Nymphs

Roman Empire
Nymph
AD 125-150
marble
Musées d'Art et d'Histoire, Genève

Victor Müller
Model posed as Wood Nymph
ca. 1862
drawing
Städel Museum, Frankfurt

Jean-Baptiste Regnault
Sleeping Nymph spied upon by Satyr
ca. 1775-85
drawing
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Agostino Carracci
Satyr and sleeping Nymph
(Lascivie Series)
ca. 1590-95
engraving
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

Hans Thoma
Faun and Nymph
1888
watercolor on paper
Städel Museum, Frankfurt

Alexander Keirincx (landscape) and Dirck van der Lisse (figures)
Nymphs at Rest
ca. 1635
oil on canvas
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Carcassonne

François Boucher
Nymphs and River Gods
ca. 1735-40
drawing
Städel Museum, Frankfurt

attributed to Benedetto Bordone
Nymph leading Poliphilo
1499
woodcut and letterpress
(from the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili of Francesco Colonna
published by Aldus Manutius in Venice)
Hamburger Kunsthalle

Marco Dente
Vulcan with Nymph and Putti
(series, Antike Basreliefs)
ca. 1510-25
engraving
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

Christos Karas
Centaur and Nymph
1930
screenprint
National Gallery, Athens

Pietro Rotari
Marsyas discovered by Nymphs and Satyrs
before 1762
drawing
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Anselm Feuerbach
Children making Music while Nymph listens
1864
oil on canvas
Neue Pinakothek, Munich

Felice Torelli
Diana with Nymphs
ca. 1710
oil on canvas
National Museum, Warsaw

Cornelis van Poelenburgh
Diana with her Nymphs
1659
oil on panel
Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen

Peter Paul Rubens and workshop
Diana and Nymphs departing for the Hunt
ca. 1615
oil on canvas
Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio

Jean-Antoine Watteau after Peter Paul Rubens
Satyr embracing Nymph
ca. 1714
drawing
Cabinet d'Arts Graphiques des Musées d'Art et d'Histoire, Genève

Leonardo was obviously dissatisfied with the current method of drawing trees.  He knew a better way.  "Remember," he taught, "that wherever a branch divides, the stem grows correspondingly thinner, so that, if you draw a circle round the crown of the tree, the sections of every twig must add up to the thickness of the trunk."  I do not know if this law holds.  I do not think it quite does.  But as a hint on "how to draw trees," Leonardo's observation is invaluable.  By teaching the assumed laws of growth he has given the artist a formula for constructing a tree – and so he can still feel like the creator, "Lord and Master of all things," who knows the secrets of nature and can "make" trees as he hoped to "make" a bird that would fly.   

I believe what we call the Renaissance artists' preoccupation with structure has a very practical basis in their need to know the schema of things.  For in a way our very concept of "structure," the idea of some basic scaffolding or armature that determines the "essence" of things, reflects our need for a schema with which to grasp the infinite variety of this world of change.  No wonder these issues have become somewhat clouded by a metaphysical fog which settled over the discussions of art in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.  

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

Ornament

Heinrich Aldegrever
Panel with Putto and Mermaid
1528
engraving
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

Anonymous German ARtist
Printer's Ornament
18th century
woodcut
(excised from printed book)
Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna

Barthel Beham
Ornamental Panel
ca. 1530
engraving
Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig

Jean Bérain the Elder
Ornamental Design
1703
etching
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel

Niccolò Billy and Pietro Cerini
Acanthus Ornaments
1725
engraving
Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna

Niccolò Billy and Pietro Cerini
Acanthus Ornaments
1725
engraving
Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna

Niccolò Billy and Pietro Cerini
Acanthus Ornaments
1725
engraving
Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna

Niccolò Billy and Pietro Cerini
Acanthus Ornaments
1725
engraving
Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna

Raphael Custos after Lucas Kilian
Ornamental Panel
1632
engraving
Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig

Angelo Falconetto
Panel with Acanthus Scroll and Satyr Family
before 1567
etching
Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna

Peter Flötner
Panel with Grotesque Ornament after the Antique
before 1546
woodcut
Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna

Agostino Musi (Agostino Veneziano)
Acanthus Ornament
in Basilica San Silvestro, Rome
caa. 1510-20
engraving
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Georg Pencz
Ornamental Panel with Satyress and Satyr
ca. 1535
engraving
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

Susanne Maria von Sandrart after Jean Le Pautre
Variations on Architectural Ornaments
1678
etching
Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig

Jörg Seld
Panel with Pomegranates and Acanthus
1514
woodcut
Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig

Antonio Tempesta
Panel with Grotesque Ornament surrounding Apollo
before 1630
etching and engraving
Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna

But Nicias, seeing the Athenians to be in a kind of tumult against Cleon, for that when he thought it so easy a matter he did not presently put it in practice, and seeing also he had upbraided him, willed him to take what strength he would that they could give him and undertake it.  Cleon, supposing at first that he gave him this leave but in words, was ready to accept it; but when he knew he would give him the authority in good earnest, then he shrunk back and said that not he but Nicias was general, being now indeed afraid and hoping that he durst not have given over the office to him.  But then Nicias again bade him do it and gave over his command to him for so much as concerned Pylus and called the Athenians to witness it.  They (as is the fashion of the multitude), the more Cleon declined the voyage and went back from his word, pressed Nicias so much the more to resign his power to him and cried out upon Cleon to go.  Insomuch as not knowing how to disengage himself of his word, he undertook the voyage, and stood forth saying that he feared not the Lacedaemonians, and that he would not carry any man with him out of the city but only the Lemnians and Imbrians that then were present and those targetiers that were come to them from Aenus and four hundred archers out of other places; and with these, he said, added to the soldiers that were at Pylus already, he would within twenty days either fetch away the Lacedaemonians alive or kill them upon the place.  This vain speech moved amongst the Athenians some laughter, and was heard with great content of the wiser sort.  For of two benefits, the one must needs fall out: either to be rid of Cleon (which was their greatest hope) or, if they were deceived in that, then to get those Lacedaemonians into their hands. 

– from The Peloponnesian War as written by Thucydides (5th century BC) and translated by Thomas Hobbes (1628) and edited by David Grene (1959)

Instrumentalists - II

Sebald Beham
 Musica
(series, The Seven Liberal Arts)
before 1550
engraving
Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig

Pierre Guillaume
St Cecilia
ca. 1635
oil on canvas
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon

Paul Sérusier
St Cecilia at the Clavecin
1926
oil on canvas
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Chartres

Franz Xaver Wagenschön
Archduchess Maria Antonia of Austria
ca. 1770
oil on canvas
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Israel van Meckenem
Couple playing Table Organ
ca. 1500
engraving
Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna

Alphonse Mucha
Paul Gauguin playing the Harmonium
ca. 1895
gelatin silver print
Moderna Museet, Stockholm

Niclas Gulbrandsen
Chopin Prelude
2000
woodcut
Stortingets Kunstsamling, Oslo

Jacques-Louis David
Two Trumpeters
ca. 1814
drawing
(study for painting)
Morgan Library, New York

Hans Unger
Nicodé Concert
1897
lithograph (poster)
Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Ludolph Busing
Flute Player
ca. 1650
chiaroscuro woodcut
Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig

Sebald Beham
Satyr playing Horn
ca. 1530-40
engraving
Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig

Sebald Beham
Satyress playing Bagpipe
ca. 1530-40
engraving
Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig

Martin Treu
Two Musicians
ca. 1540
engraving
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

Karl Erik Nilsen
Violinist
ca. 1985
color woodblock print
Stortingets Kunstsamling, Oslo

Vilhelm Tveteraas
Violinist
1946
color woodblock print
Stortingets Kunstsamling, Oslo

Sebald Beham
Satyr playing Lyre
ca. 1530-40
engraving
Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig

Now, too, underground I remain faithful to thee, master, as before, not forgetting thy kindness – how thrice when I was sick thou didst set me safe upon my feet, and hast laid me now under sufficient shelter, announcing on the stone my name, Manes, a Persian. Because thou hast been good to me thou shalt have slaves more ready to serve thee in thy hour of need.

Sore pitied, dear Democrateia, didst thou go to the dark house of Acheron, leaving thy mother to lament. And she, when thou wast dead, shore the grey hairs from her old head with the newly-sharpened steel.

I am the tomb of the maiden Helen, and in mourning too for her brother who died before her I receive double tears from their mother. To her suitors I left a common grief; for the hope of all mourned equally for her who was yet no one's. 

The Italian earth holds me, an African, and near to Rome I lie, a virgin yet, by these sands. Pompeia who reared me wept for me as for a daughter, and laid me in a freewoman's grave. Another light* she hoped for, but this came earlier, and the torch was lit not as we prayed, but by Persephone. 

Unhappy Cleanassa, thou wast ripe for marriage, being in the bloom of thine age. But at thy wedding attended not Hymenaeus to preside at the feast, nor did Hera who linketh man and wife come with her torches. Black-robed Hades burst in and by him the fell Erinys chanted the dirge of death. On the very day that the lights were lit around thy bridal bed thou camest to no wedding chamber, but to thy funeral pyre.

– from Book VI (Sepulchral Epigrams) of the Greek Anthology, translated and edited by W.R. Paton (1917)

*i.e. that of the bridal chamber, not of the funeral pyre

Affinities - IV

Master of the Altar of Saint Bartholomew
Holy Family
ca. 1495-1500
oil and tempera on panel
Städel Museum, Frankfurt

Rutilio Manetti
Holy Family with young St John the Baptist
ca. 1638-39
oil on canvas
Pinacoteca Crociani, Museo Civico, Montepulciano

Filippino Lippi
St Joachim and St Anne meeting at the Golden Gate
1497
tempera on panel
Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen

Wilhelm Schadow
Joseph interpreting Dreams in Prison
1817
detached fresco
Alte Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Rembrandt van Rijn
Woman and Child descending a Staircase
ca. 1636
drawing
Morgan Library, New York

Ary Scheffer
St Augustine and St Monica
1854
oil on canvas
National Gallery, London

Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld
Scene from Oberon, or, The Elf King
(singspiel by Friederike Sophie Seyler)
ca. 1825
watercolor on paper
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Jan Steen
Ascagnes and Lucelle
(scene from drama Lucelle by Gerbrand Adriaensz Bredero)
1667
oil on canvas
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Auguste Renoir
Marriage Portrait - Alfred Sisley and Lise Tréhot
1868
oil on canvas
Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne

Johann Michael Millitz
Portrait of an Aristocratic Couple as Adam and Eve
ca. 1770-80
oil on canvas
Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest

Michelangelo Buonarroti
Adam and Eve
ca. 1510
drawing
Musée Bonnat-Helleu, Bayonne

Bart van der Leck
Gossip
1913
oil on canvas
Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands

Henriette Lorimier
Jeanne de Navarre with her Son at his Father's Tomb
1806
oil on canvas
Château de Malmaison

Alphonse-Eugène-Félix Lecadre
Le Sommeil
1872
oil on canvas
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes

Jean-Pierre Hoüel
Two Satyrs
ca. 1780
etching
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

Wolfgang Heimbach
The Sick Man
1669
oil on copper
Hamburger Kunsthalle

Messenger:  Yes, our archery was of no avail; the whole host perished, destroyed by the ramming of ships. 

Chorus:  Otototoi, you are saying

                that the dead bodies of our loved ones

                are floating, soaked and constantly buffeted by salt water,

                shrouded in mantles that drift on the waves! 

Messenger:  The shores of Salamis, and all the region near them, are full of corpses wretchedly slain.

Chorus:  Raise a crying voice of woe

                for the wretched fate of our loved ones,

                for the way the gods have caused

                total disaster! Aiai, for our destroyed army!

Messenger:  How utterly loathsome is the name of Salamis to my ears! Ah, how I groan when I remember Athens!

Chorus:  She is indeed hateful to her foes:

                we can remember well

                how many Persian women they caused

                to be bereaved and widowed, all for nothing.

– Aeschylus, from Persians (472 BC), translated by Alan H. Sommerstein (2008)