Eidola

Karl Albiker
Fleeing (Daphne)
1909
bronze
Kunsthalle Mannheim

Franz Kobell
Apollo pursuing Daphne through a Forest
before 1822
drawing
Städel Museum, Frankfurt

Cavaliere d'Arpino (Giuseppe Cesari)
Narcissus turning into a Flower
ca. 1595-1600
drawing
Städel Museum, Frankfurt

Hans von Marées
Two Studies for Narcissus
1885
drawing
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Otto Scholderer
Narcissus
1889
drawing
Städel Museum, Frankfurt

Johann Caspar Schwab after Johann Spillenberger
Narcissus
ca. 1810
etching
Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig

Salomon Gessner
Abduction of Ganymede
ca. 1802-1803
etching
(posthumous printing)
Graphische Sammlung, Zentralbibliothek Zürich

Johann Georg Mansfeld
Abduction of Ganymede
ca. 1795-1805
gouache on paper
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Hans von Marées
Abduction of Ganymede
before 1887
drawing
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Salomon Gessner
Hylas and the Nymphs
ca. 1802-1803
etching
(posthumous printing)
Graphische Sammlung, Zentralbibliothek Zürich

Nicolas Colombel
Atalanta and Hippomenes
ca. 1680
oil on canvas
Liechtenstein Museum, Vienna

René-Antoine Houasse
Diana and Endymion
ca. 1680
oil on canvas
Musée d'Art et d'Histoire de Narbonne

Marcantonio Franceschini
Metamorphosis of the dead Adonis
ca. 1692-98
oil on canvas
Liechtenstein Museum, Vienna

workshop of Luca Giordano
Venus and Adonis
ca. 1675
drawing
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Benjamin West
Adonis departing for the Hunt
1800
oil on canvas
Dayton Art Institute, Ohio

Joachim Wtewael
Venus and Adonis
ca. 1607-1610
oil on panel
Liechtenstein Museum, Vienna

Eidolon  

Down in fame's flood, down an alley, down
wind of now, elegant in self-denial,
an Iron Range wraith junking cue cards, an ideal,
an idol before which the Zeitgeist kneeled. 

Dylan, named for a poet named from an old
tale of the child who crawled to the sea, this land
is yours: the black plain the needle
ploughs from lip to label; be all, end all.

– Roddy Lumsden (2010)

Signals - I

Matthias Gerung
Monument to Melancholy in the Garden of Love
1558
tempera and oil on panel
Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe

Paul Gervais
The Folly of Titania
1897
oil on canvas
Musée des Augustins de Toulouse

Salomon Gessner
Buying a Cupid
ca. 1802-1803
etching
(posthumously printed)
Graphische Sammlung, Zentralbibliothek Zürich

Angelica Kauffmann
Cupid and Youth lighting Torches
ca. 1770
drawing
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Valenciennes

Wilhelm Böttner
Young Woman hiding her Love
1788
oil on canvas
Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel

Marco Dente after Giulio Romano
Venus and Adonis
ca. 1516
engraving
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Giulio Romano
Venus and Adonis
1516
drawing
(study for fresco)
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Domenico del Frate
Neoclassical Statue Group - Venus and Adonis
before 1821
drawing
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Giovanni Maria Benzoni
Cupid and Psyche
after 1845
marble
Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris

Johann Helferich Cramer
Sculpture of Cupid and Psyche as Children
ca. 1750
oil on canvas
(grisaille, made in Rome)
Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel

Theodor Friedl
Cupid and Psyche
ca. 1890
marble
Belvedere Museum, Vienna

Gaspare Diziani
Cupid and Psyche
before 1767
drawing
Städel Museum, Frankfurt

Josef Abel
Cupid aiming Arrow
ca. 1810
drawing
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Jean Duvet
Allegory on the Power of Love
1528
engraving
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Jan Gossaert
Portrait of a Man with a Love Motto
ca. 1530
oil on panel
Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel

Hans Schäufelein
The Triple Heart
1517
woodcut
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

On a Statue of Heracles – Heracles, where is thy great club, where thy Nemean cloak and thy quiver full of arrows, where is thy stern glower?  Why did Lysippus mould thee thus with dejected visage and alloy the bronze with pain?  Thou art in distress, stripped of thy arms.  Who was it that laid thee low?  Winged Love, of a truth one of thy heavy labours. 

On a Statue of Theseus and the Bull of Marathon – Marvelous is the art of the bull and man; he, the man, his limbs all tense, forces down by his might the savage beast.  To bend back the sinews of its neck he grasps with his left hand its nostrils, with his right its horn and shakes up the neck-bones.  The beast, its neck subdued by his strong hands, sinks down on its hindquarters.  One may fancy that in this bronze Art makes the beast breathe and bathes the man in sweat. 

On a Statue of Capaneus – Had Capaneus been like this when he furiously attacked the towers of Thebes, contriving to mount through the air on a ladder, he would have taken the city by force in Fate's despite; for even the bolt of Zeus would have deemed it shame to slay such a champion. 

On a Picture of Telephus Wounded – This, the irresistible chieftain of Teuthrania; this Telephus who once bathed in blood the terrible host of the Greeks when he filled Mysian Caycus to overflowing with slaughter; this, the champion who faced the spear of Peleus, now bearing hidden deep in his thigh a heavy and deadly wound, wastes away as if his life were leaving him, dragging himself along with his living flesh.  Even though he be sore hurt the Greeks tremble at him, and depart in disorder from the Teuthranian shore. 

On Hippolytus conversing with Phaedra's Nurse – Hippolytus speaks into the old wife's ear pitiless words, but we cannot hear them.  But as far as we can understand from the fury in his eyes, he enjoins her not to say again unlawful words. 

 

On a Bronze Statue of Icarus which stood in a Bath – Icarus, wax caused thy death, and now by wax the worker in bronze has restored thee to thy shape.  But beat not thy wings in the air, lest thou fall from the sky and give thy name to the bath.*

– from Book XVI (Epigrams of the Planudean Anthology) in the Greek Anthology, translated and edited by W.R. Paton (1918)

*as he gave his name to the Icarian Sea

Ardor

Rinaldo Mantovano
Chastisement of Love
ca. 1530
oil on canvas
Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence

Paris Bordone
Amorous Mythological Couple
ca. 1560-70
oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre

Paris Bordone
The Lovers
before 1571
oil on canvas
Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan

Astolfo Petrazzi
Amore Vincitore
ca. 1625-30
oil on canvas
Palazzo Barberini, Rome

Giovanni da San Giovanni (Giovanni Mannozzi)
Amor overcoming Pan
ca. 1634-35
fresco on terracotta
Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence

Eustache Le Sueur
L’Amour entouré de la Jeunesse et de la Beauté
ordonne à Mercure d’annoncer son pouvoir à l’univers
ca. 1645
oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre

Bernardino Mei
Wounded Love healed by Time and by Waters of the River Lethe
1653
oil on canvas
Collezioni della Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena

François Le Moyne
The Amorous Proposal
ca. 1725
oil on canvas
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts

Pierre Subleyras
La Courtisane amoureuse
(illustration to La Fontaine)
ca. 1735
oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre

Jean-Joseph Vinache
Hercules vanquished by Love
1741
marble (reception piece)
Musée du Louvre

Augustin Pajou
Anacréon arrachant une plume des ailes de l'Amour
ca. 1750
terracotta
Musée du Louvre

Louis-Claude Vassé
L'Amour assis au bord de la mer
rassemblant les colombes du char de Vénus
1755
marble
Musée du Louvre

Étienne-Maurice Falconet
L'Amour menaçant
1757
marble
(commissioned by Madame de Pompadour)
Musée du Louvre

Auguste-Xavier Leprince
The Lovers
ca. 1820
drawing
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts

Kenyon Cox
Approach of Love
ca. 1890-93
oil on canvas
Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio

Pablo Picasso
The Lovers
1923
oil on canvas
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Jess (Jess Collins)
Love's Captives
1954
printed paper collage
Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York

from The Day of Judgment

When the fierce North-wind with his airy forces

Rears up the Baltic to a foaming fury,

And the red lightning with a storm of hail comes

                                                Rushing amain down,

How the poor sailors stand amazed and tremble,

While the hoarse thunder, like a bloody trumpet,

Roars a loud onset to the gaping waters,

                                                Quick to devour them.

Such shall the noise be, and the wild disorder

(If things eternal may be like these earthly),

Such the dire terror when the great Archangel

                                                Shakes the creation;

Tears the strong pillars of the vault of Heaven,

Breaks up old marble, the repose of princes;

See the graves open, and the bones arising,

                                                Flames all around them.

– Isaac Watts (1709)

Amorous

Anonymous French Photographer
Amorous Man
ca. 1925
hand-colored gelatin silver print
Archives of American Art, Washington DC

Anonymous French Photographer
Amorous Woman
ca. 1925
hand-colored gelatin silver print
Archives of American Art, Washington DC

Anonymous German Photographer
Amorous Couple
ca. 1930
hand-colored photoprint (postcard)
Archives of American Art, Washington DC

Anonymous Italian Printmaker
Gli Amori di Greta Garbo
1930
lithograph (poster advertising book)
Archives of American Art, Washington DC

Christopher Wood
Lovers
before 1930
drawing
British Museum

George Hurrell
Joan Crawford and Clark Gable
1936
gelatin silver print
National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC

Clarence Sinclair Bull
Jean Harlow and Clark Gable
1937
gelatin silver print
National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC

Luigi Martinati
Hedy Lamarr and Paul Henreid - I Cospiratori
ca. 1940
lithograph (poster)
National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC

Douglas Gorsline
Invitation to Lindy Hop
1941
engraving
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Anonymous Printmaker
Sailor Beware!  Loose Talk Can Cost Lives
1942
lithograph (poster)
National Museum of American History,
Washington DC

Thomas Hart Benton
Poker Night
(scene from A Streetcar Named Desire on Broadway)
1948
tempera and oil on linen, mounted on panel
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Douglas Kirkland
Marilyn Monroe
1961
pigment print
National Museum of American History, Washington DC

Dennis Wheeler
Sex Explosion
1969
dye transfer print
(commissioned by Time magazine)
National Portrait Gallery, Washington D

Gustave Klumpp
Wedding Dream in Nudist Colony
1971
oil on canvas
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Braldt Bralds
Charles and Diana
1981
oil on canvas
(commissioned by Time magazine)
National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC

Duane Michals
The Bewitched Bee
1986
gelatin silver print
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh

Neteheard

Eunica skorned me, when her I would have sweetly kist,

And railing at me said, goe with a mischiefe where thou list.

Thinkst thou a wretched Neteheard mee to kisse? I have no will

After the Countrie Guise to smouch, of Cittie lips I skill.

My lovely mouth, so much as in thy dreame thou shalt not touch,

How dost thou look? How does thou talke? How plaiest thou the slouch?

How daintilie thou speakst? What courting words thou bringest out?

Howe soft a beard thou hast? how faire thy locks hang round about?

Thy lips are like a sickmans lips, thy hands, so black they be,

And rankely thou dost smel, awaie, least thou defilest me. 

    Having thus said, shee spatterd on her bosome twise or thrise,

And still beholding me from top to toe, in skorneful wise,

She mutterd with her lips, and with her eies she lookte aside,

And of her beutie wondrous coy she was, her mouth she wride,

And proudly mockt me to my face. My blud boild in each vaine,

And red I woxe for griefe, as doth the rose with dewye raine.

Thus leaving me, awaie she flung; since when, it vexeth me,

That I should be so skorncde, of such a filthie drab as she. 

    Ye Shepeheards, tel me true, am not I fair as any swan?

Hath of a sodaine anie God, made me another man?

For well I wote before, a cumlie grace in me did shine,

Like Ivy round about a tree, and dekt this bearde of mine.

My crisped lockes, like Parslie on my temples wont to spred,

And on my eiebrows black, a milke white forhed glistered.

More seemelie were mine eies, than are Minerva's eies I know,

My mouth for sweetnes passed cheese, and from my mouth did flow

A voice more sweete than hunniecombes. Sweet is my rundelaie,

When on the whistle, flute, or pipe, or cornet I do plaie.

And all the weemen on our hills doe saie that I am faire,

And all do love me well. But these that breath the citty aire

Did never love me yet. And why? The cause is this I know,

That I a Neteheard am. They heare not, how in vales below

Faire Bacchus kept a heard of beastes; nor can these nice ones tell,

How Venus raving for a Neteheards love, with him did dwell

Upon the hills of Phrygia, and how she lovde againe

Adonis in the woods, and mournde in woods, when hee was slaine.

What was Endymion? Was he not a Netehearde? Yet the Moone

Did love this Neteheard so, that from the heavens descending soone,

She came to Latmos grove, where with the daintie lad she laie.

And Rhea, thou a Neteheard dost bewaile, and thou al daie

O mighty Jupiter, but for a shepeheardes boie didst straie.

Eunica only dained not, a Neteheard for to love,

Better forsooth then Cybel, Venus, or the moone above.

And Venus, thou hereafter must not love thy fair Adone

In cittie, nor on hill, but al the night must sleepe alone.

– Theocritus (early 3rd century BC), translated by Anonymous (1588)