Proximate Picture Planes - III

Albrecht Dürer
Monogram on Shield with Ornamental Knotwork
1507
woodcut
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

Theodor de Bry
Ornamental Design for Metalwork, with Three Emperors
ca. 1565
engraving
Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna

Nathan Oliveira
Head and Blue
1963
lithograph
Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas

Johann Rudolf Rahn
Head of Bishop (from Tomb)
ca. 1875
rubbing
Graphische Sammlung, Zentralbibliothek Zürich

Bart van der Leck
Bargaining
1913
oil on canvas
Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands

Julius Klinger
Carnival Ball, Berlin Secession
ca. 1905
lithograph (poster)
Kupferstichkabinett,
Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden

Karl Klimsch
Schloss Brewery
ca. 1900
lithograph (poster)
Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Ancient Greek Culture
Demeter, Triptolemus and Persephone
(The Great Eleusinian Relief)
440-430 BC
marble
National Archaeological Museum, Athens

Agostino Busti
Design for Fireplace with Ornate Mantel
before 1548
drawing
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Kokottenkopf mit Federhut
1910
lithograph
Kunstmuseum der Stadt, Ulm

Fernand Léger
Two Profiles
1928
oil on canvas
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Wassily Kandinsky
L'Élan tempéré
1944
oil on board
Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain de Strasbourg

Yves Klein
Monochrome Blue YKB-48
1956
pigment on panel
Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Oskar Schlemmer
Invitation to a Lantern Festival at the Bauhaus, Weimar
1922
hand-colored lithograph (postcard)
Städel Museum, Frankfurt

attributed to Georges Lallemand
Trompe-l'oeil of a Print tacked to a Wall
ca. 1610
oil on canvas
National Museum, Warsaw

Pierre Tetar van Elven
Bal Travesti chez le baron Lycklama
1874
oil on panel
Musée de la Castre, Cannes

Dear Hermes, whose are this hillside rich in fennel and chervil, and this goat-pasture, be kind to the gatherer of herbs and to the goatherd, and thou shalt have thy share of both the herbs and the milk. 

Tlepolemus of Myra, the son of Polycrites, set me up here, Hermes, presiding deity of the course, a pillar to mark the starting point in the holy races of twenty stadia. Toil, ye runners, in the race, banishing soft ease from your knees.

Why, Cypris [Aphrodite], hast thou, to whom the toil of war is strange, got thee these accoutrements of Ares? What falsifier fitted on thee, to no purpose, this hateful armour? Thou delightest in the Loves and the joys of the bridal bed, and the girls dancing madly to the castanets. Lay down these bloody spears. They are for divine Athena, but come thou to Hymenaeus with the flowing locks.  

These spoils are not mine. Who hung this unwelcome gift on the walls of Ares? Unbruised are the helmets, unstained by blood the polished shields, and unbroken the frail spears. My whole face reddens with shame, and the sweat, gushing from my forehead, bedews my breast. Such ornaments are for a lady's bower, or a banqueting-hall, or a court, or a bridal chamber. But blood-stained be the cavalier's spoils that deck the temple of Ares; in those I take delight.

Ye water Nymphs, children of Dorus, water diligently this garden of Timocles, for to you, Maidens, doth the gardener Timocles bring ever in their season gifts from this garden.

Ye Naiad Nymphs, who shed from the mountain cliff this fair stream in inexhaustible volume, Damostratus, the son of Antilas, gave you these wooden images and the two hairy boar-skins.

Hail, thou cold stream that leapest down from the cloven rock, and ye images of the Nymphs carved by a shepherd's hand! Hail, ye drinking troughs and your thousand little dolls,* ye Maidens of the spring that lie drenched in its waters! All hail! And I, Aristocles, the wayfarer, give you this cup which I dipped in your stream to quench my thirst.  

– from Book IX (Declamatory and Descriptive Epigrams) of the Greek Anthology, translated and edited by W.R. Paton (1917)

*images of the Nymphs