hither side of these. The soil of this land itself, Apia, received its name long ago, in honour of a healer. Apis, the healer and seer, son of Apollo, came from the land of Naupactus across the sea, and cleansed this land of the man-destroying creatures which the angry earth, stained by the pollution of old bloodshed, had sent up from below, a hostile horde of serpents sharing our home. From these Apis effected, beyond all cavil, a decisive, liberating cure for the Argive land, and in return won as his reward the right to be remembered in prayers. Now you have the evidence from me, you can declare what race you are of, and tell me more. However, our city does not love long speeches.**     

– Aeschylus, from Suppliants (ca. 470-460 BC), translated by Alan H. Sommerstein (2008)

*this is in effect a counter-question about Pelasgus' attire, which (despite his sceptre, which the Danaids think may be a "sacred staff") is evidently too plain, by their standards, for them to be sure that he is a king

**the Argives, as well as the Spartans, had a reputation for brevity of speech