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)

Beheaders

Domenico Beccafumi
Judith with the Head of Holofernes
1506-1507
oil on panel
Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena

Sebald Beham
The Story of David
1534
painted wooden tabletop
Musée du Louvre

Hendrick ter Brugghen
David with the Head of Goliath
1623
oil on canvas
North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh

Daniele da Volterra (Daniele Ricciarelli)
David vanquishing Goliath
ca. 1555-56
oil on slate
(collection of Louis XIV)
Musée du Louvre

Tommaso Donini (il Caravaggino)
David with the Head of Goliath
ca. 1620-30
oil on canvas
Palazzo Barberini, Rome

Fede Galizia
Judith with the Head of Holofernes
1601
oil on canvas
Galleria Borghese, Rome

Orazio Gentileschi
Judith with the Head of Holofernes
ca. 1620
oil on canvas
Pinacoteca Vaticana, Rome

Lucas Kilian
King David kneeling before Bowl of Incense
before 1637
drawing (print study)
British Museum

Giulia Lama
Judith and Holofernes
ca. 1725-30
oil on canvas
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

Jan Massys
Judith with the Head of Holofernes
ca. 1540-50
oil on canvas
Palazzo Barberini, Rome

Palma il Vecchio
Judith with the Head of Holofernes
ca. 1525-28
oil on canvas
Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence 

Marco Palmezzano
Judith with the Head of Holofernes
1525
oil on panel
Musées d'Art et d'Histoire, Genève

Domenico Piola
David with the Head of Goliath in Pendentive
ca. 1675
drawing
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Camillo Procaccini
Triumph of David
ca. 1592-95
drawing (study for painting)
British Museum

Nicolas Régnier
Judith and Holofernes
ca. 1650-60
oil on canvas
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

Peter Paul Rubens
Judith with the Head of Holofernes
ca. 1630
oil on canvas
Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence

Andrea Schiavone (Andrea Meldolla)
Judith with Sword
ca. 1548-50
drawing
British Museum

Equal with colleagues in a ring

I sit on each calm evening,

        Enchanted as the flowers

The opening light draws out of hiding

From leaves with all its dove-like pleading

        Its logic and its powers.

That later we, though parted then

May still recall these evenings when

        Fear gave his watch no look;

The lion griefs loped from the shade

And on our knees their muzzles laid,

        And Death put down his book.

– W.H. Auden (1933)

Proles

Vincent van Gogh
Woman planting Potatoes
1885
drawing
Städel Museum, Frankfurt

Anonymous Dutch Artist after Jan Saenredam
Adam tilling the Soil
ca. 1650-1700
drawing
Kupferstichkabinett,
Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden

Adam Elsheimer
Excavation of the True Cross
before 1610
drawing
Städel Museum, Frankfurt

Tiburzio Passarotti
Youth lifting a Rock
ca. 1590
drawing
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Anna Ancher
Harvest Time
1901
oil on canvas
Fuglsang Kunstmuseum, Lolland, Denmark

Franz Xaver Reinhold
Corn Harvest
ca. 1840
oil on paper, mounted on panel
Liechtenstein Museum, Vienna

Hieronymus Hopfer after Marcantonio Raimondi
Harvesters overseen by Silenus and the Pope
ca. 1540
etching
Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig

Anton Romako
Peasant Girl in the Roman Campagna
1873
watercolor on paper
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Adriaen van de Velde
Study of Farm Woman
before 1672
drawing
Städel Museum, Frankfurt

Adriaen van de Velde
Peasant on Horseback
before 1672
drawing
Städel Museum, Frankfurt

Sebald Beham
Farmer going to Market
1520
engraving
Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig

August Sander
Young Farmer
1912-13
gelatin silver print
Museum Folkwang, Essen

Daniel Steudner after Matthias Scheits
Winter
(series, The Four Seasons)
ca. 1515-20
etching
Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig

Daniel Steudner after Matthias Scheits
Spring
(series, The Four Seasons)
ca. 1515-20
etching
Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig

Leopold Kalckreuth
Sunday Afternoon
1893
oil on canvas
Hamburger Kunsthalle

Ludwig Johann Passini
Pumpkin Seller in Chioggia
1876
watercolor on paper
Belvedere Museum, Vienna

The next winter, Aristides, the son of Archippus, one of the commanders of a fleet which the Athenians had sent out to gather tribute from their confederates, apprehended Artaphernes, a Persian, in the town of Eion upon the river Strymon, going from the king to Lacedaemon.  When he was brought to Athens, the Athenians translated his letters out of the Assyrian language into Greek and read them; wherein, amongst many other things that were written to the Lacedaemonians, the principal was this: that he knew not what they meant, for many ambassadors came, but they spake not the same thing; if therefore they had any thing to say certain, they should send somebody to him with this Persian.  But Artaphernes they sent afterwards away in a galley, with ambassadors of their own, to Ephesus.  And there encountering the news that king Artaxerxes, the son of Xerxes, was lately dead (for about that time he died), they returned home.   

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