Bookish Works

Urs Graf the Elder
Pilate Washing his Hands
ca. 1503
hand-colored woodcut (book illustration)
Art Institute of Chicago

Philip Galle after Johannes Stradanus
Impressio Librorum
1591
engraving
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Hendrik Hondius the Elder after Hans Vredeman de Vries
Perspective Study - Tuscan Order, Pillars and Arches
1605
engraving (book illustration)
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel

Odoardo Fialetti
Drawing Manual - Mouths
1608
etching (book illustration)
Kupferstichkabinett, Hamburger Kunsthalle

Domenico Falcini after Jacopo Ligozzi
St Francis
1612
engraving (book frontispiece)
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Domenico Falcini after Jacopo Ligozzi
View of Monte della Vernia, Tuscany
(with levitating figure of St Francis)
1612
etching (book illustration)
Kupferstichkabinett, Hamburger Kunsthalle

Pieter Feddes
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor
(posthumous representation)
before 1623
etching (book illustration)
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel

Albert Flamen
Scroll Design for Frontispiece
ca. 1648-64
ink and watercolor on paper
British Museum

Albert Flamen
The Owl
ca. 1655-60
etching (book illustration)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Albert Flamen
The Snipe
ca. 1655-60
etching (book illustration)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Childe Hassam
An Island Garden (Celia Thaxter in her Garden)
1892
oil on canvas
(for reproduction as book illustration)
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Childe Hassam
An Island Garden by Celia Thaxter
1894
chromolithograph (book illustration)
Archives of American Art, Washington DC

Ethel Reed
Folly or Saintliness
1895
lithograph (advertising poster for book)
National Museum of American History, Washington DC

Fidus (Hugo Höppener)
Bookmark from J.C.C. Bruns Verlag, Minden
ca. 1890-1900
cliché print
Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna

Fidus (Hugo Höppener)
Bookmark from Velhagen & Klasing, Leipzig
ca. 1890-1900
cliché print
Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna

Fidus (Hugo Höppener)
Bookmark from Velhagen & Klasing, Leipzig
ca. 1890-1900
cliché print
Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna

from The End of March

I wanted to get as far as my proto-dream-house,
my crypto-dream-house, that crooked box
set up on pilings, shingled green,
a sort of artichoke of a house, but greener
(boiled with bicarbonate of soda?), 
protected from spring tides by a palisade
of – are they railroad ties?
(Many things about this place are dubious.)
I'd like to retire there and do nothing,
or nothing much, forever, in two bare rooms:
look through binoculars, read boring books,
old, long, long books, and write down useless notes,
talk to myself, and, foggy days, 
watch the droplets slipping, heavy with light.

– Elizabeth Bishop (1976)

After Michelangelo

Johann Gottfried Bartsch after Michelangelo
The Three Fates
ca. 1674-84
engraving
Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig

Giulio Sanuto after Michelangelo
Pietà
1560
engraving
(after a preparatory drawing for the sculpture)
Bibliotheca Hertziana, Rome

Lucas Kilian after Michelangelo
Pietà
1604
engraving
(after the sculpture)
Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig

Nicolas Beatrizet after Michelangelo
Tityus and Vulture
ca. 1550
engraving
(after a drawing)
Národní-Galerie-Prague

Agostino Musi after Michelangelo
Warrior tying Hose
1517
engraving
(after cartoon for The Battle of Cascina)
Hamburger Kunsthalle

Palma il Giovane after Michelangelo
Aurora
ca. 1580
drawing
(after sculpture on tomb of Lorenzo de' Medici)
Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen

Marcello Venusti after Michelangelo
The Resurrection
ca. 1550
oil on panel
(after a drawing)
Harvard Art Museums

Anonymous Artist after Michelangelo
Detail of the David
18th century
drawing
(after colossal sculpture)
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden

Anonymous Artist after Michelangelo
Demon
ca. 1550
drawing
(after the Last Judgment fresco) 
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Anonymous Printmaker after Michelangelo
Ignudo
ca. 1780
engraving
(after the Sistine Ceiling fresco)
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel

Anonymous Printmaker after Michelangelo
Classical Figure
ca. 1510-20
engraving
(after the figure of Adam in the Sistine Ceiling fresco)
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

Gerhard Gröninger after Michelangelo
Ignudo
ca. 1620
drawing
(after the Sistine Ceiling fresco)
Kupferstichkabinett,
Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden

Cherubino Alberti after Michelangelo
The Libyan Sibyl and the Prophet Daniel
1577
engraving
(after the Sistine Ceiling fresco)
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Braun, Clément & Cie.
Michelangelo's Moses
(Basilica di San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome)
ca. 1880
photogravure
Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Karl Friedrich Schinkel
Michelangelo's Moses
(Basilica di San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome)
ca. 1803-1804
drawing
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen, Berlin

Ranieri Bettazzi
Michelangelo with his Moses
ca. 1855
chromolithograph
Bibliotheca Hertziana, Rome

Problem:  I am a tomb and I cover the lamented children of Philinna, containing fruit of her vainly-travailing womb such as I describe.  Philinna gave me my fifth portion of young men, my third of maidens, and three newly married daughters; the other four descended to Hades from her womb without participating at all in the sunlight and in speech.

Solution:  She had 15 children (3 + 5 + 3 + 4)

Problem:  Demochares lived for a quarter of his life as a boy, for a fifth part of it as a young man, and for a third as a man, and when he reached grey old age he lived thirteen years more on the threshold of eld.

Solution:  He lived 15 years as a boy, 12 as a young man, 20 as a man, and 13 years as an old man; in all 60. 

Problem:  Let fall a tear as you pass by; for we are those guests of Antiochus whom his house slew when it fell, and God gave us in equal shares this place for a banquet and a tomb.  Four of us from Tegea lie here, twelve from Messene, five from Argos, and half of the banqueters were from Sparta, and Antiochus himself.  A fifth of the fifth part of those who perished were from Athens, and do thou, Corinth, weep for Hylas alone.

Solution:  There were 50 guests. 

Problem:  Brick-makers, I am in a great hurry to erect this house.  To-day is cloudless, and I do not require many more bricks, but I have all I want but three hundred.  Thou alone in one day couldst make as many, but thy son left off working when he had finished two hundred, and thy son-in-law when he had made two hundred and fifty.  Working all together, in how many hours can you make these? 

Solution:  2/5 of a day. 

Problem:  Take, my son, the fifth part of my inheritance, and thou, wife, receive the twelfth; and ye four sons of my departed son and my two brothers, and thou my grieving mother, take each an eleventh part of the property.  But ye, my cousins, receive twelve talents, and let my friend Eubulus have five talents.  To my most faithful servants I give their freedom and these recompenses in payment of their services.  Let them receive as follows.  Let Onesimus have twenty-five minae and Davus twenty minae, Syrus fifty, Synete ten and Tibius eight, and I give seven minae to the son of Syrus, Synetus.  Spend thirty talents on adorning my tomb and sacrifice to Infernal Zeus.  From two talents let the expense be met of my funeral pyre, the funeral cakes, and grave-clothes, and from two let my corpse receive a gift.*

Solution:  The whole sum is 660 talents (132 + 55 + 420 + 12 + 5 + 2 + 34)

– from Book XIV (Arithmetical Problems, Riddles, Oracles) in the Greek Anthology, translated and edited by W.R. Paton (1918)

*probably precious ointment

Vernacular

Anonymous American Designer
In Memory of Abraham Lincoln
ca. 1870
hand-colored lithograph
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Anonymous American Designer
Mitchell's Autumn Catalogue
1899
chromolithograph
Archives of American Gardens, Washington DC

Anonymous American Designer
Valentine
ca. 1905
chromolithograph
National Museum of American History, Washington DC

Anonymous American Designer
Old Sycamore
ca. 1910
halftone-print (postcard)
Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas

Anonymous American Designer
Over the Top for You
1918
lithograph (poster)
National Museum of American History,
Washington DC

Anonymous American Designer
On Furlough - Bound for Keith's
1918
lithograph
(advertisement for B.F. Keith's Theatre, Philadelphia)
National Museum of American History, Washington DC

Anonymous American Designer
Anna Pavlowa - Metropolitan Opera House
1924
letterpress program cover
National Museum of American History,
Washington DC

Anonymous American Designer
Try To Serve These Foods
ca. 1942
offset-lithograph (poster)
National Museum of American History, Washington DC

Anonymous American Designer
Loose Talk Can Cost Lives
1942
lithograph (poster)
National Museum of American History,
Washington DC

Anonymous American Designer
Someone Talked!
ca. 1943
lithograph (poster)
National Museum of American History,
Washington DC

Anonymous American Designer
The Lavernes wish you Christmas Joy
and a Glad New Year
1958
screenprint
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Anonymous American Designer
Lowenstein - Congress
1968
offset-lithograph
(Allard Lowenstein was murdered in 1980 by a young follower)
National Museum of American History, Washington DC

Anonymous American Designer
Argus
1970
lithograph (booklet cover)
National Museum of American History, Washington DC

Anonymous American Designer
Withdrawal
1970
offset-lithograph (anti-war poster)
National Museum of American History,
Washington DC

Anonymous American Designer
7,120,000 Tons
1972
offset-lithograph (anti-war poster)
National Museum of American History, Washington DC

Anonymous American Designer
A Tribute to Ethel and Julius Rosenberg
1978
offset-lithograph (poster)
National Museum of American History, Washington DC

Anonymous American Designer
Shopping Bag from Mabel's, New York
1981
offset-print on paper bag
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

from Hell Gate

    Dully at the leaden sky

Staring, and with idle eye

Measuring the listless plain,

I began to think again.

Many things I thought of then,

Battle, and the loves of men,

Cities entered, oceans crossed,

Knowledge gained and virtue lost,

Cureless folly done and said, 

And the lovely way that led

To the slimepit and the mire

And the everlasting fire.

And against a smoulder dun

And a dawn without a sun

Did the nearing bastion loom,

And across the gate of gloom

Still one saw the sentry go,

Trim and burning, to and fro,

One for women to admire

In his finery of fire.

Something, as I watched him pace,

Minded me of time and place,

Soldiers of another corps

And a sentry known before.

    Ever darker hell on high

Reared its strength upon the sky,

And our footfall on the track

Fetched the daunting echo back.

But the soldier pacing still

The insuperable sill,

Nursing his tormented pride,

Turned his head to neither side,

Sunk into himself apart

And the hell-fire of his heart.

But against our entering in 

From the drawbridge Death and Sin

Rose to render key and sword

To their father and their lord.

And the portress foul to see

Lifted up her eyes on me

Smiling, and I made reply:

'Met again, my lass,' said I.

Then the sentry turned his head,

Looked, and knew me, and was Ned.

– A.E. Housman (1922)

British Choices

Anonymous British Sculptor
Adoration of the Magi
(composition derived from an engraving)
ca. 1540
alabaster relief panel
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Anonymous British Needleworker
Valance
17th century
silk embroidery on silk satin
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Anonymous British Potter
Pickle Leaf
ca. 1770-80
lead-glazed earthenware
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Anonymous British Needleworker
Figures in Landscape within Decorated Border
ca. 1780
silk embroidery and pigment on silk
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Anonymous British Lacemaker
Sleeve Ruffle of Honiton Bobbin-Lace
19th century
 linen
Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Anonymous British Needleworker
Pocket Book
19th century
silk embroidery on linen foundation
Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Anonymous British Designer
Gothic Arches
ca. 1840-50
block-printed wallpaper
Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Anonymous British Designer
The Kingsmere
1882
block-printed wallpaper
Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Anonymous British Glassblower
Ewer
ca. 1890
mold-blown glass
Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia

Anonymous British Lacemaker
Collar of Bobbin Lace
ca. 1900
linen
National Museum of American History, Washington DC

Anonymous British Printmaker
Franco-British Exhibition, London
1908
chromolithograph (postcard)
Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Roger Fry
Design for a Marquetry and Lacquer Cabinet
to be produced by Omega Workshops
ca. 1913
gouache and collage on paper
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Omega Workshops
Waistcoat in Cracow Fabric designed by Roger Fry
1913
jacquard-woven wool and linen
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Roger Fry for Omega Workshops
Margery
1913
sample of block-printed linen
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Vanessa Bell for Omega Workshops
White
1913
sample of block-printed linen
Art Institute of Chicago

Roger Fry for Omega Workshops
Still Life
1918
woodcut
British Museum

Anonymous British Designer
Interlaced Bands
1968
screenprinted wallpaper
Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

An Epitaph upon a Young Married Couple Dead and Buryed Together

To these, whom Death again did wed,

This Grave's their second Marriage-bed.

For though the hand of fate could force

'Twixt Soul & Body a Divorce,
It could not sunder man & Wife,

'Cause They Both livèd but one life.

Peace, good Reader.  Doe not weep.

Peace, The Lovers are asleep.

They, sweet Turtles, folded ly

In the last knott love could ty. 

And though they ly as they were dead,

Their Pillow stone, their sheetes of lead

(Pillow hard, & sheetes not warm)

Love made the bed; They'l take no harm.

Let them sleep: let them sleep on

Till this stormy night be gone,

Till th' Æternall morrow dawn;

Then the curtaines will be drawn

And they wake into a light, 

Whose day shall never dy in Night.

– Richard Crashaw (1652)