Epic

Félix Vallotton
Bust of Homer
before 1925
woodcut
Cabinet d'Arts Graphiques
des Musées d'Art et d'Histoire, Genève

Jean Lecomte du Nouÿ
Homer the Blind Wanderer
(left panel, Odyssey - right panel, Iliad)
1881
oil on canvas
(exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1882) 
Musée de Grenoble

James Pradier
Blind Homer with his Guide
1852
plaster
Musées d'Art et d'Histoire, Genève

Andrea del Sarto
Head of Homer and Study of Youth
ca. 1520-21
drawing
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Anonymous Italian Artist
Alexander the Great
preserving the writings of Homer
16th century
drawing
(after exterior fresco by Polidoro da Caravaggio)
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Georg Pencz
Paris with his first wife, the nymph Oenone
ca. 1539
engraving
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

Josef Kässmann
Paris with the Golden Apple
1824
drawing
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Pierre Courteys
Abduction of Helen
before 1586
enamel on copper
Liechtenstein Museum, Vienna

Lucas van Leyden
Hector of Troy, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar
ca. 1515-25
woodcut
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Bartolomeo Cavaceppi
Head of Odysseus
ca. 1775
marble
(fragmentary antique head rebuilt by Cavaceppi)
Musée d'Art Classique de Mougins

Ludwig von Schwanthaler
Leukothea rescuing Odysseus from the Storm
1839
etching
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

Gerard Hoet
Shipwrecked Odysseus encountering Nausicaä
ca. 1690
oil on panel
Kunstmuseum Basel

Michael Wolgemut and Wilhelm Pleydenwurff
The Witch Circe with Odysseus and his Shipmates
1493
hand-colored woodcut
(illustration from the Nuremberg Chronicle)
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel

Luca Penni
Return of Odysseus
ca. 1545-55
drawing
Städel Museum, Frankfurt

Johann August Nahl the Younger
Telemachus recognizing his father Odysseus
ca. 1810
oil on canvas
Schlossmuseum Weimar

Angelica Kauffmann
Telemachus and his Mentor on the Island of Calypso
(scene from Les Aventures de Télémaque by François Fénelon)
before 1784
oil on canvas
Liechtenstein Museum, Vienna

Narrative art is bound to lead to space and the exploration of visual effects, and the reading of these effects in their turn demands a different kind of "mental set" from the magic rune with its enduring potency.  But Plato was right when he felt that something had been sacrificed to this change: the timeless function of the potent image, the Pharaoh forever dominating his foes, had to be discarded in favor of an imaginary fleeting moment of time that might easily tempt an artist into triviality.  To us, the element of sacrifice that is involved in all naturalistic art has become somewhat obscured by the accident that the word "Geek art" conjures up for most of us a picture of sculpture rather than painting.  Yet it is in painting that the reduction to one moment of time and one angle of view will involve the more obvious loss.  We remember that this was one of the shortcomings that Plato held against the painter, who could not represent the couch as it is but only as it appears from one side.  If the painting is to make us into spectators of an imaginary scene, it has to sacrifice that diagrammatic completeness that was demanded by the earlier functions of art.  Pliny has preserved for us the remark of a Hellenistic critic who praised the skill of the famous painter Parrhasios in creating the illusion of roundness by the outlines of his figures.  This, we read, is the most subtle part of painting, "for the outline must go round and so end, that it promises something else to lie behind and thereby shows even what it obscures."  It is a passage which has aroused much puzzled comment.  But I believe that when we compare any conceptual figure of pre-Greek or early Greek art with the miracles of freely moving figures as we know them from classical wall paintings, we may gather wherein the triumph of Parrhasios lay.  His figures suggest what they can no longer show.  We feel the presence even of the features we do not see, and so he can show us a dancing maiden turning into the picture, an image that would have appeared senseless to any pre-Greek artist.  Imagine Pygmalion creating a figure with only one arm, or a head without eyes.  The figure in space can be conceived only when we have learned to see it as a sign referring to an outer, imagined reality.  We are expected to know that the arm must be there but that the artist could not see it from where he stood, and neither can we.  

– E.H. Gombrich, Art and Illusion: a Study in the Psychology of Pictorial Representation (Princeton University Press, 1960).

Epic

Anonymous Swiss Artist after Jacques-Louis David
Paris and Helen
ca. 1820
enamel on gold
(top of snuffbox)
Musées d'Art et d'Histoire, Genève

Johann Balthazar Probst after Victor Honoré Janssens
Wrath of Achilles
1721
etching
Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig

Ludwig von Schwanthaler
Hector and Andromache
1838
drawing
(sculpture group by von Schwanthaler)
Städel Museum, Frankfurt

Virgil Solis
Battle between Greeks and Trojans
ca. 1550-60
woodcut
(illustration to Ovid's Metamorphoses)
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel

Johann Balthazar Probst after Victor Honoré Janssens
Achilles mourning Patroclus
1721
etching
Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig

Pierre Courteys
Battle before the Walls of Troy
before 1586
enamel on copper
Liechtenstein Museum, Vienna

Johann Balthazar Probst after Victor Honoré Janssens
Achilles dragging the Corpse of Hector
1721
etching
Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig

Eberhard Siegfried Henne
Priam supplicating Achilles
ca. 1800
etching
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel

Anonymous German Artist
The Trojan Horse
ca. 1464
drawing, with added watercolor
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Pierre Courteys
The Trojan Horse
before 1586
enamel on copper
Liechtenstein Museum, Vienna

Virgil Solis
Ajax disputing with Odysseus over the Armour of Achilles
ca. 1550-60
woodcut
(illustration to Ovid's Metamorphoses)
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel

Max Klinger
Cassandra
ca. 1903
marble (partly painted)
Hamburger Kunsthalle

Ancient Greek Culture in South Italy
Cassandra seated on Altar
350 BC
terracotta statuette
Musées d'Art et d'Histoire, Genève

Johann Heinrich Lips after Johann Heinrich Meyer
Ajax seizing Cassandra at the Altar of Athena
1794
aquatint
Graphische Sammlung, Zentralbibliothek Zürich

Samuel Bottschild
Aeneas carrying Anchises out of Burning Troy
ca. 1690
etching
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel

Gérard de Lairesse
Venus presenting the Armour of Vulcan to Aeneas
1668
oil on canvas
Museum Mayer van der Bergh, Antwerp

For as soon as the Greeks looked at the Egyptian figure type from the aspect of an art which wants to "convince," it undoubtedly raised the question why it looks unconvincing.  It is the reaction we express when we speak of its "rigid posture."  It might be argued that this reaction itself is due to our Greek education; it was the Greeks who taught us to ask "How does the statue stand?" or even "Why does he stand like that?"  Applied to a pre-Greek work of art, it may be senseless to ask this question.  The Egyptian statue does not represent a man standing rigidly or a man standing at ease – it is concerned with the what, not with the how.  To ask for more might have struck an Egyptian artist as it would strike us if someone inquired the age or mood of the king on the chessboard.  

We have no early documents to prove that the Greeks did begin to ask such "inappropriate" questions, but later texts illustrate the fact that from a new point of view, Egyptian art provoked such misunderstanding.  We have seen, after all, that Plato considered that Egyptian reliefs represented certain sanctified postures.  We also know that Heliodorus puzzled his mind over why the Egyptians rendered their gods with closed feet and that he suggested this was intended to symbolize their swiftness.  But the most telling document of this change of attitude toward the symbolic image concerns not an Egyptian but an archaic Greek work and the way it was reinterpreted in a narrative context in a later period.  We know from Philostratus' life of Apollonius that there was an archaic statue of one Milo in Olympia, standing on a disk with his two feet close together; in his left hand he grasped a pomegranate; the fingers of his right hand were extended and held tightly together.  "The people of Olympia thought that these features showed Milo to have been so inflexible and firm that he could never be induced to budge from the spot where he stood; and this is the meaning of the clenched fingers . . . and why they look as if they could not be separated."  Apollonius knew better.  He told his guides that these puzzling traits were due to the archaic style of the sculpture.  

– E.H. Gombrich, Art and Illusion: a Study in the Psychology of Pictorial Representation (Princeton University Press, 1960)

Clan

Antonio Viviani (il Sordo)
Abraham and the Three Angels
ca. 1612
fresco
Palazzo Barberini, Rome

Giandomenico Tiepolo
Abraham and the Three Angels
1773
oil on canvas
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

Jacopo Vitali
Abraham and the Three Angels
1624
oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre

Brunswick Monogrammist
Abraham conducting Isaac to Sacrifice
ca. 1550
oil on panel
Musée du Louvre

Alessandro Allori
Sacrifice of Isaac
1583
oil on canvas (altarpiece)
Chiesa di San Niccolò Oltrarno, Florence

Johann Liss
Sacrifice of Isaac
ca. 1630
oil on canvas
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

Francesco Monti (il Bolognese)
Study for Sacrifice of Isaac in Pendentive
before 1768
drawing
British Museum

Stefano Pieri
Sacrifice of Isaac
before 1629
oil on canvas
Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence

Jacopo Tintoretto and workshop
Sacrifice of Isaac
ca. 1550-55
oil on canvas
Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence

Frederic Taubes
Jacob wrestling with the Angel
1944
oil on canvas
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri

Paul Gauguin
Vision of the Sermon (Jacob wrestling with the Angel)
1888
oil on canvas
Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh

Biagio d'Antonio
The Story of Joseph
ca. 1482
tempera on panel
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Antoine-Denis Chaudet
Joseph sold by his Brothers
1784
terracotta relief (winner of the Prix de Rome)
Musée du Louvre

Cavaliere d'Arpino (Giuseppe Cesari)
Joseph and Potiphar's Wife
ca. 1600-1605
oil on panel
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts

Cecco Bravo (Francesco Montelatici)
Joseph and Potiphar's Wife
ca. 1655-60
oil on canvas
Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence

Francesco Granacci
Joseph presenting his Father and Brothers to Pharaoh
ca. 1515-17
oil on panel
Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence

Mattia Preti (il Cavalier Calabrese)
Jacob blessing Joseph's Sons
ca. 1660-80
oil on canvas
private collection

Here, which looked north before the Cambrian alignment,

Like the cupped hand of the keen excavator

Busy with bones, the memory uncovers

        The hopes of time;

Of empires stiff in their brocaded glory,

The luscious lateral blossoming of woe

        Scented, profuse;

And of intercalary ages of disorder

When, as they prayed in antres, fell

Upon the noblest in the country night

        Angel assassins.

Small birds above me have the grace of those who founded

The civilisation of the delicate olive,

Learning the laws of love and sailing

        On the calm Aegean;

The hawk is the symbol of the rule by thirst,

The central state controlling the canals;

        And the blank sky

Of the womb's utter peace before

The cell, dividing, multiplied desire,

And raised instead of death the image

        Of the reconciler. 

– W.H. Auden (1933)

Formerly Sacred

Giovanni Battista Langetti
Samson drinking water from supernatural spring issuing from
cloven tooth of ass's jawbone used to slay 1,000 Philistines
1665
oil on canvas
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

Giovanni da San Giovanni (Giovanni Mannozzi)
Samson and Delilah
ca. 1634-35
fresco on terracotta
Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence

Gabriel de Saint-Aubin
Samson pulling down the Pillars of the Temple
1767
drawing
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Rex Whistler
Samson pulling down the Temple of the Philistines
1928
drawing
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Pompeo Batoni
Hagar and the Angel
1776
oil on canvas
Palazzo Barberini, Rome

Francesco Coghetti
Angel appearing to Hagar and Ishmael in the Wilderness
1846
oil on canvas
Accademia Carrara, Bergamo

Anonymous Roman Painter
Angel appearing to Hagar and Ishmael in the Wilderness
17th century
oil on canvas
Musée Fesch, Ajaccio, Corsica

Herman van Swanevelt
Hagar and the Angel
ca. 1635-36
drawing (print study)
British Museum

Odilon Redon
Hagar and Ishmael
1866
drawing
British Museum

Daniele da Volterra (Daniele Ricciarelli)
Elijah in the Desert
ca. 1543
oil on canvas
Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence

Jacob Jacobsz van Geel
Wooded Landscape with Elijah and the Widow of Sarepta
before 1635
oil on canvas
Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Rutilio Manetti
Elijah reviving the Dead Son of the Widow of Sarepta
ca. 1625
oil on canvas
Collezioni della Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena

Pier Francesco Mazzucchelli (il Morazzone)
Dream of Elijah
before 1625
oil on canvas
Museo Diocesano, Milan

Cosimo Ulivelli
Prophet Elijah carried to Heaven
ca. 1685
drawing (fresco study)
British Museum

Anonymous Venetian Artist
Elijah ascending in the Fiery Chariot
ca. 1490-1500
bronze plaquette
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini
Bathsheba
ca. 1708-1711
oil on canvas
National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin

Jacopo Zucchi
Bathsheba Bathing
ca. 1573-74
oil on copper
Palazzo Barberini, Rome

from Address for a Prize-Day

    Imagine to yourselves a picked body of angels, all qualified experts on the human heart, a Divine Commission, arriving suddenly one day at Dover.  After some weeks in London, they separate, one passing the petrol pumps along the Great North Road, leaving the dales on his left hand, to take all rain-wet Scotland for his special province, one to the furnace-crowded Midlands, another to the plum-rich red-earth valley of the Severn, another to the curious delta-like area round King's Lynn, another to Cornwall where granite resists the sea and our type of thinking ends, and so on.  And then when every inch of the ground has been carefully gone over, every house inspected, they return to the Capital again to compare notes, to collaborate on a complete report, which made, they depart as quietly as they came.  Beauty of the scenery apart, would you not feel some anxiety as to the contents of that report?  Do you consider their statistics as to the average number of lost persons to the acre would be a cause for self-congratulation?  Take a look round this hall, for instance.  What do you think?  What do you think about England, this country of ours where nobody is well?  

– W.H. Auden, The Orators (1931)