Architectural Fragments

Anonymous Flemish Artist
Capriccio of Ruins on a Coast
ca. 1610-20
oil on copper
Galleria Sabauda, Turin

workshop of Bartholomeus Breenbergh
Italian Landscape with Ruins of the Aurelian Wall
ca. 1650-60
oil on canvas
Mauritshuis, The Hague

Paul Bril
Religious Procession among Ruins, Rome
ca. 1600-1610
oil on copper
Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Claude Lorrain
Roman Ruins on the Aventine Hill
before 1682
drawing
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Caspar David Friedrich
Ruins of the Temple of Juno at Agrigento
ca. 1828
oil on canvas
Museum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte, Dortmund

Giovanni Ghisolfi
Capriccio with Ruins
ca. 1650
drawing
Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan

Svein Johansen
Roman Ruins
ca. 1983
oil on canvas
Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo

Jules Laurens
Ruins of a Roman Roadhead in Bithynia
ca. 1875
oil on canvas
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Marseille

Jean Lemaire
Artists studying Ruins
ca. 1630
drawing
Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest

Giovanni Battista Mercati
Domes of the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore rising behind Roman Ruins
1629
etching
Hamburger Kunsthalle

Gian Paolo Panini
Capriccio of Roman Ruins with the Pantheon
ca. 1740
oil on canvas
Hamburger Kunsthalle

Marco Ricci
Capriccio of Antique Ruins
ca. 1720-25
tempera on vellum
Staatsgalerie Stuttgart

Marco Ricci
Capriccio of Antique Ruins
ca. 1720-30
oil on canvas
Museo Civico di Modena

Hubert Robert
Artist among Ruins on the Palatine Hill, Rome
ca. 1760-65
drawing
Städel Museum, Frankfurt

Louise Joséphine Sarazin de Belmont
Ruins of Roman Theater at Taormina
1825
oil on paper
Morgan Library, New York

Jan Baptist Weenix
Study of Ruins
ca. 1646
drawing
Morgan Library, New York

He recounts that he saw other similar things, and he tells marvelous stories of having seen men and other things that no one else says he has seen or heard, and that no one else has even imagined.  The most wondrous thing of all is that in traveling north they came close to the moon, which was like a completely stripped land, and that while there they saw things that it was natural for a man to see who had invented such an exaggerated fiction.

Then the Sibyl picked up her art of divination again, with Carmanes.  After this, each person made his own prayer, and everything turned out for each of the others in accordance with his prayer, but in his case, after he woke up, he was found in Tyre in the temple of Hercules, and after he got up, he found Dercyllis and Mantinias.  They were safe and had released their parents from the long sleep or, rather, death, and were prospering in other ways as well.

These things Dinias told to Cymbas and provided cyprus tablets on which he asked Cymbas's companion Erasinides, since he was a skillful writer, to record the account.  He also showed Dercyllis to them – it was in fact she who brought the cypress tablets.  He ordered Cymbas to have the accounts written down on two sets of cypress tablets, one of which Cymbas would keep and the other of which Dercyllis was to place in a small box and set down near Dinias's grave at the time of his death.

– Antonius Diogenes, from The Wonders Beyond Thule, written in Greek, 1st-2nd century AD.  A detailed summary of the book was composed (also in Greek) in the 9th century by Photius, Patriarch of Constantinople.  The original text by Antonius Diogenes was subsequently lost; only the summary by Photius has survived.  This was translated into English by Gerald N. Sandy (1989).

Last Things

Johann Baptist Cordua
Vanitas Still Life with Bust
1665
oil on panel
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Pau

Jan Vonck
Dead Birds
ca. 1660
oil on panel
Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden

John Singer Sargent
Tomb at Toledo
ca. 1903
watercolor on paper
Rhode Island School of Design, Providence

Wendel Dockler
Occult Funeral Meal in a Church
1608
oil on canvas
Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel

Hubert Robert
Tomb and Turreted Archway in Ruins
1760
drawing
Rhode Island School of Design, Providence

Nikolaus Knüpfer
Artemisia at the Tomb of Mausolus
ca. 1650
drawing
Hamburger Kunsthalle

Félix Auvray
Design for Caryatids
for the proposed Tomb of Napoleon
ca. 1830
drawing
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Valenciennes

attributed to Henry Fuseli
Man in Despair over Tomb inside a Cave
ca. 1770-80
drawing
Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen

Joseph Werner the Younger
Tomb Robbers threatened by Demon
ca. 1667-80
drawing
Hamburger Kunsthalle

Henry Roderick Newman
Tomb of Ramses II at Abu Simbel
1905
watercolor
Musée d'Art Classique de Mougins

Anonymous French Artist
Ram's Skull
(component of ornamental garland on classical frieze)
18th century
drawing
Yale University Art Gallery

Egon Schiele
Postmortem Portrait of Gustav Klimt
1918
drawing
Leopold Museum, Vienna

Charley Toorop
Still Life with Skull
1929
oil on panel
Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands

Ancient Greece
Grave Stele
Young Hunter mourned by his Father
340 BC
marble relief
(discovered in the River Ilisos near Athens)
National Archaeological Museum, Athens

Henri-Léopold Lévy
Christ in the Tomb
ca. 1880
oil on canvas
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Reims

James Ensor
Skeleton Painter in his Studio
1896
oil on canvas
Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp

Alexander was fifteen when by chance one day he was passing the place where the horse Bucephalus was caged.  He heard a terrifying neigh and, turning to the attendants, asked, "What is this neighing?"  In reply, the general Ptolemy said, "Master, this is the horse Bucephalus that your father caged because he was a man-eater." But the horse, hearing the sound of Alexander's voice, neighed again, not in a terrifying manner as on all previous occasions, but sweetly and clearly as though instructed by God.  And when Alexander went up to the cage, straightaway the horse extended its forefeet to Alexander and licked him, indicating who its master was.  Alexander observed the striking appearance of the horse and the remains of numerous slaughtered men at its feet, but elbowed aside the horse's guards and opened the cage.  He grasped its mane; it obeyed him, and he leapt on it without a bridle, then rode through the center of the city of Pella.

– Pseudo-Callisthenes, from The Alexander Romance (2nd-4th century AD), translated from Greek by Ken Dowden (1989)

Heavy Titles - IV

Kerstin Bernhard
Signage going up in Berlin for Greta Garbo
starring in the film Queen Christina
1934
gelatin silver print
Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Paul Baudry
Sketch for an Allegorical Figure of Jurisprudence
1880
oil on canvas
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Reims

Eugène Carrière
Priam imploring Achilles for the Body of Hector
(scene from the Iliad)
1876
oil on canvas
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Pau

Heinrich Anton Dahling
Käthchen von Heilbronn and Count Wetter vom Ray
(scene from The Trial by Fire, drama by Heinrich von Kleist)
ca. 1810
oil on canvas
Landesmuseum Hannover

Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki
Saint Richardis of Swabia,
widow of Charles le Gros, taking the Veil
ca. 1790
etching
Museum Folkwang, Essen

Christian Berentz
Still Life with Relief Fragment
from the Ara Pacis Augustae, Rome
ca. 1715-20
oil on canvas
Deutsche Barockgalerie, Augsburg

Abraham Bloemaert
Apollo disguised as a Shepherd,
with Mercury and Battus approaching
(scene from the Metamorphoses of Ovid)
ca. 1587-88
drawing
Staatsgalerie Stuttgart

Hugo Birger
Interior of the Parlor
of Pontus and Göthilda Fürstenberg,
illuminated by Electricity
1902
oil on canvas
Göteborgs Konstmuseum, Sweden

Philippe de Champaigne
Adam and Eve mourning the Death of Abel
ca. 1656
oil on canvas
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Carlo Crivelli
Enthroned Virgin and Child giving Keys
to the Apostle Peter, attended by Saints
ca. 1488
tempera on panel
(altarpiece)
Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Nils Jakob Blommér
After defeating Loki, Heimdall returns Brisingamen (necklace of fire) to Freyja
(scene from Norse mythology)
1846
oil on canvas
Malmö Konstmuseum, Sweden

Michelangelo Cerquozzi
Family of Beggars in the Ruins of the Colosseum
ca. 1640
oil on canvas
National Museum, Warsaw

Franz Ludwig Catel
Pompey's Visit to Cicero's Villa near Pozzuoli
1828-29
oil on canvas
Bildgalerie von Sanssouci, Potsdam

Thomas Blanchet
Design for Allegorical Fountain
honoring the Duc de Bourgogne
ca. 1682
drawing
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Reims

Simone Cantarini (il Pesarese)
Jupiter, Pluto and Neptune honoring the Arms of Cardinal Scipione Borghese
ca. 1630
etching
Hamburger Kunsthalle

Brassaï
Couple d´amoureux
dans un petit café parisien, Quartier Italie
ca. 1930
gelatin silver print
Moderna Museet, Stockholm

In the course of time their athletic contest, the Games of the Dead, took place.  The judges were Achilles, who was holding the office for the fifth time, and Theseus, holding it for the seventh.  I shall summarize the events; a full report would take a long time.  The wrestling was won by Caprus the Heraclid, who beat Odysseus for the title.  The boxing was a draw between Areius the Egyptian, who is buried in Corinth, and Epeius.  They have no pancratium, and I cannot now recall who won the race.  In poetry, Homer was really much the best; Hesiod won, though.  The prize for every winner was a garland of peacock feathers plaited.

Just after the games were finished, news was brought that those who were being punished in the abode of the wicked had broken their chains and overpowered their guard and were advancing upon the island, under Phalaris of Acragas, Busiris the Egyptian, Diomede the Thracian, and Sciron and Pityocamptes and their followers.  On hearing this, Rhadamanthus marshaled the heroes on the beach, giving the command to Theseus, Achilles and Ajax the son of Telamon (now restored to sanity).  

– Lucian, from A True Story (2nd century AD), translated from Greek by B.P. Reardon (1989)

Heavy Titles - III

Anonymous Russian Designer
Strengthening the Revolutionary Front
in Defense of the Soviet Union
ca. 1920-25
lithograph (poster)
Moderna Museet, Stockholm

James Anderson
Fragments of the Claudian Aqueduct on the Roman Campagna
ca. 1865
albumen print
Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Lucas van Valckenborch
Mountainous Landscape with Porter fleeing Robbers and Ore-Smelter on River Island
ca. 1585
oil on canvas
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Anonymous Netherlandish Artist
Emperor Heraclius denied Entry to Jerusalem
ca. 1485-95
tempera and oil on panel
Art Institute of Chicago

Pomponio Amalteo
Terrified Apostles at the Scene of the Transfiguration
ca. 1540
drawing
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Anonymous German Artist after Loy Hering
Romulus and Remus
taken from their mother Rhea Silvia
ca. 1600
bronze plaque
Bode Museum, Berlin

Thomas Jones Barker
Improvised Studio of Salvator Rosa in the Mountains of the Abruzzi
1865
oil on canvas
Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha

Hendrick Andriessen
Still Life with Candlestick, Slow-Match, Letter and Pipe
cs. 1640
oil on panel
Kunsthaus Zürich

Josef Abel (figures) and Johann Christian Reinhart (landscape)
Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock received among the Poets in Elysium
1803
oil on canvas
Belvedere Museum, Vienna

attributed to Flaminio Torri
Mary Magdalen
contemplating the Crown of Thorns
ca. 1650
oil on panel
Musée des Augustins de Toulouse

Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller
Interrupted Pilgrimage (The Sick Pilgrim)
1858
oil on panel
Leopold Museum, Vienna

Pierre-Henri de Valenciennes
Pyrrhus approaching the wounded Philoctetes on the Island of Lemnos
(scene from the Iliad)
1789
oil on canvas
Musée Fabre, Montpellier

Antonio Zanchi
Nosce Te Ipsum (Know Thyself)
ca. 1650-60
oil on canvas
Landesmuseum Hannover

Christoph Wetzel
The Dead President (Salvador Allende)
1974
mixed media on panel
Galerie Neue Meister (Albertinum), Dresden

Joel-Peter Witkin
Un Santo Oscuro
1987
gelatin silver print
Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Rosemarie Trockel
Less Sauvage than Others
2012
C-print mounted on aluminum
Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Before two or three days had gone by I approached Homer the poet, neither of us being occupied, and asked him various questions.  I said his birthplace was a bone of contention on earth to this day.  He replied that he was well aware that some people said he came from Chios, some from Smyrna, and many from Colophon; but the truth was, he was a Babylonian, and his name in his own country was not Homer, but Tigranes – he had changed his name when he was held as a hostage by Greeks.  I asked him also whether the obelized lines were of his composition; he said they were, all of them.  My regard for Zenodotus and Aristarchus and scholars of that sort, with all their pedantry, dropped.*  Having got satisfactory answers to these questions, I then asked him why on earth he had started with the wrath.  He said that was how it had come to him; he had no definite purpose in it.  I was also very anxious to know whether he had written the Odyssey before the Iliad as most people thought; he said he hadn't.  Another thing they say about him is that he was blind, but I knew at once that he wasn't; I could see that, so there was no need for me to ask him.  

*In the earliest editions of Homer, these Alexandrian critics obelized certain lines as spurious.

– Lucian, from A True Story (2nd century AD), translated from Greek by B.P. Reardon (1989)