Arched - II

Erhard Schön
Geometric Figures in Perspective
1538
woodcut
(book illustration)
Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna

Rudolf Weyditz
Triumphal Arch
with Figures of the Seven Liberal Arts
ca. 1550
woodcut
Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna

Pieter Jansz Saenredam
Interior of the Church of Saint Bavo, Haarlem
1635
oil on panel
National Museum, Warsaw

Pier Francesco Mola
Study of Bridge
ca. 1650
drawing
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Herman Coets
Title-Page Design for Nautical Publication
1700
engraving
(printed in sepia)
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Alessandro Specchi after Carlo Fontana
Triumphal Arch erected for Pope Clement XI
1701
etching
Kupferstichkabinett,
Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden

Filippo Juvarra
Capriccio of Ruins with Triumphal Arch
1732
drawing
Kupferstichkabinett,
Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden

Mauro Antonio Tesi
Church Interior with Statue
ca. 1750-60
drawing
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Gian Paolo Panini
Capriccio with Ruinous Arches
before 1765
watercolor on paper
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich
Rock Arch with Holy Image and Pilgrims
1766
drawing
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Christoph Nathe
Young Woman in Antique Dress entering a Grotto
1785
drawing
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Johann Franz Gout
Capriccio of Ruins
1789
tempera on paper
Städel Museum, Frankfurt

Abel Schlicht
Ruin of Antique Baths
ca. 1790
watercolor on paper
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Luigi Rossini
Porta San Sebastiano, Rome
ca. 1830-40
lithograph
Max Planck Institute for Art History, Florence

Carl Wilhelm Gropius
Stage Design for Opera by Daniel Auber
ca. 1840
watercolor on paper
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden

August von Bayer
View from a Cloister
ca. 1840
oil on canvas
Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe

Archidamus, having thus spoken and dismissed the council, first sent Melesippus the son of Diacritus, a man of Sparta, to Athens to try if the Athenians, seeing them now on their journey, would yet in some degree remit of their obstinacy.  But the Athenians neither received him into their city nor presented him to the state; for the opinion of Pericles had already taken place, not to receive from the Lacedaemonians neither herald nor ambassador as long as their army was abroad.  Therefore they sent him back without audience with commandment to be out of their borders the selfsame day, and that hereafter if they would anything with them, they should return everyone to his home and send their ambassadors from thence.  They sent with him also certain persons to convoy him out of the country to the end that no man should confer with him, who, when he came to the limits and was to be dismissed, uttered these words, "This day is the beginning of much evil unto the Grecians," and so departed.  When he returned to the camp, Archidamus, perceiving that they would not relent, dislodged and marched on with his army into their territory.  

– from The Peloponnesian War as written by Thucydides (5th century BC) and translated by Thomas Hobbes (1628) and edited by David Grene (1959)

Arched - I

Monogrammist H.G.
Plan for Interior Architectural Ornament
ca. 1515
woodcut
Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna

Albrecht Altdorfer
Church Interior
ca. 1520
drawing
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Anonymous Copyist after Sebastiano Serlio
Portal Design
1551
engraving
(book illustration printed by Jean de Tournes)
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel

Wendel Dietterlin the Elder
Portal with Heroic Figures
1594
etching
Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna

Hendrik Hondius the Elder after Hans Vredeman de Vries
Perspective Study with Triumphal Arch in Ionic Order
1605
engraving
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel

Daniel Meyer
Decorative Arch celebrating Wine
1612
etching
Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna

Agostino Mitelli
Scene with Classical Ruins
1636
etching
Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna

Johann Franciscus Ermels
Ruin with Arches
ca. 1680
etching
Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig

Gioacchino Pizzoli
Capriccio of Ruins
ca. 1710
drawing
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Pietro Righini
Set Design for Opera staged at La Scala, Milan
ca. 1730
etching
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden

Domenico Fossati
Stage Design for Venetian Theater
1762
drawing
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Francesco Guardi
Venetian Palace Staircase
ca. 1775
drawing
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Jean Grandjean
Study of Vaulting
before 1781
drawing
Städel Museum, Frankfurt

Peter Joseph Krahe
Entrance Portal - Palazzo Sciarra, Rome
ca. 1783-84
drawing
Städtisches Museum, Braunschweig

Johann Christian Reinhart
Arch of Titus, Rome
ca. 1790-1800
drawing
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Francis Frith
Lindisfarne Abbey
ca. 1860
albumen print
Rhode Island School of Design, Providence

The Lacedaemonians, after the business of Plataea, sent messengers presently up and down Peloponnesus and to their confederates without to have in readiness their forces and such things as should be necessary for a foreign expedition, as intending the invasion of Attica.  And when they were all ready, they came to the rendezvous in the isthmus at a day appointed, two-thirds of the forces of every city.  When the whole army was gotten together, Archidamus, king of the Lacedaemonians, general of the expedition, called together the commanders of the several cities and such as were in authority and most worthy to be present and spake unto them as followeth:  "Men of Peloponnesus and confederates, not only our fathers have had many wars, both within and without Peloponnesus, but we ourselves also, such as are anything in years, have been sufficiently acquainted therewith; yet did we never before set forth with so great a preparation as at this present.  And now, not only we are a numerous and puissant army that invade, but the state also is puissant that is invaded by us.  We have reason therefore to show ourselves neither worse than our fathers nor short of the opinion conceived of ourselves.  For all Greece is up at this commotion observing us, and through their hatred of the Athenians do wish that we may accomplish whatsoever we intend.  . . . "

– from The Peloponnesian War as written by Thucydides (5th century BC) and translated by Thomas Hobbes (1628) and edited by David Grene (1959)

Embodiments

Marjorie Lundin
City Gate, Nice
1979
C-print
Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Anonymous Italian Artist
Capriccio of Renaissance Architecture
17th century
drawing
Kupferstichkabinett, Kunstmuseum Basel

Friederike Meinert
Upper Round Hall, Schloss Charlottenburg
1843
watercolor on paper
Schloss Charlottenburg, Berlin

Antoine Lafréry
Reconstruction of the Arch of Vespasian, Rome
1548
engraving (book illustration)
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel

Josef Ziegler
Design for Classical Temple
ca. 1810
drawing, with added watercolor
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Carl Schütze
Palatial Stage Design
ca. 1770-80
drawing
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

François-Martin Testard
Ancient Egyptian Scientists
gathering outside the Dendera Temple to Hathor
1819
oil on panel
Musée Champollion, Figeac

Antonio Labacco (publisher)
Reconstruction of the Temple of Vulcan
in the Roman Forum
1570
engraving and letterpress (book illustration)
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel

Luigi Rossini
Rome, Pantheon (side view)
1821
etching
Hamburger Kunsthalle

Daniel Dupré
Bernini's Monument to Alexander VII, Rome
(Obelisk supported by Elephant)
1790
drawing
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

August von Pettenkofen
Venetian Rooftops
before 1889
watercolor on paper
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Ernst Meyer
Theater of Marcellus, Rome
ca. 1840
oil on paper
Hirschsprung Collection, Copenhagen

Francesco Guardi
Capriccio
1781
oil on panel
Kunsthaus Zürich

Jean Heiberg
The Erechtheion
1958
watercolor on paper
Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum, Tromsø

Christo
Otterlo Mastaba
1974
drawing
(colored pencils and ink)
Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands

Miriam Schapiro
Shrine I
1964
lithograph
Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas

 Chorus:  Don't be provoked! You will not be called a coward

                 if you find an honourable way to stay alive;  the Fury's black squall

                 will leave your house, once the gods

                 receive a sacrifice at your hands.

Eteocles [who has meanwhile put on his helmet]:  The gods, it seems, have already abandoned us, and will they honour any gift from us, doomed as we are?  Why then should we still cringe before the fate of death?

Chorus:  Stay, while you have the chance! For the controlling power

                may perhaps, given time, change the wind of your spirit

                and blow with a gentler breath;

                but at present it is still seething.

Eteocles [who has meanwhile taken his shield and spear]:  Yes, for the curse of Oedipus has made it seethe: it was too true, what I saw in those dream-visions about the dividing of our father's property.*

Chorus:  Listen to us women, even if you don't like doing so. 

Eteocles:  You can say what's helpful, but don't make it lengthy.

Chorus:  Don't make this journey to the Seventh Gate. 

Eteocles:  I am whetted and your words will not blunt me. 

Chorus:  Yet god respects even an inglorious victory. 

Eteocles:  That's not an expression that a man-at-arms should tolerate. 

Chorus:  You want to shed the blood of your own brother?

Eteocles:  When the gods send evil, one cannot escape it.  [He departs.]

– Aeschylus, from Seven Against Thebes (467 BC), translated by Alan H. Sommerstein (2008)

*this may refer to something said by Eteocles in the preceding play, Oedipus, now lost

Likenesses

Peter Birmann
Mule Train on Devil's Bridge, Schöllenen Gorge
ca. 1795-1805
drawing
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich
Footbridge over Waterfalls
1763
drawing
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Alvin Langdon Coburn
Trafalgar Square, London
1909
photogravure
Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Georges Gaudion
La place du Griffoul à Gaillac
1913
oil on canvas
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Gaillac

attributed to Hendrik van Cleve
Tower of Babel
ca. 1565-70
oil on panel
Hamburger Kunsthalle

Anonymous Flemish Artist
Tower of Babel under Construction
ca. 1620
oil on copper
Musée d'Art et d'Histoire de Genève

Domenico Campagnola
Apocalyptic Scene with Fallen Buildings
ca. 1545-50
drawing
Morgan Library, New York

Jan van Bronchorst after Cornelis van Poelenburgh
Roman Ruins
before 1661
etching
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

Charles Camoin
Landscape - Pont de Vernon
(ruinous 17th-century bridge on the Seine supporting a house)
ca. 1910
oil on canvas
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh

Bello Brivio
Seashore with Ruin and Shrine
1849
oil on canvas
Belvedere Museum, Vienna

Ludwig Neuhoff
Last Light
ca. 1905
oil on canvas
Von der Heydt Museum, Wuppertal

Ernst Fries
Monastery of San Francesco at Amalfi
1828
oil on panel
Lenbachhaus, Munich

Anonymous Printmaker after Andrea Palladio
Volute and Elevation of Base - Ionian Order
1581
woodcut and letterpress
(illustration from Quattro Libri dell'Architettura)
Hamburger Kunsthalle

Master of 1515
Studies from Antiquity
ca. 1515-20
drypoint
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Giovanni di Paolo
St Jerome appearing to St Augustine
ca. 1465
tempera on panel
Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Albert Girard
Femme dans un intérieur à Alger
ca. 1880
oil on canvas
Musée d'Art et d'Histoire de Narbonne

Eteocles:  O my family driven mad and greatly hated by the gods, my family so full of tears, the house of Oedipus!  Ah me, my father's curse is truly now fulfilled!  But it is not proper to cry or lament, lest that give birth to grief even harder to bear.  For this man so well named – Polynices, I mean – we shall soon know where that blazon will end up, whether those letters worked in gold, blathering insanely on his shield, are really going to bring him home.  If Justice, the virgin daughter of Zeus, were actually present in his actions and his mind, that might possibly have been the case.  But in fact, neither when he escaped the darkness of the womb, nor when he was growing, nor when he reached adolescence, nor when his chin was gathering hair, did Justice ever set eyes on him or hold him in any honour; nor now, surely, when he does harm to his own fatherland, is she standing close by him, I imagine.  Truly Justice would be utterly false to her name if she consorted with a man with so utterly audacious a mind.  Trusting to this, I will go and stand against him myself; who else has a better right to?  I will stand as ruler against ruler, brother against brother, enemy against enemy.  [To one of his attendants] Give me my greaves at once, to protect me against spear and shaft. 

[During the following exchanges Eteocles, with the help of his attendants, is putting on his armour.]

Chorus of Theban Maidens:  No, dearest of men, son of Oedipus, do not let your passions make you like that utterer of evil words!  There are enough Cadmean men to go to battle with the Argives: such blood purifies itself.*  But the death of two men of the same blood killing each other – that pollution can never grow old. 

Eteocles:  If one must suffer evil, let it not be shameful; that is the only profit the dead can gain.  You can never speak of a good reputation arising from a disaster which is also a disgrace.  

Chorus:  Why this mad passion, child?  You must not let yourself be carried away by this spear-mad delusion that fills your heart.  Cast out the root of this evil desire!

Eteocles:  Since the god is plainly hastening things to their conclusion, let it run before the wind, the whole house of Laius, hated by Phoebus and consigned to the waves of Cocytus.  

– Aeschylus, from Seven Against Thebes (467 BC), translated by Alan H. Sommerstein (2008)

*normally anyone who shed another's blood, intentionally or not, became ritually polluted, but this did not apply to the killing of an enemy in war