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| Albrecht Dürer Abduction of Proserpine on a Unicorn 1516 etching Museum of Fine Arts, Houston |
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| Titian Landscape with St Theodore overcoming the Dragon 1550s drawing Morgan Library, New York |
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| Marco Marchetti (Marco da Faenza) Hercules and the Lernean Hydra ca. 1555-56 oil on panel Palazzo Vecchio, Florence |
"But most rare among the other men of Romagna, in certain respects, is Marco da Faenza (for only so, and not otherwise, is he called), for the reason that he has no ordinary mastery in the work of fresco, being bold, resolute, and of a terrible force, and particularly in the manner and practice of making grotesques, in which he has no equal at the present day, nor one who even approaches his perfection. His works may be found throughout all Rome, and in Florence there is by his hand the greater part of the ornaments of twenty different rooms that are in the Ducal Palace, and the friezes of the ceiling in the Great Hall of that Palace, which was painted by Giorgio Vasari, as will be fully described in the proper place; not to mention that the decorations of the principal court of the same Palace, made in a short time for the coming of Queen Joanna, were executed in great part by the same man. And this must be enough of Marco, he being still alive, and in the flower of his growth and activity."
– from Lives of the Painters, Sculptors and Architects by Giorgio Vasari (1568), translated by Gaston du C. de Vere (1912)
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| Johannes Stradanus Ulysses in Circe's palace with his companions transformed into beasts 1570 drawing Royal Collection, Windsor |
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| Luzio Luzzi Reclining Sphinx with Monkey before 1575 drawing Teylers Museum, Haarlem |
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| Christopher Plantin, printer Processional Float shaped as Sea Monster for Joyous Entry into Antwerp 1582 etching Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Caravaggio Medusa ca. 1595-98 oil on canvas Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence |
A CURSE ON AN ENEMY
Let not the sun shine bright on thee,
nor glistering moone by night;
And of thy eyes let glimsing starres,
forsake the wicked sight.
Let not the fire graunt thee his heate,
nor ayre humiditie:
Let neither earth nor yet the sea,
free passage grant to thee.
That banyshed and poor thou mayst,
straunge houses seeke in vaine:
That craving to, with trembling voyce
small almes mayst obtaine,
That neither sownd of body, nor
thy mynde in perfect plight:
This night be worse than passed day,
and next day than this night.
– from Ovid's Invective against Ibis, translated by Thomas Underdowne (1587)
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| Girolamo Frezza after Pompeo Batoni Younger Furietti Centaur (ancient statue) 1739 engraving British Museum |
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| Donato Creti Achilles entrusted to the Centaur Chiron before 1749 oil on canvas Palazzo d'Accursio, Bologna |
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| Gustave Moreau The Chimera 1867 oil on panel Harvard Art Museums |
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| Rembrandt Zeus as Eagle abducting Ganymede 1635 drawing Kupferstichkabinett, Dresden |
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| Dante Gabriel Rossetti The Question of the Sphinx 1875 drawing Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery |
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| John William Waterhouse Ulysses and the Sirens 1891 oil on canvas National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne |
First to the Sirens ye shall come, that taint
The minds of all men whom they can acquaint
With their attractions. Whosoever shall
(For want of knowledge mov'd) but heare the call
Of any Siren, he will so despise
Both wife and children for their sorceries,
That never home turnes his affection's streame,
Nor they take joy in him, nor he in them.
The Sirens will so soften with their song
(Shrill, and in sensuall appetite so strong)
His loose affections that he gives them heed.
And then observe: They sit amidst a meade,
And round about it runnes a hedge or wall
Of dead men's bones, their withered skins and all
Hung all along upon it: and these men
Were such as they had fawnd into their Fen,
And then their skins hung on their hedge of bones.
Sail by them therefore, thy companions
Before hand causing to stop every eare
With sweete soft waxe so close that none may heare
A note of all their charming. Yet may you
(If you affect it) open eare allow
To trie their motion: but presume not so
To trust your judgement when your senses go
So loose about you, but give straight command
To all your men to bind you foote and hand
Sure to the Mast, that you may safe approve
How strong in instigation to their love
Their rapting tunes are.
– from Homer's Odyssey, book twelve, translated by George Chapman (1614)
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| Rome Centaur Mosaic AD 120-130 Altes Museum, Berlin |