The Ground Layer (Bright) - I

Axel Bentzen
Interior
1941
oil on canvas
Göteborgs Konstmuseum, Sweden

Hans W. Sundberg
Botanical Gardens
1987
oil on canvas
Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Gustav Wentzel
In the Studio
1893
oil on canvas
Stortingets Kunstsamling, Oslo

Vilhelm Hammershøi
Interior with Young Man Reading
1898
oil on canvas
Hirschsprung Collection, Copenhagen

Isaak Levitan
Early Foliage
ca. 1883-88
oil on canvas
State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Eberhard Havekost
Max - Headroom 2
2003
oil on canvas
Galerie Neue Meister (Albertinum), Dresden

Alexander Rothaug
Cassandra
1911
tempera on panel
Belvedere Museum, Vienna

Franz Marc
Laundry int he Wind
1906
oil on canvas
Museum Folkwang, Essen

Emile Claus
Flemish Farm House
1894
oil on canvas
Musée d'Ixelles, Brussels

Torsten Bergmark
Floating Figure
1967
oil on canvas
Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo

Albert Gosselin
Oak and Olives at Juan-les-Pins
1890
watercolor on paper
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Reims

Vilmos Huszár
Sick Woman
ca. 1920
oil on canvas
Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands

Otto Greiner
Prometheus
1909
oil on canvas
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa

Ludwig Ferdinand Graf
Swimming Pool
1905
oil on canvas
Belvedere Museum, Vienna

Franz Xaver Winterhalter
Empress Eugénie with Ladies in Waiting
1855
oil on canvas
Château de Compiègne

Paul Baudry
Mercury bearing Psyche aloft
1885
oil on canvas
(mounted on ceiling)
Musée Condé, Chantilly

 . . . her judgment totally shaken; coming to the tent and throwing herself on the camp bed, she uttered a loud, piercing cry; she wept profusely, and she tore her tunic.  Eubiotus saw to it that no one was in the tent; he sent everyone out, saying that she had had bad news about the Sauromates.  She wept and wailed and cursed the day she had seen Erasinus while hunting; she cursed her own eyes too and blamed Artemis.  . . .  And absorbed in these misfortunes, she reached out for her dagger; but Eubiotus had surreptitiously removed it from its sheath as soon as she came in.  She looked at him and said: "Wickedest of men!  You dared to lay your hand on my sword!  I am no Amazon, no Themisto; I am a Greek woman.  I am Calligone – no weaker in spirit than any Amazon.  Go and bring me the sword, or I will strangle you with my hands!"

– from Calligone, an anonymous romance fragment written in Greek during the 2nd century AD, translated into English by B.P. Reardon (1989)

The Ground Layer (Sombre) - IV

Alexandre-Denis-Abel de Pujol
Portrait of Madame Adolphe Blanqui
ca. 1840
oil on canvas
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Valenciennes

Christoph Unterberger
Tobit burying the Dead
ca. 1780
oil on canvas
Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest

Orazio Borgianni
Christ among the Doctors
ca. 1609
oil on canvas
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Bartolomeo Cavarozzi
Holy Family with St Catherine
ca. 1617-19
oil on canvas
Staatsgalerie Stuttgart

attributed Luca Giordano
Philosopher
ca. 1650
oil on canvas
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Bernardo Strozzi
St Catherine of Alexandria
ca. 1615
oil on canvas
Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Franz Sigrist
Flight into Egypt
ca. 1763
oil on copper
Deutsche Barockgalerie, Augsburg

Amable-Louis-Claude Pagnest
The Gladiator
1813
oil on canvas
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Reims

Friedrich Karl Hausmann
Interior
1849
oil on paper
Alte Nationalgalerie,
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Giulio Romano
Virgin and Child with young St John the Baptist
ca. 1518-20
oil on panel
Galleria Borghese, Rome

Gaspar de Crayer
Portrait of Nicolas Triest, Count d'Auweghem
1620
oil on canvas
Harvard Art Museums

Honoré Daumier
Wrestler
ca. 1852
oil on panel
Ordrupgaard, Art Museum Copenhagen

Karel Dujardin
Hagar and Ishmael in the Wilderness
ca. 1662
oil on canvas
John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota

Valentin de Boulogne
Moses
ca. 1628
oil on canvas
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Anonymous Italian Artist
Deposition
17th century
oil on canvas
Princeton University Art Museum

Orazio Riminaldi
David with the Head of Goliath
ca. 1617-20
oil on canvas
Galleria Sabauda, Turin

"As you know, I am in my seventeenth year and for the past year have been deemed to have entered manhood.  Until now I have been but an ignorant child.  If I had not experienced Aphrodite, I would count myself blessed in my firmness.  But now that I have become your daughter's prisoner, not dishonorably but with the consent of you both, how long shall I deny I am her captive?  Men of my age are clearly ready for marriage: for how many of them have remained chaste until their fifteenth year?  I am the victim of a law not written but sanctioned by foolish convention: that among us young women usually marry at the age of fifteen.  Who in his right mind would deny that natural feelings are the best sanction for this kind of union?  Girls of fourteen conceive, and indeed some give birth to children.  Will  your daughter not even marry?  We should wait two years, you will say.  Suppose we do wait – will our Fortune also wait?  I am a mortal man engaged to a mortal girl.  I am subject not only to the common lot of mankind – to illnesses and to the destiny that often carries away even those who sit quietly at home beside the hearth; but voyages and war after war await me; and I am not without daring or one to wrap myself in a veil of cowardice to keep me from harm, but am, to put it directly, as you know me to be.  Let my kingship, my passion, let the insecurity and uncertainty of what awaits me – let all these hasten our marriage and let the fact that we are only children in our families be reason for anticipation and forethought, so that if Fortune should will some disaster on us we may leave you the pledges.  Perhaps you will say that I am shameless in discussing these matters.  I would have been shameless if I had seduced her secretly and surreptitiously taken advantage of her with the aid of night, drink, and the complicity of servant and nurse to satisfy our mutual passion.  It is not shameless to speak to a mother about her daughter's earnestly desired marriage and to demand what you have granted and to ask that the wishes of our two households and of the entire kingdom not be delayed until some occasion that will not lie within your grasp." 

– from Ninus, an anonymous romance fragment written in Greek between the 1st century BC and the 1st century AD, translated into English by Gerald N. Sandy (1989)

The Ground Layer (Sombre) - III

Franz Sedlacek
Storm
1932
oil on panel
Belvedere Museum, Vienna

Anonymous French Artist
Erythraean Sibyl
ca. 1630-40
oil on canvas
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Caen

Garofalo (Benvenuto Tisi)
St James the Greater
ca. 1510-20
oil on canvas
Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence

Giovanni Andrea de Ferrari
Drunkenness of Noah
ca. 1630
oil on canvas
Galleria Nazionale di Parma

attributed to Francesco Crescenzi
Judgment of Paris
ca. 1615-20
oil on panel
Galleria Borghese, Rome

Edgar Klier
Miners
1960
oil on canvas
Galerie Neue Meister (Albertinum), Dresden

Lizzy Ansingh
The Seven Deadly Sins
1914
oil on canvas
Dordrechts Museum

Gustave Courbet
Académie
ca. 1842
oil on canvas
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Reims

William Merritt Chase
Portrait of Mrs Chase
ca. 1890-95
oil on canvas
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh

Aert de Gelder
Tobias welcomed by his mother Hannah
ca. 1690-1700
oil on canvas
Museum Catharijneconvent, Utrecht

Willem van Mieris
Odysseus threatening Circe
1690
oil on panel
Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha

Jacopo Zucchi
Crucifixion
1583
oil on copper
Yale University Art Gallery

Marcello Venusti after Scipione Pulzone
Madonna
ca. 1575
oil on canvas
Galleria Borghese, Rome

Daniel Seghers
Cartouche Portrait of Nicolas Poussin
within Garland of Flowers
ca. 1650-51
oil on canvas
National Museum, Warsaw

Nicolas de Largillière
Portrait of Madame Léon de la Mejenelle
1711
oil on canvas
Princeton University Art Museum

Raffaellino del Garbo
Portrait of a Young Man
ca. 1490-1500
oil on panel
Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

"I beg you to forgive me; I have not made up my mind to bring an accusation, but I cannot remain silent, not only because adultery is an insufferable crime but also because in addition to the usual outrageous behavior involved in it, there is a special feature in this case: the man involved is a slave – he is spiritually base, even if my wife thinks him handsome.  Furthermore, he is not even someone else's slave; he is my own.  He should have been her slave too – not her master!  The act of adultery is made extreme and more disgraceful by the twin facts that the adulterous woman's good reputation is united with her paramour's bad one."

                                                        *                   *                *

"Well, to sum things up, I have this to say.  They are an attractive pair.  But who would rank a slave above a husband?  He is in the bloom of youth, King, and I too think him handsome; and often did I foolishly commend him to her as attractive in appearance, with his languishing eyes.  I often commended his white fingers and his tawny locks.  By saying these things, then, I taught her to love.  You, King, know that this is the truth; for his beauty did not desert him even when he was in fear; his cheeks shone brightly with his panic; his looks did not lose their bloom even when he was in pain.  He stood in bonds before you, but even his hands were becoming to him.  The curses that are showered on your head and the risk of destruction that you run adorn you, you handsome rogue.  I hesitate, my lord, to say that he is even more handsome today.  Do you not pity me, King?  My adulterous wife is listening as I, the husband, am praising the adulterer.  I am afraid his good looks will help him even today – so much have I been praising him."

– Iamblichus, from A Babylonian Story, written in Greek, 2nd century AD.  This passage is from one of the few short fragments of the original text to have survived from antiquity, translated into English by Gerald N. Sandy (1989).

The Ground Layer (Sombre) - II

Franz von Stuck
The Sin
1912
oil on canvas
Alte Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Giovanni Battista Spinelli
David Triumphant
ca. 1660
oil on canvas
Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest

Anonymous Spanish Artist
Portrait of a Woman
ca. 1650-75
oil on canvas
Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio

Pietro Melchiorre Ferrari
Portrait of Liborio Bertoluzzi
ca. 1785
oil on canvas
Galleria Nazionale di Parma

Jean-Honoré Fragonard
The Laundresses
ca. 1756-61
oil on canvas
Saint Louis Art Museum

Pietro Faccini
Martyrdom of St Catherine of Alexandria
ca. 1595-98
oil on canvas
Staatsgalerie Stuttgart

Giuseppe Puglia
St Stephen
before 1636
oil on canvas
Musée Fesch, Ajaccio, Corsica

follower of Rembrandt
Portrait of a Young Man wearing a Turban
ca. 1650
oil on panel
Art Institute of Chicago

Wilhelm Trübner
Adam and Eve
1873
oil on canvas
Von der Heydt Museum, Wuppertal

Jacob van Ruisdael
The Jewish Cemetery
ca. 1654-55
oil on canvas
Detroit Institute of Arts

Johann Adam Schlesinger
Strawberries
1820
oil on cardboard
Alte Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Robert Mols
Flowers
1879
oil on canvas
Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp

Pietro Paolini (il Lucchese)
Bacchic Concert
1625
oil on canvas
Dallas Museum of Art

Octave Morillot
Leda and the Swan
1925
oil on canvas
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Chartres

Julia Margaret Cameron
Gretchen (Goethe's Faust)
ca. 1870
albumen silver print
Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Arnold Johansen
Gunvald
1992
etching
Stortingets Kunstsamling, Oslo

On the Procession of the Babylonian King

The chariot on which the king is conveyed is made completely of ivory and is very much like the Greek four-wheeled chariot.  The reins of the horses are purple strips.  The king stands on it wearing a special outfit that he does not wear for hunting, for sitting in judgment, or for performing sacrifices, but only for ceremonial occasions.  There is a gilded purple robe made of equal parts of gold and purple.  He carries an ivory scepter on the top of which he rests his right hand.  Sceptered knights, satraps, cavalry commanders, and the tribunes who have the right to do so head the procession.  The infantry have silver shields, and some have silver or gold breastplates; they have their hands adorned with bracelets and their necks with necklaces.  They do not have helmets on their heads, but representations of battlements and towers crown and protect their heads.  These are made of silver and gold.  Some of the dignitaries have representations set with precious stones, and a few of them wear gold crowns that have been presented to them by the king.  Some ride on Nisaean horses, some of which are decked out in military fashion with frontlets, chestplates, and flank armor, others being trained for ceremony, all with gold-studded bridles as though they belonged to wealthy women.  Belts, straps, and other equestrian gear – there is not any of this that is not of beaten gold or flaked with gold. 

Tied and bound with variegated purple bands, the tails of the horses are braided like women's locks; their manes are raised in crests along both sides of their necks; some of the horses have soft manes, some upright, some crinkled, some natural, some constrained through art.

They mold their gate, their way of looking, their nods, their spirits, and the neighing and whinnying of some of them.  The ceremonial horse is taught everything.  It stretches out its legs of its own accord on the ground and lies down to receive its luxuriously and brilliantly dressed rider.  A horse trained to be more haughty does not drop to its stomach but instead falls to its knees so as to appear to make obeisance while receiving its rider.  Then it makes its back supple and maneuverable in movement, like a serpent; it learns to conduct itself rhythmically and to hold itself, and at a nod to breathe through its nostrils, direct its glance, hold its head high, and posture and prance, in every respect like an athlete showing off in the amphitheater.  As a result of this the horse seems more handsome, and the rider more impressive.

– Iamblichus, from A Babylonian Story, written in Greek, 2nd century AD.  This passage is one of the few short fragments of the original text to have survived from antiquity, translated into English by Gerald N. Sandy (1989).