Engraving made by Agostino Carracci, Italy, 1585-1600. (Kintzertorium)
Death-Fires - Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Gustave Dore
About, about, in reel and rout,
The death-fires danced at night.
Erotic print Mercury and Herse by Giovanni Jacopo Caraglio after Perino del Vaga via Humoristische Erotik in der italienischen Graphik des 16 (2001) by Lieselotte Schlieker
“Phyllis has penetrated his private and professional domain; he bows under her weight and yields to her authority. More interesting, to me, is how she presented. Unlike other depictions, which focus on Phyllis’ beauty or render her a caricature, Spranger’s Phyllis is heroic. This body positioning, of one arm upraised, brandishing a weapon, is masculine and is usually reserved for heroes and leaders. So while the tale itself is comical and moralizing, Spranger interprets Phyllis as a more powerful force, reminiscent of female leaders, like Jeanne III de Navarre (1528-1572), Elizabeth I of England (1533-1603) and Marie de’ Medici of France (1575-1642). The image comes across not as a moralizing exemplum but simply a noble victory of beauty over rhetoric, love over reason.”
- Christina Voss in this week’s Erotica Curiosa (F/lthyGorgeousTh/ngs)
Phyllis and Aristotle. Jan Sadeler, after Bartholomeus Spranger (c. 1590), engraving
