Imitation Sunlight - I

Frédéric Bazille
Les Lauriers Roses
1867
oil on canvas
Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio

Baldovino Bertè
Borgo della Morte,  Parma
1872
oil on panel
Galleria Nazionale di Parma

Gustave Caillebotte
Path in the Garden
1886
oil on canvas
Dallas Museum of Art

Adolf Dietrich
Garden in Summer
1925
tempera on paper
Kunsthalle Mannheim

Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg
Sailor parting from his Beloved
1840
oil on canvas
Ribe Kunstmuseum, Denmark

Anselm Feuerbach
Rocky Landscape
1855
oil on canvas
Alte Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Erik Hoppe
Wilders Plads, Copenhagen
ca. 1937
oil on canvas
Göteborgs Konstmuseum, Sweden

Ekke Abel Kleima
Dune Landscape on Texel
1939
oil on canvas
Groninger Museum, Netherlands

Henri Loubat
La famille Loubat à Saint-Jean-de-Luz
ca. 1904
oil on board
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Gaillac

Albert Marquet
In the Luxembourg Gardens, Paris
1902
oil on canvas
Von der Heydt Museum, Wuppertal

Firmin Salabert
Conversation dans une Allée près du Lac
ca. 1860
oil on canvas
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Gaillac

P.C. Skovgaard
View of the Sea from Møns Klint
1850
oil on canvas
Skovgaard Museet, Viborg, Denmark

Vincent van Gogh
Lane near Arles
1888
oil on canvas
Pomeranian State Museum, Greifswald

Carl Moll
Prater Scene
ca. 1925
oil on canvas
Leopold Museum, Vienna

Claude Monet
Double Herbaceous Borders under Trees at Giverny
1902
oil on canvas
Belvedere Museum, Vienna

Antoine-Pierre Mongin
Corner of a Park
ca. 1795
oil on paper, mounted on canvas
Morgan Library, New York

Clytemnestra: Today the Achaeans are in possession of Troy.  I imagine that the city is marked by shouts and cries that do not blend well.  If you pour vinegar and olive oil into the same vessel, they'll keep apart and you'll call them very unfriendly; so too one can hear separately the voices of the conquered and the conquerors – can hear their distinct fortunes.  On one side, they have prostrated themselves to embrace the bodies of husbands and brothers, and children those of their aged progenitors, and from throats that are no longer free they cry out their laments for the death of their dearest.  On the other, weary nocturnal patrolling after the battle has led to their mustering, famished, at breakfasts consisting of what the city has available, with no criteria for taking turns, but just as each individual draws fortune's lot.  They are now living in captured Trojan dwellings, freed at last from the frosts and dews of the open air, and they will sleep the whole night without needing guards, like happy men.  If they act reverently towards the protecting gods of the city and land they have captured, there is no risk, you may be sure, that after capturing it they may become victims in their turn.  Only let no desire first fall on the army to plunder what they should not, overcome by the prospect of gain; for they have still to return safely home, turning the bend and coming back for the second leg of the double run.  If the army should return without having offended the gods, the pain of the dead would be appeasable, if no unexpected stroke of evil fate occurs.  This, I tell you, is what you have heard from me, a woman; but may the good prevail, unequivocally, for all to see!  I choose to enjoy that, in preference to many other blessings.

– Aeschylus, from Agamemnon (458 BC), translated by Alan H. Sommerstein (2008)

The Ground Layer (Bright) - III

Paul Sérusier
Breton Woman on the Seashore
1895
gouache on paper
National Museum, Warsaw

Tuomas von Boehm
Still Life
ca. 1960-65
oil on panel
Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Canaletto
The Molo and Palazzo Ducale, Venice
ca. 1735
oil on canvas
Huntington Library and Art Museum, San Marino, California

Marie Laurencin
Portrait of a Girl
ca. 1920
oil on canvas
Göteborgs Konstmuseum, Sweden

Stuart Davis
Egg Beater no. 2
1928
oil on canvas
Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas

Emil Kraus
Still Life with Jugs and Lemons
ca. 1925
oil on canvas
Belvedere Museum, Vienna

Maurice Denis
Les Captifs
1907
oil on canvas
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Reims

Sam Francis
Green and Red
1966
lithograph
Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas

Hanne Borchgrevink
Variations (part 1)
2000
acrylic on canvas
KORO (Public Art Norway), Oslo

Jan Beutener
Hot Day
2007
oil on canvas
Dordrechts Museum

Morton Schamberg
Figure
1913
oil on canvas
Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas

Théo van Rysselberghe
Orchard in July
1890
oil on canvas
Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands

Berthe Morisot
Interior on Jersey
1886
oil on canvas
Musée d'Ixelles, Brussels

Paul Signac
Les deux Cyprès, Opus 241 (Mistral)
1893
oil on canvas
Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands

Andrei Mylnikov
Nude in Gurzuf, Crimea
1956
oil on canvas
Galerie Neue Meister (Albertinum), Dresden

Marie Dujardin-Beaumetz
Les Repasseuses
ca. 1885
oil on canvas
Musée Petiet de Limoux

Chorus:  And what messenger could come here with such speed?

Clytemnestra:  Hephaestus, sending a bright blaze on its way from Mount Ida; and then from that courier-fire beacon sent on beacon all the way here.  Ida sent it to Hermes' crag on Lemnos, and from the island the great flambeau was received, thirdly, by the steep height of Zeus at Athos.  Then the mighty traveling torch shot up aloft to arch over the sea, to the delight of the god, bringing its message-flame close to the sky, and landed on Peparethos, where again much pinewood was burned, which, like another sun, conveyed the message in light of golden brilliance to the watch-heights of Macistus.  Nor did Macistus neglect its part in transmitting the message, either by dilatoriness or through being heedlessly vanquished by sleep: far over the the waters of the Euripus the beacon-light announced its coming to the watchmen of Messapium.  They lit up in response and passed the message further on, kindling with fire a heap of old heather; and the torch, powerful and still not weakened, leaped over the plain of the Asopus like the shining moon, came to the crags of Cithaeron, and there set in motion its successor stage of the messenger-fire.  The watch did not refuse the bidding of the light sent from afar, but kindled more than they had been ordered; and the light swooped over Gorgopis bay and came to the mountain where goats roam, where it stimulated the men not to be slow in fulfilling the ordinance about the fire.  They kindled and sent on, in abundant strength, a great beard of flame, so that it would go on its blazing way right beyond the headland that looks over the Saronic narrows; then it swooped down and arrived at the steep heights of Arachnaeum, the watch-point nearest our city.  And then it fell upon this house of the Atreidae, this light directly descended from the fire kindled on Ida.  Such, I tell you, were my dispositions for this torch-relay, one after another of them fulfilled in succession: the first and the last runner were alike victorious!*  Such, I tell you, is the evidence and the token that my husband has transmitted to me from Troy. 

– Aeschylus, from Agamemnon (458 BC), translated by Alan H. Sommerstein (2008)

*This was trivially true in ordinary torch-races, where every member of the winning team had contributed to the victory and would share in its glory.  Here, however, there has been no competition and some spectators (though not the chorus) may detect a sinister secondary meaning.  The fire-message was first started on its journey by Agamemnon, and the last to receive it was Clytemnestra: the message announced Agamemnon's victory over Troy – and for Clytemnestra it was the signal to prepare for the victory we know she will gain over Agamemnon. 

The Ground Layer (Bright) - II

Giovanni Segantini
High Noon in the Alps
1892
oil on canvas
Ohara Museum of Art, Kurashiki, Japan

Peder Severin Krøyer
Self Portrait
1897
oil on canvas
Hirschsprung Collection, Copenhagen

Achille Laugé
Flowers and Fruit
1910
oil on canvas
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Carcassonne

Willem de Kooning
Figure in Marsh Landscape
1966
oil on canvas
Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Ernst Deger
Portrait of a Young Woman
1835
oil on canvas
Städel Museum, Frankfurt

James Ensor
The Savoy Cabbage
1894
oil on canvas
Museum Folkwang, Essen

Alexei von Jawlensky
Face of the Savior: Death
ca. 1919
oil on cardboard
Pomeranian State Museum, Greifswald

Urban Görtschacher
The Susanna Legend
ca. 1520
oil on panel
Belvedere Museum, Vienna

Daniel Gran
Allegory of Dawn
1723
oil on canvas
(modello for cupola fresco destroyed in 1945)
Belvedere Museum, Vienna

Harald Dal
Self Portrait
1951
gouache on cardboard
Stavanger Kunstmuseum, Norway

attributed to Gustave Courbet
Waterfall
ca. 1870
oil on canvas
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Reims

Albert André
Plane Trees, Place de Loudun
1935
oil on canvas
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Pau

Johanne Hansen-Krone
Couple and Hearts
1984
acrylic on canvas
KORO (Public Art Norway), Oslo

Eugène Jansson
Weightlifter
1911
oil on canvas
Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde, Stockholm

Robert Delaunay
The Window
1912
oil on canvas
Musée de Grenoble

René-Xavier Prinet
On the Channel, Normandy
ca. 1920
oil on canvas
Musée de la Chartreuse, Douai

Watchman:  I beg the gods to give me release from this misery – from my long year of watch-keeping, during which I've spent my nights on the Atreidae's roof, resting on my elbows like a dog, and come to know thoroughly the throng of stars of the night, and also those bright potentates, conspicuous in the sky, which bring winter and summer to mortals, observing them as some set and others rise.  And now I'm looking out for the agreed beacon-signal, the gleam of fire bringing from Troy the word and news of its capture; for such is the ruling of a woman's hopeful heart, which plans like a man.  But while I keep this night-walker's bed, wet with dew, this bed of mine not watched over by dreams – for it is Fear instead of Sleep that stands beside me, preventing me from closing my eyes firmly in sleep – but when I decide to sing or hum, applying this remedy to charm away sleep, then I weep, grieving over the fortunes of this house, which is not now admirably managed as it used to be.  But now may there be a happy release from misery, by the appearance in the darkness of the fire that brings good news. 

He suddenly leaps up in joy.

O welcome beacon, bringing to us by night a message of light bright as day, a message that will be the cause of many choral dances in Argos in response to this good fortune!  Ahoy, ahoy!  I proclaim plainly to the wife of Agamemnon that she should raise herself from her bed, as quickly as may be, and on behalf of the house raise a shrill, auspicious cy of triumph over this beacon, if indeed the city of Priam has been taken as the fire-signal vividly declares.  And I will dance a prelude myself (skipping about in delight): I shall take advantage of the dice that have fallen well for my masters – this beacon-watch has thrown me a triple six!  Well, anyway, may it come to pass that the master of the house comes home and that I clasp his well-loved hand in this hand of mine.  About other matters I say nothing; a great ox has stepped upon my tongue.  The house itself, were it to find voice, might speak very plainly: as far as I am concerned, I am deliberately speaking to those who know – and for those who do not, I am deliberately forgetting.*

– Aeschylus, from Agamemnon (458 BC), translated by Alan H. Sommerstein (2008)

*The Watchman is in effect saying (to imaginary listeners) "Do you know what I was talking about? If you do, I needn't tell you. If you don't, I can't tell you, because I've deliberately forgotten it myself!" The theatre audience, knowing the story well, will understand that he is alluding to the adultery of Clytemnestra and Aegisthus.

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)