Showing posts with label shadows. Show all posts
Showing posts with label shadows. Show all posts

Friday, May 22, 2026

Fall of Light

Anonymous Chinese Sculptor
Seated Buddha
AD 550-577
marble
Asian Art Museum, San Francisco


Ambrosius Francken the Elder
Holy Family with St Elizabeth and St John the Baptist
ca. 1600
oil on canvas
Haggerty Museum of Art, Marquette University, Milwaukee

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio
The Annunciation
ca. 1608
oil on canvas
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nancy

Paolo Finoglia
Joseph and Potiphar's Wife
ca. 1640
oil on canvas
Harvard Art Museums

Jan Cossiers
Portrait of a Man
ca. 1650
oil on canvas
Detroit Institute of Arts

Bertholet Flémal
The Crucifixion, with the Virgin,
St John the Evangelist and Mary Magdalen

before 1675
oil on canvas
Musée des Augustins de Toulouse

Jacopo Brustolon
Lot and his Daughters
ca. 1680
drawing
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Vincenzo Camuccini
Studies for the Death of Lucretia
before 1822
drawing
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Paul Flandrin
Landscape with Tigers, Gorges d'Ollioules in Background
1846
watercolor on paper
Morgan Library, New York

Gustave Caillebotte
Mademoiselle Boissière knitting
1877
oil on canvas
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Thomas Eakins
Samuel Murray as Life Model
ca. 1890-92
platinum print
Hirshhorn Museum, Washington DC

Emil Carlsen 
The Samovar
ca. 1920
oil on canvas
New Britain Museum of American Art, Connecticut

Daniel Garber
Lamp Light
ca. 1930
etching
North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh

Elmer Bischoff
Woman on Sofa
1959
oil on canvas
Hirshhorn Museum, Washington DC

Robert Fischer
The Blue Zebra
ca. 1975-80
hand-colored lithograph and collage
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Philip-Lorca diCorcia
William Charles Everlove, 26 years old,
Stockholm, Sweden via Arizona, $40

1991
C-print
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

James Casebere
Toilets
1995
C-print
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Blind race below, in your uncertain day,
Like to the short-lived leaves, as frail as they,
Of feeble strength, a forgery of clay,
Whose shadowy troops drift past in sickly throngs,
Dream-like, unblest with bird-wing or bird-songs,
We are immortal beings, men, attend;
Our airy lives know neither age nor end,
Our thoughts imperishable are and high.
Learn now the pure transactions of the sky,
Learn what a solitary bird forebodes, 
The origins of rivers and of gods,
Secrets of Chaos and of Erebus
Beyond the sophists' wisdom, learn from us. 

– from The Birds by Aristophanes (414 BC), translated by Elizabeth Bishop (ca. 1942)

Saturday, February 14, 2026

Darknesses

Michele Desubleo (Michele Fiammingo)
Cain slaying Abel
before 1676
oil on canvas
Palazzo Corsini, Rome


Johann Liss
Abel mourned by Adam and Eve
ca. 1630
oil on canvas
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

Pietro Sigismondi
Samson and Delilah
1606
oil on canvas
Fondazione Banca del Monte di Lucca

Francesco Furini
Judith and Holofernes
ca. 1630-35
oil on canvas
Palazzo Barberini, Rome

Camillo Berlinghieri
St Sebastian tended by Holy Women
ca. 1632-35
oil on canvas
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

Dirck van Baburen
St Sebastian succoured by St Irene
ca. 1620
oil on canvas
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Francesco Maffei
Perseus beheading Medusa
ca. 1650
oil on canvas
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

Anonymous Flemish Artist
Head of Medusa
ca. 1600-1650
oil on panel
Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence

Bernardino Mei
Orestes slaying Clytemnestra and Aegisthus
1654
oil on canvas
Collezioni della Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena

Johann Liss
Apollo and Marsyas
ca. 1625-30
oil on canvas
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

Mattia Preti (il Cavalier Calabrese)
Flight of Aeneas from Troy
ca. 1635
oil on canvas
Palazzo Barberini, Rome

Michele Desubleo (Michele Fiammingo)
Death of Cleopatra
before 1676
oil on canvas
Palazzo Corsini, Rome

Francesco Rustici (il Rustichino)
Olindo and Sofronia
(scene from Tasso's Gerusalemme Liberata)
ca. 1620
oil on canvas
private collection

Donato Mascagni (Fra Arsenio)
Ugolino and his Sons in the Famine Prison
ca. 1611
oil on canvas
Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence

Padovanino (Alessandro Varotari)
Orpheus losing Eurydice
ca. 1620
oil on canvas
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

Laurent de La Hyre
Dead Adonis
ca. 1628-30
oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre

Anonymous Italian Artist working in Naples
Venus discovering the dead Adonis
ca. 1650
oil on canvas
Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio

Speaks Bito's tomb to whomsoever reads:
"If from Torone to Amphipolis you go,
Give Nicagoras this message: his one son
Died in storm, in early winter, before sunrise."

– from the Greek Anthology, translated by W.G. Shepherd

Friday, February 13, 2026

Darknesses

Anonymous Flemish Artist
The Crowning with Thorns
ca. 1630
oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre


Anonymous Italian Artist
St Jerome in the Wilderness
17th century
oil on canvas
Musée Fesch, Ajaccio, Corsica

Anonymous Italian Artist
David with the Head of Goliath
ca. 1620-30
oil on canvas
Accademia Carrara, Bergamo

Anonymous Italian Artist
David with the Head of Goliath
ca. 1610
oil on canvas
Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, California

Anonymous Italian Artist
St Jerome
ca. 1620
oil on canvas
Palazzo Colonna, Rome

Giovanni Battista Langetti
Christ at the Column
ca. 1665-70
oil on canvas
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

Giovanni Battista Langetti
Christ crowned with Thorns
ca. 1665-70
oil on canvas
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

Miguel March
St Onofrio
ca. 1655
oil on canvas
Museo de Bellas Artes de Valencia

Miguel March
St Paul the Hermit
ca. 1655
oil on canvas
Museo de Bellas Artes de Valencia

Palma il Giovane
Dead Christ supported by Angels
ca. 1612
oil on canvas
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

Scarsellino (Ippolito Scarsella)
Noli me tangere
before 1620
oil on canvas
Palazzo Barberini, Rome

Giovanni Serodine
St Peter and St Paul conducted to Martyrdom
ca. 1625-26
oil on canvas
Palazzo Barberini, Rome

Leonello Spada
Christ crowned with Thorns
ca. 1610-20
oil on canvas
Palazzo Barberini, Rome

Alessandro Turchi (l'Orbetto)
Dead Christ mourned by the Magdalen and Angels
ca. 1645-50
oil on slate
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts

Valentin de Boulogne
Penitent St Jerome
1628
oil on canvas
Musei Civico e Diocesano
nell'Edificio Venanzina Pennesi, Camerino

Valentin de Boulogne
St John the Baptist
1629
oil on canvas
Musei Civico e Diocesano
nell'Edificio Venanzina Pennesi, Camerino

Diego Velázquez
Sufferings of Christ contemplated by the Christian Soul
ca. 1628-29
oil on canvas
National Gallery, London

Roused by November seas, wrecked on Italian rocks,
    a kraken squid was washed ashore:
The masters of the cattle-ships set up this,
    its huge rib, in homage to the Gods.

– from the Greek Anthology, translated by W.G. Shepherd