Showing posts with label baroque. Show all posts
Showing posts with label baroque. Show all posts

Sunday, July 12, 2026

Utility

Anonymous German Artist
Design for Candlestick
1551
engraving
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel

Erasmus Horninck
Design for Candlestick with Satyrs
ca. 1570-80
drawing
(print study)
Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna

Jakob Wilhelm Heckenauer
Design for Rococo Wall-Light
ca. 1728
engraving
Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig

Benigno Bossi after Ennemond Alexandre Petitot
Vase with Lions
1764
etching
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden

workshop of Francesco Salviati
Design for Vessel with Lion Heads
ca. 1550
drawing
Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna

Ignác Bendl
Fantastical Vases
ca. 1690
etching
Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna

Giulio Romano
Design for Casket
ca. 1530
drawing
Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen

Jacques Androuet du Cerceau the Elder
Design for Lidded Cup
ca. 1555
etching
Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna

Augustin Hirschvogel
Grotesque Composite Jug
1543
etching
Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum,
Braunschweig

Cornelis Floris the Younger
Design for Pitcher
1548
engraving
Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna

Cornelis Floris the Younger
Design for Sweetmeat Dish
1548
engraving
Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna

Jean Le Pautre
Design Studies for Ewer
ca. 1660
drawing
Kupferstichkabinett,
Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden

Susanne Maria von Sandrart after Jean Le Pautre
Vase Design with Fruit Garlands
1678
etching
Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig

Christoph Melchior Roth
Rococo Vase
ca. 1760
etching
Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig

Johann Gottfried Thelott after Martin Engelbrecht
Rococo Vase Design with Marine Elements
ca. 1735
etching
Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig

Johann Jakob Schübler
Design for a Clock
ca. 1730
engraving
Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna

The people of Athens being advertised of the state of their army, how it was in distress, and that victual was transported into the island, knew not what they should do to it and feared lest winter should overtake them in their siege, fearing not only that to provide them of necessaries about Peloponnesus, and in a desert place withal, would be a thing impossible, but also that they should be unable to send forth so many things as were requisite, though it were summer; and again, that the parts thereabout being without harbour, there would be no place to lie anchor in against them, but that the watch there ceasing of itself, the men would by that means escape or in some foul weather be carried away in the same boats that brought them meat.  But that which they feared most was that the Lacedaemonians seemed to have some assurance of them already, because they sent no more to negotiate about them.  And they repented now that they had not accepted of the peace.  But Cleon, knowing himself to be the man suspected for hindering the agreement, said that they who brought the news reported not the truth.  Whereupon, they that came thence advising them, if they would not believe it, to send to view the estate of the army, he and Theogenes were chosen by the Athenians to view it.  But when he saw that he must of force either say as they said whom he before calumniated or, saying the contrary, be proved a liar, he advised the Athenians, seeing them inclined of themselves to send thither greater forces than they had before thought to do, that it was not fit to send to view the place nor to lose their opportunity to delay; but if the report seemed unto them to be true, they should make a voyage against those men; and glanced at Nicias, the son of Niceratus, then general, upon malice and with the language of reproach, saying it was easy, if the leaders were men, to go and take them there in the island; and that himself, if he had the command, would do it.

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

Friday, March 6, 2026

Coquillages

Jean-Antoine Watteau
Study of Shell
ca. 1715-20
drawing
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Kristian Lundstedt
Seaweed and Shells
1922
oil on canvas
Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Pieter van de Venne
Still Life with Shells
1656
oil on panel
Detroit Institute of Arts

Johann Stephan Capieux
Studies of Shells
1776
hand-colored etching
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel

Christian Benjamin Glassbach
Cylindrical Shells
ca. 1770
hand-colored etching
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel

Abraham Susenier
Still Life with Shells
1659
oil on canvas
Dordrechts Museum, Netherlands

Jacques Linard
Still Life with Shells
1638
oil on panel
Kunsthaus Zürich

James Ensor
Shells
1889
oil on canvas
Von der Heydt Museum, Wuppertal

Melchior Füssli
Creatures with Shells
ca. 1725-30
drawing (print study)
Graphische Sammlung, Zentralbibliothek Zürich

Basil Besler
Shells
1616
engraving (book illustration)
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel

Jean-Antoine Watteau
Study of Shell
ca. 1715-20
drawing
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Jost Amman after Wenzel Jamnitzer
Design for Title Cartouche with Shell
ca. 1575
etching
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel

Pierre-Paul Sevin
Shell as Architectural Ornament
ca. 1690-1700
drawing
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Frans Huys after Cornelis Floris the Younger
Grotesque Mask of Shells and Fruit
ca. 1550-60
engraving
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel

Peter Joseph Krahe
Design for Neoclassical Fountain with Shell Ornament
ca. 1783-84
drawing
Städtisches Museum, Braunschweig

Johann Theodor de Bry
Concert in a Shell
1596
engraving
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden

Thou seest the ever-smiling face of Peter the orator, excellent in debate, excellent in friendship. In the theatre whilst looking at the performance he fell from the roof with others and was the only one who died, after surviving a short time, sufficient for his needs. I call this no violent death, but a natural one.

Hail! thou shipwrecked man, and when thou landest in Hades, blame not the waves of the sea, but the winds. It was they who overcame thee, but the kindly water of the sea cast thee out on the land by the tombs of thy fathers.

Damocharis passed into the final silence of Fate; alas! the Muses' lovely lyre is silent; the holy foundation of Grammar is perished. Sea-girt Cos, thou art again in mourning as for Hippocrates. 

Bear not the message, traveller, to Antioch, lest again the streamlets of Castalia lament, because of a sudden at the age of seventeen Eustorgius left the Muse and his unfulfilled hope of learning in Roman Law, and to empty dust was changed the bloom of youth. He lies in the tomb and instead of him we see his name and the colours of the brush. 

The earth covers Eugenia who once bloomed in beauty and poetry, who was learned in the revered science of the law. On her tomb the Muse, Themis, and Aphrodite all shore their hair. 

Eustathius, sweet is thy image, but I see thee in wax, and no longer doth that pleasant speech dwell in thy mouth. Alas, thy blooming youth is now futile dust of earth. For after reaching thy fifteenth year thou didst look only on twenty-four suns. Neither thy grandfather's high office helped thee, nor the riches of thy father. All who look on thy image blame unjust Fate, ah! so merciless, for quenching the light of such beauty. 

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

Saturday, February 14, 2026

Darknesses

Michele Desubleo (Michele Fiammingo)
Cain slaying Abel
before 1676
oil on canvas
Palazzo Corsini, Rome


Johann Liss
Abel mourned by Adam and Eve
ca. 1630
oil on canvas
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

Pietro Sigismondi
Samson and Delilah
1606
oil on canvas
Fondazione Banca del Monte di Lucca

Francesco Furini
Judith and Holofernes
ca. 1630-35
oil on canvas
Palazzo Barberini, Rome

Camillo Berlinghieri
St Sebastian tended by Holy Women
ca. 1632-35
oil on canvas
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

Dirck van Baburen
St Sebastian succoured by St Irene
ca. 1620
oil on canvas
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Francesco Maffei
Perseus beheading Medusa
ca. 1650
oil on canvas
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

Anonymous Flemish Artist
Head of Medusa
ca. 1600-1650
oil on panel
Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence

Bernardino Mei
Orestes slaying Clytemnestra and Aegisthus
1654
oil on canvas
Collezioni della Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena

Johann Liss
Apollo and Marsyas
ca. 1625-30
oil on canvas
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

Mattia Preti (il Cavalier Calabrese)
Flight of Aeneas from Troy
ca. 1635
oil on canvas
Palazzo Barberini, Rome

Michele Desubleo (Michele Fiammingo)
Death of Cleopatra
before 1676
oil on canvas
Palazzo Corsini, Rome

Francesco Rustici (il Rustichino)
Olindo and Sofronia
(scene from Tasso's Gerusalemme Liberata)
ca. 1620
oil on canvas
private collection

Donato Mascagni (Fra Arsenio)
Ugolino and his Sons in the Famine Prison
ca. 1611
oil on canvas
Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence

Padovanino (Alessandro Varotari)
Orpheus losing Eurydice
ca. 1620
oil on canvas
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

Laurent de La Hyre
Dead Adonis
ca. 1628-30
oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre

Anonymous Italian Artist working in Naples
Venus discovering the dead Adonis
ca. 1650
oil on canvas
Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio

Speaks Bito's tomb to whomsoever reads:
"If from Torone to Amphipolis you go,
Give Nicagoras this message: his one son
Died in storm, in early winter, before sunrise."

– from the Greek Anthology, translated by W.G. Shepherd

Friday, February 13, 2026

Darknesses

Anonymous Flemish Artist
The Crowning with Thorns
ca. 1630
oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre


Anonymous Italian Artist
St Jerome in the Wilderness
17th century
oil on canvas
Musée Fesch, Ajaccio, Corsica

Anonymous Italian Artist
David with the Head of Goliath
ca. 1620-30
oil on canvas
Accademia Carrara, Bergamo

Anonymous Italian Artist
David with the Head of Goliath
ca. 1610
oil on canvas
Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, California

Anonymous Italian Artist
St Jerome
ca. 1620
oil on canvas
Palazzo Colonna, Rome

Giovanni Battista Langetti
Christ at the Column
ca. 1665-70
oil on canvas
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

Giovanni Battista Langetti
Christ crowned with Thorns
ca. 1665-70
oil on canvas
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

Miguel March
St Onofrio
ca. 1655
oil on canvas
Museo de Bellas Artes de Valencia

Miguel March
St Paul the Hermit
ca. 1655
oil on canvas
Museo de Bellas Artes de Valencia

Palma il Giovane
Dead Christ supported by Angels
ca. 1612
oil on canvas
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

Scarsellino (Ippolito Scarsella)
Noli me tangere
before 1620
oil on canvas
Palazzo Barberini, Rome

Giovanni Serodine
St Peter and St Paul conducted to Martyrdom
ca. 1625-26
oil on canvas
Palazzo Barberini, Rome

Leonello Spada
Christ crowned with Thorns
ca. 1610-20
oil on canvas
Palazzo Barberini, Rome

Alessandro Turchi (l'Orbetto)
Dead Christ mourned by the Magdalen and Angels
ca. 1645-50
oil on slate
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts

Valentin de Boulogne
Penitent St Jerome
1628
oil on canvas
Musei Civico e Diocesano
nell'Edificio Venanzina Pennesi, Camerino

Valentin de Boulogne
St John the Baptist
1629
oil on canvas
Musei Civico e Diocesano
nell'Edificio Venanzina Pennesi, Camerino

Diego Velázquez
Sufferings of Christ contemplated by the Christian Soul
ca. 1628-29
oil on canvas
National Gallery, London

Roused by November seas, wrecked on Italian rocks,
    a kraken squid was washed ashore:
The masters of the cattle-ships set up this,
    its huge rib, in homage to the Gods.

– from the Greek Anthology, translated by W.G. Shepherd