Sunday, November 13, 2016

Artists of Rome and Roman Images

Anonymous Italian artist working in Rome
Pan and Daphnis
16th century
drawing
British Museum

DAPHNIS  A hero of the Sicilian shepherds, son of Hermes and of a nymph. A beautiful child, he was exposed by his mother in a grove of bay trees, brought up by nymphs and Pan, and taught to play the shepherd's flute. He had plighted his troth to a nymph, but breaking his word, he was punished by her with blindness, or (according to another story) turned into a stone. ... Daphnis consoled himself by inventing pastoral music, or perhaps was the first subject of the genre when other shepherds sang of his misfortunes. In another version he dies when Aphrodite, angry because he will love no one, instills in him a powerful passion to which he refuses to yield. ... Hermes took him up to heaven and created a fountain at the spot where he was taken. At this fountain the Sicilians offered yearly sacrifices. 

– from The Dictionary of Classical Mythology, Religion Literature, and Art (London, 1891) and from The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 3rd edition (Oxford, 1996)

Anonymous Italian artist working in Rome
Ganymede and Eagle
16th century
drawing
British Museum

Anonymous Italian artist working in Rome
Christ on the Cross
16th century
drawing
British Museum

Anonymous Italian artist working in Rome
Descent from the Cross
late 16th century
drawing
British Museum

Anonymous Italian artist working in Rome
Bearded figure
17th century
drawing
British Museum

Matteo Bonuccelli
One of four gilt bronze lions supporting a table
1651
Prado, Madrid
replica of one of the marble Medici Lions selected in Rome by Velázquez for copying 

Matteo Bonuccelli
One of four gilt bronze lions supporting a table
1651
Prado. Madrid
replica of one of the marble Medici Lions selected in Rome by Velázquez for copying

Domenico Gargiulo and Viviano Codazzi
Roman Gymnasium
ca. 1638
oil on canvas
Prado. Madrid

Domenico Gargiulo and Viviano Codazzi
Roman Amphitheater
ca. 1638
oil on canvas
Prado, Madrid

Domenico Gargiulo and Viviano Codazzi
Circus Maximus 
ca. 1638
oil on canvas
Prado, Madrid

Domenico Gargiulo and Viviano Codazzi
Triumph of Constantine
ca. 1636-38
oil on canvas
Prado, Madrid

Domenico Gargiulo and Viviano Codazzi
Triumph of Vespasian
ca. 1636-38
oil on canvas
Prado, Madrid

Anonymous Italian artist
Interior courtyard, Rome
17th century
drawing
British Museum

Anonymous German artist
 St Peter's seen from the Pincio, Rome
1820s
drawing
British Museum

"Oh, God! God! God! Every thing I have in my trunks that reminds me of her goes through me like a spear. The silk lining she put in my travelling cap scalds my head. My imagination is horribly vivid about her  I see her  I hear her. There is nothing in the world of sufficient interest to divert me from her a moment. ... I am afraid to write to her  to receive a letter from her  to see her hand writing would break my heart  even to hear of her any how, to see her name written would be more than I can bear. My dear Brown, what am I to do? Where can I look for consolation or ease? If I had any chance of recovery, this passion would kill me. Indeed through the whole of my illness, both at your house and at Kentish Town, this fever has never ceased wearing me out. When you write to me, which you will do immediately, write to Rome (poste restante)  if she is well and happy, put a mark thus +,  if  Remember me to all."

 John Keats to Charles Brown, 1 November 1820 (Keats died in Rome on 23 February 1821)