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| Annibale Carracci Study of lute player Giulio Mascherone ca. 1593-94 drawing Albertina, Vienna |
ORPHEUS IN THE UNDERWORLD
Thus while the bard melodiously complains,
And to his lyre accords his vocal strains,
The very bloodless shades attention keep,
And, silent, seem compassionate to weep;
Ev'n Tantalus his flood unthirsty views,
Nor flies the stream, nor he the stream pursues;
Ixion's wandering wheel its whirl suspends,
And the voracious vulture, charm'd, attends;
No more the Belides their toil bemoan,
And Sisyphus, reclin'd, sits listening on his stone.
– from the Metamorphoses of Ovid, translated by William Congreve (1717)
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| Giovanni Battista Piazzetta Portrait of a boy pointing upward ca. 1740-45 drawing Albertina, Vienna |
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| Pietro da Cortona Bust of young woman 1637 drawing Albertina, Vienna |
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| François Guérin Madame de Pompadour reading with her daughter, Alexandrine 1748 drawing Albertina, Vienna |
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| Giambattista-Tiepolo St Fidelis of Sigmaringen & St Joseph of Leonessa exorcising Demons ca. 1747-58 drawing Albertina, Vienna |
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| Stefano della Bella Death on the Battlefield before 1664 drawing Albertina, Vienna |
AGAINST THE FEAR OF DEATH
What has this bugbear death to frighten man,
If souls can die, as well as bodies can?
For, as before our birth we felt no pain,
When Punic arms infested land and main,
When heaven and earth were in confusion hurled
For the debated empire of the world,
Which awed with dreadful expectation lay,
Sure to be slaves, uncertain who should sway:
So, when our mortal form shall be disjoin'd,
The lifeless lump uncoupled from the mind,
From sense of grief and pain we shall be free;
We shall not feel, because we shall not be.
– from Lucretius, On the Nature of Things, translated by John Dryden (1690)
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| Raphael Young man carrying old man ca. 1514 drawing Albertina, Vienna |
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| Raphael Madonna of the Pomegranate ca. 1504 drawing Albertina, Vienna |
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| Raphael Two Figures 1515 drawing Albertina, Vienna |
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| Peter Paul Rubens Portrait of the artist's daughter Clara Serena ca. 1623 drawing Albertina, Vienna |
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| Peter Paul Rubens The artist's son Nicolaas wearing red felt cap ca. 1625-27 drawing Albertina, Vienna |
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| Heinrich Füger Friedrich (son of the artist) ca. 1793 drawing Albertina, Vienna |
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| Honoré Daumier Portrait of a girl (Jeannette) ca. 1830 drawing Albertina, Vienna |
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| Jacques-André Portail The Embroiderers before 1759 drawing Albertina, Vienna |
from CHORUS OF CLOUDS
Clouds of all hue,
Rise we aloft with our garments of dew.
Come from old Ocean's unchangeable bed,
Come, till the mountain's green summits we tread,
Come then with me,
Daughters of Mist, to the land of the free.
Come to the people whom Pallas hath blest,
Come to the soil where the Mysteries rest;
Come, where the glorified Temple invites
The pure to partake of its mystical rites.
– from The Clouds, by Aristophanes, translated by Benjamin Bickley Rogers (1852)