thaumazein

THE HUNT FOR THE CALYDONIAN BOAR

2012-01-20T13:52:00.001-08:00

The Kalydonian Boar Hunt: Detail from the François Vase, Volute Krater, Attic Black-Figure style, ca. 570-560, now at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Florence

The hunt of the Calydonian boar (us kalydonios) is one of a series of Archaic Greek myths describing a gathering of heroes for the achievement of some great purpose, which in this particular case was the slaughter of a chthonic monster threatening the city of Calydon in western Greece. The myth of the Argonauts and their quest for the Golden Fleece was similarly such a gathering of heroes, as was the storming of Thebes by Polyneices and the Argives, and the Trojan War. In Calydon, the monstrous boar, a wild swine, was sent by the goddess Artemisa to devastate the fields and vineyards of the town. Today, nothing is left of Calydon, save the ruins of a temple to that same goddess.

Artemisa as Huntress

“Nothing is more violent than she when she sees her godhead wronged. The boar of Calydon will be my witness - fierce.” Ovid, Heroides 20. 99 ff. (trans. Showerman)

The "Diana of Versailles," Roman copy, dated 330 BCE

KALYDON (Καλυδών)

Located about a mile north from the shore of the Gulf of Corinth in Aetolia, the city of Calydon (In Greek: Καλυδών; gen.: Καλυδῶνος), was never very large. In the third century BCE, it was encircled by a wall and a fortified acropolis was built on the hill. The sacred road which led to the Sanctuary of Artemis Laphria is still visible today. Laphria was an earlier goddess whose worship antedates that of the Dorian Artemisa, and hence a syncretism of beliefs must have occurred in the region. There was a second Archaic temple on the acropolis, dedicated to Artemisa’s brother, Apollo Laphrios, and together the two shrines came to constitute an important sanctuary.

Ruins of the Temple of Artemis Laphria in Kalydon: The fourth century BCE Sanctuary of Artemis Laphria, excavated by Danish archaeologists under the leadership of Frederick Poulsen in 1925-32 stood on a platform erected on a terrace which is supported by sixth century retaining walls. From its privileged position above a natural spur of the hills it is possible to see the Gulf of Corinth and the city of Messolonghi below.

View of the city of Messolonghi from the Temple of Artemis Laphria in Kalydon

In the Hellenistic period these temples were surrounded by a series of treasuries, stoas and other minor shrines. The size of some of the Hellenistic tombs indicates that at some time there was prosperity. Strabo mentions Calydon in his Geographia, on its former beauty, as by his time it lay desolate: “. . . Calydon and Pleuron, which are now indeed reduced, though in early times these settlements were an ornament to Greece.”

Aerial view of Kalydon: In this photograph, taken from the North, the terrace constructed below the temple of Artemisa Laphria is clearly visible in the center of the picture.

Under the Roman conquest, the city declined, and in 30 BCE, after the Battle of Actium, Octavius Augustus transferred the inhabitants to the new city of Nikopolis (city of victory), further north, on the coast of the Ionian Sea. The town never reached the dimensions of a large city and gradually vanished during the Middle Ages.

To the right of the sacred way are the ruins of a Heroön (temple to the goddess Hera), the foundations of which are visible in the photograph above.

The earliest archaeological description of the site was that of the English antiquarian and topographer William Martin Leake, whose account of his discoveries in the area, Travels in Northern Greece, was published in 1835.

William Martin Leake

In the 1890’s, the site was visited by the Englishman William John Woodhouse (1866-1937), a Victorian classical scholar. As a Newton student of the British School of Archaeology in Athens, and Craven Fellow, he undertook a thorough topographical exploration of the rugged and little known Aetolian country in 1893. He published the results of his field-work in the Journal of Hellenic Studies and, in 1897, a substantial book, Aetolia.

Archeological excavations of the area were begun in 1908 by the Greek Archeological Society of Athens under the direction of Dr. George Sotiriades. In the period 1926-1932, joint Greek and Danish excavations were carried out under the archaeological team of Frederick Poulsen and Konstantinos Romaios, which had also been exploring and digging in Corinth. Today, the ruins are open to visitors, located right off the E-55 highway that runs along the north shore of the Corinthian Gulf in Aetolia, near the small modern town of Evinochori, and about eight miles east of the Gulf city of Messolonghi.

View of Mount Varásova, ancient Mount Chalkis from the Temple of Artemis Laphria at Kalydon

The Myth of the Boar of Kalydon

Homer mentions Kalydon as the home of Oeneus (Greek for “wine man”), and makes reference to the hunt for the mythical wild swine in the Iliad. The gigantic boar was sent by Artemisa to ravage the country and the vines around Calydon so as to punish Oeneus, its king, for neglecting to offer the first fruits of the harvests to her. Artemisa was the Greek goddess of wild animals and of the chase, among other various things, and she was also a Dorian goddess, a goddess of the Dorian conquerors who descended on Greece and occupied its ancestral lands. It is reasonable to suppose that the myth evokes the punishment of an earlier people of Calydon for their reluctance to adopt the worship of the goddess of their conquerors.

The boar that Artemisa sent to Calydon ravaged the countryside, destroying vines and crops and causing the farmers to seek refuge in the town. King Oeneus, in despair, summoned the heroes from throughout Hellas to hunt the beast and offered its skin and tusks as a reward. The heroes responded, although Heracles was significantly not among them. There is a myth of Heracles hunting his own mythical boar, the Erymanthian. The names of those who did participate in the hunt at Calydon include the semi-mythical, semi-divine, progenitors of the ruling houses of many of the Dorian cities of Greece, and include some of the Argonauts. The hunt was led by the king’s son, Meleagros, who struck the boar down. He gave the skin to the beautiful huntress Atalanta as a prize and she, in turn, hung the boar’s skin from a tree in a sacred Arkadian grove and dedicated it to Artemisa. The various accounts of the myth were later compiled by Ovid and re-told in the Metamorphoses.

(Below, Corinthian black-figured aryballos depicting the Calydonian Boar Hunt, ca. 580 BC., now at the Musée du Louvre)

Among the hunters were Theseus, the founder-king of Athens and son of the god Poseidon; Peleus, one of the Argonauts and father of Achilles, whose connection with Pisa and the Olympian Games has made doubly famous; Nestor, the old man of the Iliad, who was “still in his prime” according to Ovid; Asclepius, son of Apollo and founder of the medical profession; Deucalion, son of King Minos of Crete; Laertes, the father of Odysseus, and the famous Gemini twins, Castor and Pollux, sons of Leda and a swan (Zeus), and brothers of Helen of Troy and Clytaemnestra, Queen of Sparta.

Most significant among the hunters, however, was the huntress Atalanta.

“Atalante in days of yore, Arkadian Iasios' daughter, whose shaft slew Kalydon's boar. Yea, the heroes who, summoned to hunt the terror of Kalydon, came could dispraise not her prowess: the tokens of that her victory to Arkadia were brought, and the tusks of the boar there yet may ye see.” Callimachus, Hymn 3 to Artemis, 218 ff (trans. Mair).

Atalanta

Kalydonian Boar Hunt: Detail from the François Vase, Volute Krater, Attic Black-Figure style, ca. 570-560, now at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Florence

She had been suckled by a she-bear, Artemisa herself in disguise, and raised as a huntress by the goddess, so why was she there, hunting Artemisa's own boar? Because as a stand-in for the goddess she became a source of dissension among the hunters, as many of the men refused to hunt alongside a woman. But Meleagros, who fell in love with her, succeeded in persuading them to do so. Atalanta was the first to wound the boar with an arrow, and when Meleagros killed the boar, he gave the dead boar’s skin as prize to Atalanta. "But the goddess again made a great stir of anger and crying battle, over the head of the boar and the bristling boar's hide . . . .” (Iliad, ix, 543) Indeed, the trouble did not end there, for some of the men objected to the woman receiving the prize of the hunt, and the subsequent fight over the trophy led to the death of Meleagros, which was Artemisa’s final revenge against Oeneus.

Tondo of a Laconian black-figure cup, ca. 555 BCE, now at the Louvre

The boar’s skin was said to have been preserved at the Temple of Athena Alae in Tegea, where Pausanias saw it in the second century A.D. The relic, “which time has shriveled and left without a single bristle . . . ,” was clearly nothing much to look at. ( Pausanias, Guide to Greece, vol.2, viii, 47). He reports that the tusks of the boar were taken by Octavius Augustus after Actium. The keepers of the Temple of Athena Alae told him that one of the tusks was broken, but the other was kept in the Emperor’s gardens, in a Sanctuary of Dionysos, in Rome, and it measured “just three feet long.” (Guide to Greece, vol.2, viii, 47).

(Below, Hans Holdt, photograph of the countryside around Kalydon taken in the 1920's)

Homer’s Version of the Myth

Iliad ix. 543 ff (trans. Lattimore):

“The Kouretes and the steadfast Aitolians were fighting and slaughtering one another about the city of Kalydon . . . For Artemis, she of the golden chair, had driven this evil upon them, angered that Oineus had not given the pride of the orchards to her, first fruits; the rest of the gods were given due sacrifice, but alone to this daughter of great Zeus he had given nothing. He had forgotten, or had not thought, in his hard delusion, and in wrath at his whole mighty line the Lady of Arrows sent upon them the fierce wild Boar with the shining teeth, who after the way of his kind did much evil to the orchards of Oineus. For he ripped up whole tall trees from the ground and scattered them headlong roots and all, even to the very flowers of the orchard. The son of Oineus killed this boar, Meleagros, assembling together many hunting men out of numerous cities with their hounds; since the Boar might not have been killed by a few men, so huge was he, and had put many men on the sad fire for burning. But the goddess again made a great stir of anger and crying battle, over the head of the boar and the bristling boar’s hide, between Kouretes [an Aitolian tribe] and the high-hearted Aitolians.”

The old sacred road leads up to the Temple of Artemis Laphria in Kalydon

Pseudo-Apollodorus’ Version of the Myth

“When Oineus [king of Kalydon] was offering his annual sacrifice of the first fruits of the land to all the gods, he overlooked Artemis. The wrathful goddess let loose a great and powerful wild boar, which made the earth unsowable and destroyed herds and people that encountered it. In order to get rid of this boar, Oineus called together all the best men of Hellas and proclaimed the skin as a trophy to the man who could slay it. Here are the people who gathered for the boar hunt: Oineus’ son Meleagros, and Dryas, son of Ares (both from Kalydon); Idas and Lynkeus, sons of Aphareus, from Messene; Kastor and Polydeukes, sons of Zeus and Leda, from Lakedaimon; Aegeus’ son Theseus from Athens; Admetos, the son of Pheres, from Pherai; Iason [Jason], Aeson’s son, from Iolkos; Iphikles, Amphitryon’s son, from Thebes; Peirithoos, son of Ixion, from Larise; Peleus, son of Aiakos, from Phthia; Atalante, the daughter of Skhoineus, from Arkadia; and Amphiaraos, the son of Oikles, from Argos. The sons of Thestios also attended the hunt.

The Hunt for the Calydonian Boar: Meleagros and Atalanta (Etruscan alabaster ash urn from Volterra)

Roman marble sarcophagus from Vicovaro, carved with the Calydonian Hunt, now at the
Palazzo dei Conservatori, Rome

When they had gathered, Oineus entertained them for nine days. On the tenth day, Kepheus and Ankaios [two of the hunters from Arkadia] and some of the others refused contemptuously to go out hunting with a woman, but Meleagros, though marries to Idas’ and Marpessa’s daughter Kleopatra, still wanted to make a child with Atalante, and so compelled the men to join the hunt with her. When they had encircled the boar, the animal killed Hyleus and Ankaios, and Peleus accidentally speared Eurytion [king of Phthia] with his javelin. Atalante was first to hit the boar, in the back with an arrow. Amphiaraos then got it in the eye, and Meleagros killed it with a blow on the flank. When he received the skin, he gave it to Atalante. But the sons of Thestios, who considered it disgraceful that a woman should get the trophy where men were involved, took the skin from her, saying that it was properly theirs by right of birth, if Meleagros chose not to accept it. Outraged by this, Meleagros slew the sons of Thestios and again gave the skin to Atalante. But Althaia, in grief over the death of her brothers, set fire to the brand [that the Moirai declared when consumed would end the life of Meleagros], and Meleagros died on the spot. Some say, however, that . . . the sons of Thestios claimed the skin on the grounds that Iphiklos had first hit the boar. A war then ensued between the Kouretes [an Aitolian tribe] and the Kalydonians.” Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1. 66 (trans. Aldrich).

Rubens, The Hunt of Meleagros and Atalanta (1617-1618), Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

In Rubens' paintings, Atalanta is always rather disheveled, a plump, blonde Flemish woman with her right breast bare, in the manner of the Amazons. In the painting above, she has just flung an arrow, or some missile, at the beast, as, according to the myth, she was the one who drew first blood in the hunt.

Rubens, The Calydonian boar hunt, ca. 1636. Museo del Prado Madrid

Description of an Ancient Greek Painting by Philostratus the Younger

“Are you surprised to see a girl [Atalanta] entering into so great a contest and withstanding the attack of so savage and so huge a boar? For you see how bloodshot is his eye, how his crest bristles, and how abundant is the foam that drips from his long upright tusks, which are un-blunted at the point; and you see how the beast’s bulk is proportional to his stride, which indeed is indicated by these tracks that are as large as those of a bull. For the painter has not failed to embody any of these points in his painting. But the scene before us is already terrible. For the boar has attacked Ankaios here in the thigh, and the youth lies pouring out his blood in streams and with a long gaping wound in his thigh; therefore now that the contest is already under way, Atalanta--for we must recognize that the girl is she--having put to the bowstring the arrow she has ready, is about to let it fly . . . The youths here are Meleagros and Peleus, for the painting tells us that it is they who have slain the boar; Meleagros in an attitude of defense throws his weight upon his left foot, and watching closely the boar’s advance, awaits his onset securely with couched spear . . . the hip is the kind to make us confident that the youth will not be overthrown by the boar’s attack . . . So much for the son of Oineos; but Peleus here holds his purple mantle out before him; and he holds in his hand the sword given him by Hephaistos, as he awaits the rush of the boar; his eye is unswerving and keen of glance.” Philostratus the Younger, Imagines 15 (trans. Fairbanks).

Kalydonian Boar Hunt. Detail from the François Vase, Volute Krater, Attic Black-Figure style, ca. 570-560, now at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Florence

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AUERBACHS KELLER IN GOETHE'S FAUST I

2012-01-16T11:02:00.000-08:00

The Auerbachs Keller episode in Goethe’s Faust I: “A Lively and Lusty Drinking Party”

Introduction: The Wager

In the Auerbachs Keller episode of the Faust, written between 1772 and 1775, Goethe wrote his experience as a student in Leipzig in the 1760’s and expressed an aristocratic disdain for the young and the demotic which he had learned there at the time. To be sure, the scene was included because the old story of Dr. Faustus required it, but Goethe made it serve to illustrate the implications of Faust’s wager with Satan-Mephistopheles. At the end of this scene one cannot help but feel that Faust is on the way to winning his bet.

Murnau's Faust, 1926

Goethe’s Faust sought to find, in the world he yearned for, an equivalent to the grandiosity of his own subjectivity. In his dialogue with the Earth Spirit, he declares himself to be equal to the very image of God (Ebenbild der Gottheit). Yet though in his inner life he strives for divinity, his real life is the life of a dog.

(Below, Faust in his study looks on the apparition of the Earth Spirit)

As the crisis in Faust’s study-chamber mounts, the end-game appears to be suicide. Faust will take his own life in despair for his prospects. He knows that nothing in his mortal life will ever meet the exalted expectations that are concordant with the image of his inner self, and thus he wants to die. But his suicide attempt is foiled by recollections of childhood, and in the course of an Easter Sunday walk through a crowded meadow, he meets Mephistopheles in the form of a bothersome dog.

(Below, Faust and his famulus, Wagner, come upon Mephistopheles disguised as a dog)

The dialogue between Mephistopheles and Faust, back in Faust’s study-chamber, is the occasion when Faust challenges Satan to procure him a life he has no longer any expectation of living, a substitute for his present life, which he describes in the most pitiful terms.

(Below, old print of Faust in conversation with Satan)

“Ich bin zu alt, um nur zu spielen,
Zu jung, um ohne Wunsch zu sein.
Was kann die Welt mir wohl gewähren?
Entbehren sollst du! Sollst entbehren!
Das ist der ewige Gesang,
Der jedem in die Ohren klingt,
Den, unser ganzes Leben lang,
Uns heiser jede Stunde singt.
Nur mit Entsetzen wach’ ich morgens auf,
Ich möchte bitter Tränen weinen,
Den Tag zu sehn, der mir in seinem Lauf
Nicht Einen Wunsch erfullen wird, nicht Einen,
Der selbst die Ahnung jeder Lust
Mit eigensinningem Krittel mindert,
Die Schöpfung meiner regen Brust
Mit tausend Lebensfratzen hindert.”

“I am too old for mere amusement
And still too young to be without desire.
What has the world to offer me?
You must renounce! Renounce your wishes!
That is the never-ending litany
Which every man hears ringing in his ears,
Which every hour hoarsely tolls
Throughout the livelong day.
I awake with horror in the morning,
And bitter tears well up in me
When I must face each day that in its course
Cannot fulfill a single wish, not one!
The very intimations of delight
Are shattered by the carpings of the day
Which foil the inventions of my eager soul
With a thousand leering grimaces of life.”

(Faust I, Studierzimmer. English translations are by Peter Salm, Bantam, 1988)

Mephistopheles

But the challenge is made, and Mephistopheles takes it on confident of success. Faust’s wager with Satan is defiant despair. He challenges Mephistopheles to expose him to all the possibilities of mortal life in the real world and bets his immortal soul on his anticipated rejection of them, for he knows that nothing in the physical world will satisfy him sufficiently to make him want to live in it. Having been on the brink of suicide, he cannot conceive of any experience that will once again make him desire to live. Unquenchable desire is only part of the problem; the other part is finding the equivalent to his subjectivity, which approaches the divine.

“Der Gott, der mir im Busen wohnt,
Kann tief mein Innerstes erregen;
Der über allen meinen Kräften thront,
Er kann nach außen nichts bewegen;
Und so ist mir das Dasein eine Last,
Der Tod erwünscht, das Leben mir verhaßt.”

“The god that lives within my bosom
Can deeply stir my inmost core;
Enthroned above my human powers,
He cannot move a single outward thing.
And so, to be is nothing but a burden;
My life is odious and I long to die.”

(Faust I, Studierzimmer)

Accordingly, his wager with the Devil is based on his contempt for life, and any life he may lead with the Devil’s help can be no more than the next best thing to suicide. Faust mocks the ability of the Devil to tempt him with worldly goods.

“Was willst du armer Teufel geben?
Ward eines Menschen Geist, in seinem hohen Streben,
Von deinesgleichen je gefaßt?
Doch hast du Speise, die nicht sättigt, hast
Du rotes Gold, das ohne Rast,
Quecksilber gleich, dir in der Hand zerrinnt,
Ein Spiel, bei dem man nie gewinnt,
Ein Mädchen, das an meiner Brust
Mit Äugeln schon dem Nachbar sich verbindet,
Der Ehre schöne Götterlust,
Die, wie ein Meteor, verschwindet?”

“What, poor devil, can you offer?
Was ever human spirit in its highest striving
Comprehended by the like of you?
You offer food which does not satisfy,
Red gold which moves unsteadily,
Quicksilver-like between one’s fingers.
You offer sports where no one gains the prize,
A girl perhaps who in my very arms
Hangs on another with conspiring eyes.
Honors that the world bestows on man
Which vanish like a shooting star.”

(Faust I, Studierzimmer)

In the “Moonlight” section of the first act of the play, Faust expresses a desire for a more intimate knowledge of the universe and a simultaneous turning away from the knowledge of books and papers, such as lie strewn all about him in his study. The moonlight carries him off, away from the confinement of his study, to a dew-covered meadow where he imagines himself pursuing a young woman. Awake again, he has proceeded to make three attempts to escape the world of his reality: an appeal to the Macrocosm, a fruitless exchange with the Earth Spirit, and contemplation of suicide, the absolute denial of life. Now, the wager with Satan/Mephistopheles consists in a promise to deliver his soul after death in exchange for the experience of an instant when he can “say to the passing moment (Augenblick), tarry a while, thou art so fair!” That moment of affirmation of his life and satisfaction with his lot and with himself, - he wagers -, shall be his doom.

Faust:

Werd’ ich beruhigt je mich auf ein Faulbett legen,
So sei es gleich um mich getan!
Kannst du mich schmeichelnd je belügen,
Daß ich mir selbst gefallen mag,
Kannst du mich mit Genuß betrügen,
Das sei für mich der letzte Tag!
Die Wette biet’ ich!

Mephistopheles: Topp!

Faust: Und Schlag auf Schlag!
Werd’ ich zum Augenblicke sagen:
Verweile doch! Du bist so schön!
Dann magst du mich in Fesseln schlagen,
Dann will ich gern zugrunde gehn!

Faust:

If you should ever find me lolling on a bed of ease,
Let me be done for on the spot!
If you ever lure me with your lying flatteries,
And I find satisfaction in myself,
If you bamboozle me with pleasure,
Then let this be my final day!
This bet I offer you!

Mephistopheles: Agreed!

Faust:

Let’s shake on it!
If ever I should tell the moment:
Oh, stay! You are so beautiful!
Then I shall smile upon perdition!”

(Faust I, Studierzimmer)

But Faust knows that moment will never arrive, because he can conceive of nothing in the world worth living for. When Mephistopheles accepts the wager and proceeds to lead Faust into the world, the first place they visit is Auerbachs Keller, the beer-tap cellar of the Auerbach Hotel in Leipzig. The myth of Dr. Faustus requires it. But Goethe must have thought, ‘where shall I take them to drink and play after the tension of their mutual agreement and the bargaining for an immortal soul?’ His brilliant choice was Auerbachs Keller, where he had been a carousing student in his youth, to re-experience there the little world of the body, drinking and carousing with students, in the city which was known in Goethe’s time as “Little Paris.”

Model of the City of Leipzig in the eighteenth century, at the Historical Museum in the Altes Rathaus, Leipzig.

Goethe in Leipzig

The young Goethe in 1779

(after an engraving by Georg Oswald May)

When Goethe arrived in Leipzig in1765, the city had a reputation for enlightenment, vigorous trade, studious endeavor and a liberality in its way of life that contrasted with that of Dresden, the capital of Saxony and residence of the Saxon Electors. The Court influenced the city of Leipzig by its absence, yet its Baroque splendor was nonetheless felt, and it came alive for Goethe in the person of a friend he made there as he began his studies at the University. Ernst Wolfgang Behrisch (1738-1809), was Goethe’s only friend and constant companion during the last two years of Goethe’s University studies in Leipzig, from 1766 to 1768. He was the Tutor of Count Lindenau, the son of the Chief Equerry of the Court in Dresden, and held to the courtly conventions and exquisite style of an aristocratic taste for etiquette, fashion, art and literature, in contrast to Goethe’s own bourgeois Frankfurt background. They met at an inn run by C.G. Schönkopf, where a group of Frankfurt citizens and other guests would dine every day in agreeable company. The slightly older Behrisch was a decisive influence on Goethe, and caused him to revise some of his artistic and literary preconceptions. The courtier Behrisch, for example, had contempt for the printed word and for the world of printing and publishing, and he encouraged Goethe to put down his literary work in handwritten calligraphy, so that its distribution would be limited to the select few, rather than be made public in print for the benefit of the many.

(Below, monument to Goethe in Leipzig)

Count Lindenau was the owner of the Hotel Auerbach, and its now famous Cellar in the basement, and these premises became one of Goethe’s favorite haunts when he joined Behrisch in disdainful isolation from the society of students and plebeians, as he reported to his sister in a letter:

“. . . my life here is as quiet and contented as it could be, I have a friend in the tutor of Count Lindenau, who has been banished from the beau monde for the same reasons as I. We console ourselves with each other’s company by sitting cut off from the human race, as if in a fortress, in our Hotel Auerbach, which belongs to the Count, and without being misanthropical philosophers we laugh at the Leipzigers, and woe betide if with mighty hand we unexpectedly sally forth upon them from our castle.”

[Cited in Nicholas Boyle, Goethe: The Poet and The Age, vol. 1, (Oxford, 1992), p. 68]

The Hotel Auerbach was destroyed during the Second World War. A gallery and arcade have been built above Auerbachs Keller

In the cellar of the Auerbach Hotel, Goethe must have seen the seventeenth-century wall paintings depicting Dr. Faustus flying out on a wine-barrel. But it is primarily Goethe’s friendship with Behrish that is crucial to a proper appreciation of the Auerbachs Keller scene in the Faust. In fact, it would not be far-fetched to argue that the frequent sojourns of these two friends at the tavern, where they could regard the mob of students, when they ‘sallied forth upon them,’ with that certain critical detachment and subdued contempt, were not unlike the visit made by Faust and Mephistopheles to the tavern in Goethe’s play. Goethe’s biographer, Nicholas Boyle, has this to say about the friendship:

“In Leipzig, and in the person of Behrisch, Goethe first experienced the seductions of a courtly culture that was the personal affair of a few select individuals, elevated above the anonymous mass of the public – and the public, as Leipzig showed with especial clarity, was something created by ugly mechanical devices such as printing-presses, which, so Behrisch claimed, deformed their operators, and by the lowly workings of trade.”

[Boyle, op.cit., p. 68]

(Below, the Altes Rathaus in Leipzig)

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In Goethe’s Auerbachs Keller episode, that aristocratic disdain for the lowly both enhances and adorns the traditional story of Faust’s mythical visit to the locale, a tradition which had been carried down for hundreds of years in the old city of Leipzig.

Sculptures at the entrance of Auerbachs Keller:

Faust and Mephistopheles

And thus, Faust, now under the guidance and tutelage of Mephistopheles, prepared to live out the consequences of his wager.

Faust I, Act I (Conclusion of Scene IV)

‘Where do we go from here?’ Faust asks Mephistopheles. ‘Where you please,’ answers Mephisto, but is to the “little world” that they will venture into first. The little world of every day life, where fun is the paramount objective: the student beer-tavern in Lepizig.

Murnau's Faust, with Mephistopheles, 1926

FAUST:

Wohin soll es nun gehn?

Where do we go from here?

MEPHISTOPHELES:

Wohin es dir gefällt.
Wir sehn die kleine, dann die große Welt.
Mit welcher Freude, welchem Nutzen
Wirst du den Cursum durchschmarutzen!

Where you please.
The little world, and then the great, we’ll see.
With what profit and delight,
This term, you’ll be a parasite!

As Mephisto and Faust prepared to depart from the Study room where such momentous dialogue had taken place, Faust feels inadequate, and understandably so, since the grandeur of his inner life must now be measured against the offerings of the real physical world Mephisto is willing to offer him. His feelings of alienation turn on what he now regards as the inadequacy of his outward physical aspect. His beard, the scholar’s beard appears to him now as contrasting negatively with ‘life’s superficial style,’ the style of the worldly.

FAUST:

Allein bei meinem langen Bart
Fehlt mir die leichte Lebensart.
Es wird mir der Versuch nicht glücken;
Ich wußte nie mich in die Welt zu schicken.
Vor andern fühl ich mich so klein;
Ich werde stets verlegen sein.

Yet with my long beard, I’ll
Lack life’s superficial style.
My attempt will come to nothing:
I know, in this world, I don’t fit in.
I feel so small next to other men,
It only means embarrassment.

MEPHISTOPHELES:

Mein guter Freund, das wird sich alles geben;
Sobald du dir vertraust, sobald weißt du zu leben.

My friend, just give yourself completely to it:
When you find yourself, you’ll soon know how to live it.

Leipzig in the eighteenth century

Mephistopheles counsels self-abandonment as a means of enjoyment. In reality, the reason why Mephisto will take Faust to Auerbachs Keller is that the myth of Dr. Faustus requires it. Throughout this scene, Goethe must balance what he wants to say against what the old myth of Doctor Faustus traditionally held. In the old story, Faust had been there before and was said to have flown out of Auerbachs Keller on a wine-barrel. In Goethe’s Faust, he flies in on the Devil’s cloak.

Ernst Barlach, Faust and Mephistopheles (Woodcut, 1923)

FAUST:

Wie kommen wir denn aus dem Haus?
Wo hast du Pferde, Knecht und Wagen?

How shall we depart from here, then?
I see not one servant, coach, or horse.

Sculpture at the entrance of Auerbachs Keller

MEPHISTOPHELES:

Wir breiten nur den Mantel aus,
Der soll uns durch die Lüfte tragen.
Du nimmst bei diesem kühnen Schritt
Nur keinen großen Bündel mit.
Ein bißchen Feuerluft, die ich bereiten werde,
Hebt uns behend von dieser Erde.
Und sind wir leicht, so geht es schnell hinauf;
Ich gratuliere dir zum neuen Lebenslauf!

We’ll just spread this cloak wide open,
Then through the air we’ll take our course.
For a daring trip like this we’re on,
Better not take much baggage along.
A little hot air I’ll ready, first,
To lift us nimbly above the Earth,
And as we’re light we’ll soon get clear:
Congratulations on your new career!

Mikhail Vrubel, The Flight of Faust and Mephistopheles, 1896

Act I, Scene V: Auerbach’s Cellar in Leipzig

Auerbachs Keller today

Prior to the arrival of Faust and Mephistopheles at the Cellar, Goethe sets the scene. It is unclear who all these characters in the tavern are, but their names provide a clue to their status as stereotypes of the academic world. “Frosch” is a nickname for freshmen, and at one time “Brander” was a nickname for sophomores. “Altmeyer” a name whose stem means old age in German (Alt), is an alumnus of the Universtiy, and “Siebel” is the bartender, older, bald and pot-bellied, as is made clear later in the course of the dialogue.

The exchanges among the students, who have clearly been drinking heavily at the bar, are predictably banal. There is throughout an underlying forced nature to their carousal, as if the natural torpor of inebriation needed to be overcome in order for joy to be found. Consequently, there is the underlying and constant threat of violence as well. Thus Frosch, bored and eager to laugh, yet finding neither an echo nor little around him that can induce mirth, immediately begins to threaten violence.

Tavern scene

Auerbachs Keller in Leipzig

(Zeche lustiger Gesellen)

FROSCH:

Will keiner trinken? keiner lachen?
Ich will euch lehren Gesichter machen!
Ihr seid ja heut wie nasses Stroh,
Und brennt sonst immer lichterloh.

(Friends happily drinking)

Will none of you laugh? Nobody drink?
I’ll have to teach you to smile, I think!
You’re all of you like wet straw today,
And usually you’re well away.

The exchange is rough and competitive, with an effortless show of contempt and mutual insults.

BRANDER:

Das liegt an dir; du bringst ja nichts herbei,
Nicht eine Dummheit, keine Sauerei.

That’s up to you, you bring us nothing.
Nothing dumb, or dirty, nothing.

FROSCH (giesst ihm ein Glas Wein über den Kopf):

Da hast du beides!

(Pouring a glass of wine over Brander’s head):

You can have both!

BRANDER:

Doppelt Schwein!

Rotten swine!

FROSCH:

Ihr wollt es ja, man soll es sein!

You wanted them both, so you got mine!

Siebel, who seems to be an older man, appears to be a peace-maker. Violence between the drunken students can be deflected by bad singing.

Auerbachs Keller in the nineteenth century

SIEBEL:

Zur Tür hinaus, er sich entzweit!
Mit offner Brust singt Runda, sauft und schreit!
Auf! Holla! Ho!

Out the door, whoever fights! Get out!
Let’s sing a heart-felt chorus, drink and shout!
Up! Hurray! Ha!

ALTMAYER:

Weh mir, ich bin verloren! Baumwolle her! der Kerl sprengt mir die Ohren.

Ah! I’m in agony!
Earplugs, here! This fellow’s deafened me.

The four men ridicule each other’s attempts at self-expression.

SIEBEL:

Wenn das Gewölbe widerschallt,
Fühlt man erst recht des Basses Grundgewalt.

Only when the vaults rebound
Can you really enjoy the growl of the basses.

FROSCH:

So recht, hinaus mit dem, der etwas übel nimmt!
A! tara lara da!

Right, out with him who takes offence!
Ah! Tara lara da!

ALTMAYER:

A! tara lara da!

Ah! Tara lara da!

FROSCH:

Die Kehlen sind gestimmt.

(Singt.)

Das liebe Heil'ge Röm'sche Reich,
Wie hält's nur noch zusammen?

Our throats are tuned: commence.

(He sings.)

‘Dear Holy Roman Empire,
How do you hold together?’

BRANDER:

Ein garstig Lied! Pfui! ein politisch Lied
Ein leidig Lied! Dankt Gott mit jedem Morgen,
Daß ihr nicht braucht fürs Röm'sche Reich zu sorgen!
Ich halt es wenigstens für reichlichen Gewinn,
Daß ich nicht Kaiser oder Kanzler bin.
Doch muß auch uns ein Oberhaupt nicht fehlen;
Wir wollen einen Papst erwählen.
Ihr wißt, welch eine Qualität
Den Ausschlag gibt, den Mann erhöht.

A lousy song! Bah! A political song -
A tiresome song! Thank God, every morning,
It isn’t you who must sit there worrying
About the Empire! At least I’m better for
Not being a King or a Chancellor.
But we should have a leader, so
We’ll choose a Pope of our own.
You know the qualities that can
Swing the vote, and elevate the man.

As politics are rejected, the students turn their ribaldry to sex.

FROSCH (singt):

Schwing dich auf, Frau Nachtigall,
Grüß mir mein Liebchen zehentausendmal.

(Sings)

‘Sing away, sweet Nightingale,
Greet my girl, and never fail.’

SIEBEL:

Dem Liebchen keinen Gruß! ich will davon nichts hören!

Don’t greet my girl! I’ll not allow it!

FROSCH:

Dem Liebchen Gruß und Kuß! du wirst mir's nicht verwehren!

(Singt)

Riegel auf! in stiller Nacht.
Riegel auf! der Liebste wacht.
Riegel zu! des Morgens früh.

Greet and kiss her! You’ll not stop it!

(He sings)

‘Slip the bolt in deepest night!
Slip it! Wake, the lover bright.
Slip it to! At break of dawn.’

Reacting to Frosch’s song about lost love, Siebel, the bartender, shows himself to be embittered by his experiences with women. He cynically deplores the falsehood of the opposite sex in a familiar mode of irony. He implies that he has recently had some heartbreak, and hopes that his former girlfriend will get nothing but a “dwarf for a lover / an old goat from Block Mountain (the Brocken, scene of the Witches Festivals)” But he is ignored by the others.

SIEBEL:

Ja, singe, singe nur und lob und rühme sie!
Ich will zu meiner Zeit schon lachen.
Sie hat mich angeführt, dir wird sie's auch so machen.
Zum Liebsten sei ein Kobold ihr beschert!
Der mag mit ihr auf einem Kreuzweg schäkern;
Ein alter Bock, wenn er vom Blocksberg kehrt,
Mag im Galopp noch gute Nacht ihr meckern!
Ein braver Kerl von echtem Fleisch und Blut
Ist für die Dirne viel zu gut.
Ich will von keinem Gruße wissen,
Als ihr die Fenster eingeschmissen

Yes, sing in praise of her, and boast: sing on!
I’ll laugh later when it suits:
She leads me a dance, she’ll lead you too.
She should have a dwarf for a lover!
At the crossroads, let him woo her:
An old goat from Blocksberg, galloping over,
Can bleat goodnight, as it passes by her.
An honest man, of flesh and blood,
For a girl like that’s far too good.
I’m not bothered even to say hello
Except perhaps to break her window.

BRANDER (auf den Tisch schlagend):

Paßt auf! paßt auf! Gehorchet mir!
Ihr Herrn, gesteht, ich weiß zu leben
Verliebte Leute sitzen hier,
Und diesen muß, nach Standsgebühr,
Zur guten Nacht ich was zum besten geben.
Gebt acht! Ein Lied vom neusten Schnitt!
Und singt den Rundreim kräftig mit!

(Pounding on the table)

Quiet! Quiet! Or you won’t hear!
I know about life, you lot, confess.
Besotted persons sit among us,
As fits their status, then, I must
Give them, tonight, of my very best.
Listen! A song in the newest strain!
And you can shout out the refrain!

The banality of the exchanges among the besotted group continues. The song that Brander now begins to sing about a love-stricken rat makes explicit reference to sexual desire, which is what is driving the rat mad, ‘as if she had love in her belly,’ but is in fact her death throes. Ironically, the rat is first described as round and fat, living off grease and butter, with a belly like that of Dr. Luther, which conjures up an image that is quite antithetical to that of the sexual aggressor, and more like that of the sedentary monk. But the sexual desire of the rat is in fact the effect of the cook’s poison, which finally destroys her.

(Er singt)

Es war eine Ratt im Kellernest,
Lebte nur von Fett und Butter,
Hatte sich ein Ränzlein angemäst't,
Als wie der Doktor Luther.
Die Köchin hatt ihr Gift gestellt;
Da ward's so eng ihr in der Welt,
Als hätte sie Lieb im Leibe.

Lucas Cranach the Elder, Martin Luther

(He sings)

‘A rat lived in a cellar nest,
Her paunch could not be smoother.
She liked her lard and butter best,
And looked like Martin Luther.
The cook she set some poison bait;
The rat got in an awful state,
As if she had love in her belly.’

CHORUS (jauchzend):

Als hätte sie Lieb im Leibe.

Chorus (Jubilant):
‘As if she had love in her belly!’

BRANDER:

Sie fuhr herum, sie fuhr heraus,
Und soff aus allen Pfützen,
Zernagt', zerkratzt, das ganze Haus,
Wollte nichts ihr Wüten nützen;
Sie tät gar manchen Ängstesprung,
Bald hatte das arme Tier genung,
Als hätt es Lieb im Leibe.

‘She scurried here and scurried there;
She guzzled puddle juice
She scraped and flitted everywhere,
Her frenzy was no use.
She leapt great leaps in mortal fear,
Without a doubt, the end was near –
As if she had love in her belly.’

CHORUS:

Als hätt es Lieb im Leibe.

‘As if she had love in her belly!’

BRANDER:

Sie kam vor Angst am hellen Tag
Der Küche zugelaufen,
Fiel an den Herd und zuckt, und lag,
Und tät erbärmlich schnaufen.
Da lachte die Vergifterin noch:
Ha! sie pfeift auf dem letzten Loch,
Als hätte sie Lieb im Leibe.

‘And in the glaring light of day
She ran into the kitchen,
Dropped at the hearth and jerked and lay
Panting hard and pitching.
And now the cook did laugh to boot,
“Ha! This is her final toot,
As if she had love in her belly."

CHORUS:

Als hätte sie Lieb im Leibe.

‘As if she had love in her belly.’

Siebel disapproves of the tenor of the song as well as the jubilation of the chorus, and his disapproval is the occasion for Altmeyer to point out that Siebel, being older, has reached the contentment and cowardice of middle-age.

SIEBEL:

Wie sich die platten Bursche freuen!
Es ist mir eine rechte Kunst,
Den armen Ratten Gift zu streuen!

How pleased they are, the tiresome fools!
Spreading poison for wretched rats,
To me, that’s the right thing to do!

BRANDER:

Sie stehn wohl sehr in deiner Gunst?

You’re in sympathy with them, perhaps?

ALTMAYER:

Der Schmerbauch mit der kahlen Platte!
Das Unglück macht ihn zahm und mild;
Er sieht in der geschwollnen Ratte
Sind ganz natürlich Ebenbild

That fat belly with a balding head!
Bad luck makes him meek and mild:
From a swollen rat, he sees, with dread,
His own natural likeness is compiled.

At this point, Faust and Mephistopheles finally appear. The stage has been set for them. The students are drunk and quarrelsome. A failed attempt to address a political song has been overtaken by a ribald song of love and death, which ominously forecasts the tragic fate of Gretchen at Faust’s hands (‘As if she had love in her belly’). Now Faust and Mephistopheles can indulge their contempt towards the student mob, much like Goethe and Behrisch most likely did in their time.

Faust and Mephisto

Sculptures at the entrance of Auerbachs Keller

(Faust und Mephistopheles treten auf)

(Faust and Mephistopheles appear)

MEPHISTOPHELES:

Ich muß dich nun vor allen Dingen
In lustige Gesellschaft bringen,
Damit du siehst, wie leicht sich's leben läßt.
Dem Volke hier wird jeder Tag ein Fest.
Mit wenig Witz und viel Behagen
Dreht jeder sich im engen Zirkeltanz,
Wie junge Katzen mit dem Schwanz.
Wenn sie nicht über Kopfweh klagen,
So lang der Wirt nur weiter borgt,
Sind sie vergnügt und unbesorgt.

First of all, I had to bring you here,
Where cheerful friends sup together,
To see how happily life slips away.
For these folk every day’s a holiday.
With lots of leisure, and little sense,
They revolve in their round-dance,
Chasing their tails as kittens prance,
If the hangovers aren’t too intense,
If the landlord gives them credit,
They’re cheerful, and unworried by it.

Mephisto’s evaluation of the scene is an improvement over its reality. There is no happiness here, and no enjoyment of the moment. In fact there is little cheerfulness, rather competitiveness, sexual frustration, a hankering after lust and a barely suppressed violence. This is the painful carousal induced by alcohol, an attempt at forgetfulness after another sordid day of reality. There is indeed leisure, and little sense, but the scene we just witnessed was a far cry from the innocent prance of kittens chasing their tails. Yet Mephisto’s point to Faust is that mortal life is precisely no more than that, an aimless chasing of one’s tail, where days follow each other senselessly and aimlessly and ‘life slips away.’ Cheerfulness and the absence of worry is proposed as a balm for the frustrated Faust, and as an enticement to renounce all striving and perhaps say to the passing moment, ‘tarry a while, thou art so fair!’

The students gaze at the strangers as they walk in. Brander takes them for foreigners, since the Doctor and Mephisto are elegantly attired adults in a student bar, one of them exotically dressed.

BRANDER:

Die kommen eben von der Reise,
Man sieht's an ihrer wunderlichen Weise;
Sie sind nicht eine Stunde hier.

They’re fresh from their traveling days,
You can tell by their foreign ways:
They’ve not been back an hour: you see.

FROSCH:

Wahrhaftig, du hast recht! Mein Leipzig lob ich mir!
Es ist ein klein Paris, und bildet seine Leute.

True, you’re right! My Leipzig’s dear to me!
It’s a little Paris, and educates its people.

(Below, painting of Leipzig in the nineteenth century. Museum of History, Leipzig)

Goethe here makes his reference to Leipzig’s reputation as a cultured city. Faust’s new life, like Goethe’s own, begins in a University town.

SIEBEL:

Für was siehst du die Fremden an?

Who do you think the strangers are?

FROSCH:

Laß mich nur gehn! Bei einem vollen Glase
Zieh ich, wie einen Kinderzahn,
Den Burschen leicht die Würmer aus der Nase.
Sie scheinen mir aus einem edlen Haus,
Sie sehen stolz und unzufrieden aus.

Let me find out! I’ll draw the truth,
From those two, with a brimming glass,
As easily as you’d pull a child’s tooth.
It seems to me they’re of some noble house,
They look so discontented and so proud.

Initially, the students think they can outwit these two misplaced strangers, deceiving themselves by the natural arrogance of youth and a sense of possession in familiar haunts. A drink will loosen the tongue of these travelers and disclose their identiy.

BRANDER:

Marktschreier sind's gewiß, ich wette!

They’re surely strolling players, I’d guess!

ALTMAYER:

Vielleicht.

Perhaps.

FROSCH:

Gib acht, ich schraube sie!

Watch me screw it out of them, then!

Mephistopheles remarks on the naïvete and innocence of the students.

MEPHISTOPHELES: (zu Faust):

Den Teufel spürt das Völkchen nie,
Und wenn er sie beim Kragen hätte.

These folk wouldn’t feel the devil, even
If he’d got them dangling by the neck.

Faust now utters the only words he will say until its time for him to leave. He is clearly not going to have a good time at Auerbach’s Keller.

FAUST:

Seid uns gegrüßt, ihr Herrn!

Greetings, sirs!

SIEBEL:

Viel Dank zum Gegengruß.

(Leise, Mephistopheles von der Seite ansehend)

Was hinkt der Kerl auf einem Fuß?

Thank you, and greetings.

(He mutters away, inspecting Mephistopheles side-on)

What’s wrong with his foot: why’s he limping?

Mephisto, apparently not noticing the insult, shows his contempt for the environment he finds himself in: in a student beer hall it will most likely be impossible to have anything decent to drink.

MEPHISTOPHELES:

Ist es erlaubt, uns auch zu euch zu setzen?
Statt eines guten Trunks, den man nicht haben kann
Soll die Gesellschaft uns ergetzen.

Allow us to sit with you, if you please.
Instead of fine ale that can’t be had,
We can still have good company.

SIEBEL:

Ihr scheint ein sehr verwöhnter Mann.

You seem a choosy sort of lad.

FROSCH:

Ihr seid wohl spät von Rippach aufgebrochen?
Habt ihr mit Herren Hans noch erst zu Nacht gespeist?

Was it late when you started out from Rippach?
Perhaps you dined with Hans there, first?

The students feel thy have the upper hand. Frosch’s reference to Hans Rippach is meant to make his friends laugh at the expense of the strangers, who are now guests at their table. Rippach was a village near Leipzig, the last post station for changing horses on the way from Naumburg to Leipzig. It was proverbially a place of origin for fools and dupes, inhabited by boorish farmers and squires, and Hans Arse, Hans Arsch (Arse) von Rippach, a sort of loud-mouthed potato baron, was a figure of fun for the Leipzig students.

Mephisto’s response, where he refers to the students as Hans Rippach’s cousins, is designed to show them he is not easily outwitted, and a sign of things to come.

MEPHISTOPHELES:

Heut sind wir ihn vorbeigereist!
Wir haben ihn das letztemal gesprochen.
Von seinen Vettern wußt er viel zu sagen,
Viel Grüße hat er uns an jeden aufgetragen.

(Er neigt sich gegen Frosch)

We passed straight by, today, without a rest!
We spoke to him last some time back,
When he talked a lot about his cousins,
And he sent to each his kind greetings.

(He bows to Frosch)

ALTMAYER (leise):

Da hast du's! der versteht's!

(Aside)
He did you, there! He’s smart!

SIEBEL:

Ein pfiffiger Patron!

A shrewd customer

FROSCH:

Nun, warte nur, ich krieg ihn schon!

Wait, I’ll have him soon, I’m sure!

Frosch wants to test his wits with the Devil.

MEPHISTOPHELES:

Wenn ich nicht irrte, hörten wir
Geübte Stimmen Chorus singen?
Gewiß, Gesang muß trefflich hier
Von dieser Wölbung widerklingen!

If I’m not wrong, we heard
A tuneful choir singing?
I’m sure, with this vault, the words
Must really set it ringing!

The latter is a reference to the vaulted ceiling of Auerbach’s wine cellar, as well as an ironic reference to the students’ previous caterwauling.

FROSCH:

Seid Ihr wohrgar ein Virtuos?

Are you by any chance a virtuoso?

MEPHISTOPHELES:

O nein! die Kraft ist schwach, allein die Lust ist groß.

No! Though my desire is great, my skill is only so-so.

ALTMAYER:

Gebt uns ein Lied!

Give us a song!

MEPHISTOPHELES:

Wenn ihr begehrt, die Menge.

If you wish it, a few.

SIEBEL:

Nur auch ein nagelneues Stück!

So long as it’s a brand-new one!

MEPHISTOPHELES:

Wir kommen erst aus Spanien zurück,
Dem schönen Land des Weins und der Gesänge.

(Singt)

Es war einmal ein König,
Der hatt einen großen Floh-

Well, it’s from Spain that we’ve just come,
The lovely land of wine, and singing too.

(He sings)

‘There was once a king, who
Had a giant flea’ –

FROSCH:

Horcht! Einen Froh! Habt ihr das wohl gefaßt?
Ein Floh ist mir ein saubrer Gast.

Listen! Did you get that? A flea.
A flea’s an honest guest to me.

Mephistopheles’ song about the flea is political satire. Whereas the song about the Holy Roman Empire had been hastily dismissed by the students and substituted by the song about the rat, here Mephisto is allowed to proceed without more. The song is a satire on the Ancien Regime, the established political order in Europe prior to the French Revolution. The flea is an upstart member of the court, a favorite of the king, holding court with the king. Even though, in the song, the members of the aristocracy find it appalling that a flea would thus join their ranks, they accept its preferment and submit to the parasite that gorges on their blood. Like many a parasite among the ruling classes, fleas fatten on the blood of those who are more powerful, for they have no independent means of existence.

Courtiers: Aert de Gelder, Banquet at the House of Ahasuerus, 1680

MEPHISTOPHELES (singt):

Es war einmal ein König
Der hatt einen großen Floh,
Den liebt, er gar nicht wenig,
Als wie seinen eignen Sohn.
Da rief er seinen Schneider,
Der Schneider kam heran:
Da, miß dem Junker Kleider
Und miß ihm Hosen an!

‘There was once a king, who
Had a giant flea,
He loved him very much, oh,
He was like a son, you see.
The king called for his tailor,
He came right away:
Now, measure up the lad for
A suit of clothes, I say!’

BRANDER:

Vergeßt nur nicht, dem Schneider einzuschärfen,
Daß er mir aufs genauste mißt,
Und daß, so lieb sein Kopf ihm ist,
Die Hosen keine Falten werfen!

Make sure the tailor’s sharp,
And cuts them out precisely,
And, since his son’s dear to his heart,
Make sure there’s never a crease to see.

MEPHISTOPHELES:

In Sammet und in Seide
War er nun angetan
Hatte Bänder auf dem Kleide,
Hatt auch ein Kreuz daran
Und war sogleich Minister,
Und hatt einen großen Stern.
Da wurden seine Geschwister
Bei Hof auch große Herrn.

Und Herrn und Fraun am Hofe,
Die waren sehr geplagt,
Die Königin und die Zofe
Gestochen und genagt,
Und durften sie nicht knicken,
Und weg sie jucken nicht.
Wir knicken und ersticken
Doch gleich, wenn einer sticht.

All in silk and velvet,
He was smartly dressed,
With ribbons on his coat,
A cross upon his chest.
He was the First Minister,
And so he wore a star:
His brothers and his sisters,
He made noblest by far.

The lords and the ladies,
They were badly smitten,
The Queen and her maids,
They were stung and bitten.
They didn’t dare to crush them,
Or scratch away, all night.
We smother them, and crush them,
The moment that they bite.’

Courtiers

CHORUS (jauchzend):

Wir knicken und ersticken
Doch gleich, wenn einer sticht.

CHORUS (Shouting)

‘We smother them, and crush them,
The moment that they bite.’

FROSCH:

Bravo! Bravo! Das war schön!

Bravo! Bravo! That went sweetly!

SIEBEL:

So soll es jedem Floh ergehn!

So shall it be with every flea!

BRANDER:

Spitzt die Finger und packt sie fein!

Sharpen your nails, and crush them fine!

ALTMAYER:

Es lebe die Freiheit! Es lebe der Wein!

Long live freedom, and long live wine!

The students have all been put in a fine mood by Mephisto’s song, thus setting the stage for what happens next, which is their deception and humiliation. Mephisto calls for a drink, so as to ensnare the unsuspecting and already besotted students.

MEPHISTOPHELES:

Ich tränke gern ein Glas, die Freiheit hoch zu ehren,
Wenn eure Weine nur ein bißchen besser wären.

I’d love to drink a glass, in freedom’s honor,
If only the wine were a little better.

Why does Mephisto propose a toast to Freedom? He is setting the stage for the temptation of the students with the magical wines, their deception and humiliation, but why freedom?

SIEBEL:

Wir mögen das nicht wieder hören!

Not again, we don’t want to hear!

MEPHISTOPHELES:

Ich fürchte nur, der Wirt beschweret sich;
Sonst gäb ich diesen werten Gästen
Aus unserm Keller was zum besten.

I fear the landlord might complain
Or I’d give these worthy guests,
One of my cellar’s very best.

Auerbachs Keller today: Faust and Mephistopheles sit on the wine-barrel.

SIEBEL:

Nur immer her! ich nehm's auf mich.

Just bring it on! He’ll accept it: I’ll explain.

The landlord will not object to the serving of a guest’s own wine, the students will talk him into it. They have the run of the place!

FROSCH:

Schafft Ihr ein gutes Glas, so wollen wir Euch loben.
Nur gebt nicht gar zu kleine Proben
Denn wenn ich judizieren soll,
Verlang ich auch das Maul recht voll.

Make it a good glass and we’ll praise it.
But don’t make it so small we can’t taste it.
Because if I’m truly going to decide,
I need a really big mouthful inside.

The students are daring Mephisto to make free with his wine.

ALTMAYER (leise):

Sie sind vom Rheine, wie ich spüre.

(Aside)
They’re from the Rhine, as I guessed.

Altmayer is only speculating on the origin of the strangers, but has no clear notion. His reference to the Rhineland, the source of Germany’s most highly regarded wines, is due to his growing admiration for Mephistopheles’ apparent sophistication.

Mephistopheles now sets in motion his plan to humiliate the students. He calls for a corkscrew, with which he will bore holes in the table, seal them, and thus create a tap for the spirits he will serve, and he suggests to the group that they each request whatever drink they desire. “There is a choice for every one of you.” The meaning of his toast to “Freedom” begins to emerge. It is the freedom of desire.

[Above, a mural at Auerbachs Keller shows Mephistopheles preparing his tap]

MEPHISTOPHELES:

Schafft einen Bohrer an!

Bring me a corkscrew!

BRANDER:

Was soll mit dem geschehn? Ihr habt doch nicht die Fässer vor der Türe?

What for?
Is it outside already, this cask?

ALTMAYER:

Dahinten hat der Wirt ein Körbchen Werkzeug stehn.

There’s one in the landlord’s toolbox, for sure.

MEPHISTOPHELES (nimmt den Bohrer. Zu Frosch):

Nun sagt, was wünschet Ihr zu schmecken?

(Takes the corkscrew. To Frosch)

Now, what would you like to try?

FROSCH:

Wie meint Ihr das? Habt Ihr so mancherlei?

What? Is there a selection, too?

MEPHISTOPHELES:

Ich stell es einem jeden frei.

There’s a choice for every one of you.

ALTMAYER (zu Frosch):

Aha! du fängst schon an, die Lippen abzulecken.

(To Frosch)
Ah! You soon catch on: your lips are dry?

FROSCH:

Gut! wenn ich wählen soll, so will ich Rheinwein haben.
Das Vaterland verleiht die allerbesten Gaben.

Good! When I’ve a choice, I drink Rhenish.
The Fatherland grants those best gifts to us.

MEPHISTOPHELES (indem er an dem Platz, wo Frosch sitzt, ein Loch in den Tischrand bohrt):

Verschafft ein wenig Wachs, die Pfropfen gleich zu machen!

(Boring a hole in the table-edge where Frosch is sitting)

Bring me a little wax, to make the seals, as well!

ALTMAYER:

Ach, das sind Taschenspielersachen.

Ah, that’s for the conjuring trick, I can tell.

[Altmayer is guessing right: Mephisto is indeed setting up a conjuring trick]

MEPHISTOPHELES (zu Brander):

Und Ihr?

(To Brander.)

And yours?

BRANDER:

Ich will Champagner Wein Und recht moussierend soll er sein!

(Mephistopheles bohrt; einer hat indessen die Wachspfropfen gemacht
und verstopft.)

Man kann nicht stets das Fremde meiden
Das Gute liegt uns oft so fern.
Ein echter deutscher Mann mag keinen Franzen leiden,
Doch ihre Weine trinkt er gern.

Champagne for me is fine:
Make it a truly sparkling wine!

(Mephistopheles bores the holes: one of the others makes the wax stoppers and stops the holes with them.)

We can’t always shun what’s foreign,
Things from far away are often fine.
Real Germans can’t abide a Frenchman,
And yet they gladly drink his wine.

Wine Judges

SIEBEL (indem sich Mephistopheles seinem Platze nähert):

Ich muß gestehn, den sauern mag ich nicht,
Gebt mir ein Glas vom echten süßen!

(As Mephistopheles approaches his seat)

I must confess I do dislike the dry,
Give me a glass of the very sweetest!

MEPHISTOPHELES (bohrt):

Euch soll sogleich Tokayer fließen.

(Boring a hole)

I’ll pour an instant Tokay for you, yes?

Once again, as he did earlier, Altmeyer, the alumnus, is suspiciously aware that Mephistopheles is outwitting all of them, but he continues to go along with the prank, as Mephisto tries to disabuse him of his doubt.

ALTMAYER:

Nein, Herren, seht mir ins Gesicht!
Ich seh es ein, ihr habt uns nur zum besten.

Now, gentlemen, look me in the eye!
I see you’ve had the better of us there.

MEPHISTOPHELES:

Ei! Ei! Mit solchen edlen Gästen
Wär es ein bißchen viel gewagt.
Geschwind! Nur grad heraus gesagt!
Mit welchem Weine kann ich dienen?

Now! Now! With guests so rare,
That would be far too much for me to dare.
Quick! Time for you to declare!
Which wine can I serve you with?

ALTMAYER:

Mit jedem! Nur nicht lang gefragt.

(Nachdem die Löcher alle gebohrt und verstopft sind.)

Any at all! Don’t make us ask forever.

(Now all the holes have been stopped and sealed.)

Mephisto now proceeds to conjure the alcoholic spirits. He has turned the table into a tap-room bar to pour and serve the drinks.

MEPHISTOPHELES (mit seltsamen Gebärden):

Trauben trägt der Weinstock!
Hörner der Ziegenbock;
Der Wein ist saftig, Holz die Reben,
Der hölzerne Tisch kann Wein auch geben.
Ein tiefer Blick in die Natur!
Hier ist ein Wunder, glaubet nur!
Nun zieht die Pfropfen und genießt!

(With a strange gesture)

Grapes, they are the vine’s load!
Horns, they are the he-goat’s:
Wine is juice: wood makes vines,
The wooden board shall give us wine.
Look deeper into Nature!
Have faith, and here’s a wonder!
Now draw the stoppers, and drink up!

ALLE (indem sie die Pfropfen ziehen und jedem der verlangte Wein ins Glas läuft):

O schöner Brunnen, der uns fließt!

ALL ( they draw the stoppers, and the spirits they chose flow into each glass.)

O lovely fount, that flows for us!

MEPHISTOPHELES:

Nur hütet euch, daß ihr mir nichts vergießt!

(Sie trinken wiederholt)

But careful, don’t lose a drop!

(They drink repeatedly)

ALLE (singen):

Uns ist ganz kannibalisch wohl,
Als wie fünfhundert Säuen!

ALL (singing)

‘We’re all of us cannibals now,
We’re like five hundred sows.’

MEPHISTOPHELES:

Das Volk ist frei, seht an, wie wohl's ihm geht!

The folk are free, and we can go, you see!

Mephisto has turned to the silent Faust, and remarks that his job is done. Now we understand Mephistopheles’ earlier toast to “Freedom.” It is the freedom from reason and sense, the freedom of unbridled desire. His irony points to the fact that he has degraded the students to the level of animals or infants. “The folk are free.”

Faust then utters the first words he has spoken since his initial greeting. He is not amused at Auerbachs Keller. He wants to leave, but Mephisto urges him to look upon the ‘bestiality’ of the students.

FAUST:

Ich hätte Lust, nun abzufahren.

I’d like to leave here now.

MEPHISTOPHELES:

Gib nur erst acht, die Bestialität
Wird sich gar herrlich offenbaren.

Watch first: their bestiality
Will make a splendid show.

This is the final humiliation and degradation of the students by Mephistopheles. He has taken advantage of their need for alcoholic inebriation, and degraded them accordingly. They are singing about how they are all cannibals and sows when Mephisto invites Faust to observe their bestiality. Mephistopheles thus shows his contempt for humanity. But the show is not over, for he must also make them afraid.

Siebel, drinking without care, drops his wine on the ground and starts a fire. “Hell burns bright!” Satan’s fire, Mephisto’s “friendly element,” burns bright.

Delacroix, Scene at Auerbachs Keller from the Faust

SIEBEL (trinkt unvorsichtig, der Wein fließt auf die Erde und wird zur Flamme):

Helft! Feuer! helft! Die Hölle brennt!

Help! Fire! Hell burns bright!

MEPHISTOPHELES (die Flamme besprechend):

Sei ruhig, freundlich Element!

(Zu den Gesellen.)

Für diesmal war es nur ein Tropfen Fegefeuer.

(Charming away the flame)

Friendly element, be quiet!

(To the drinkers)

For this time, just a drop of Purgatory.

Mephistopheles makes reference to the long night of Purgatory that the students will have to look forward after their death.

[Below, a mural at Auerbachs Keller shows Mephisto conjuring the fire]

SIEBEL:

Was soll das sein? Wart! Ihr bezahlt es teuer!
Es scheinet, daß Ihr uns nicht kennt.

What’s that? You wait! You’ll pay dearly!
It seems you don’t quite see us right.

Indeed, “you don’t quite see us right” The students and Siebel have finally wised up to the trick that has been played upon them, and are angered by their humiliation and degradation.

FROSCH:

Laß Er uns das zum zweiten Male bleiben!

Try playing that trick a second time, on us!

ALTMAYER:

Ich dächt, wir hießen ihn ganz sachte seitwärts gehn.

I think we should quietly send him packing.

SIEBEL:

Was, Herr? Er will sich unterstehn,
Und hier sein Hokuspokus treiben?

What, sir? You think you’re daring,
Tricking us with your hocus-pocus?

But Mephistopheles’ contempt is now finally expressed openly:

MEPHISTOPHELES:

Still, altes Weinfaß!

Be quiet, you old wine-barrel!

SIEBEL:

Besenstiel! Du willst uns gar noch grob begegnen?

You broomstick! You’ll show us you’re ill bred?

And Siebel has become aware, at some level of his consciousness, that the stranger in their midst is the Devil. A “broomstick” is the vehicle of witches and worlocks.

BRANDER:

Wart nur, es sollen Schläge regnen!

Just wait, it’ll rain blows, on your head!

ALTMAYER (zieht einen Pfropf aus dem Tisch, es springt ihm Feuer entgegen):

Ich brenne! ich brenne!

(Draws a stopper and fire blazes in his face)

I’m burning! Burning!

Sculpture group at the entrance of Auerbachs Keller

SIEBEL:

Zauberei!
Stoßt zu! der Kerl ist vogelfrei!

(Sie ziehen die Messer und gehn auf Mephistopheles los.)

It’s magic, strike!
The man’s a rascal! Kick him as you like!

(They draw knives and rush at Mephistopheles)

Sculptures at the entrance of Auerbachs Keller

MEPHISTOPHELES (mit ernsthafter Gebärde):

Falsch Gebild und Wort
Verändern Sinn und Ort!
Seid hier und dort!

(Sie stehn erstaunt und sehn einander an)

(With solemn gestures)

Word and Image, ensnare!
Alter, senses and air!
Be here, and there!

(They look at each other, amazed)

ALTMAYER:

Wo bin ich? Welches schöne Land!

Where am I? What a lovely land!

FROSCH:

Weinberge! Seh ich recht?

Vineyards? Am I seeing straight?

SIEBEL:

Und Trauben gleich zur Hand!

And, likewise, grapes to hand!

BRANDER:

Hier unter diesem grünen Laube,
Seht, welch ein Stock! Seht, welche Traube!

(Er faßt Siebeln bei der Nase. Die andern tun es wechselseitig und heben die Messer)

Deep in this green arbor, here,
See, the vines! What grapes appear!

(He grasps Siebel by the nose: the others do the same reciprocally, and raise their knives.)

If at first they were only deceived, the students are now totally humiliated, holding each other by their noses and wandering about among illusions and hallucinations.

MEPHISTOPHELES (wie oben):

Irrtum, laß los der Augen Band!
Und merkt euch, wie der Teufel spaße.

(Er verschwindet mit Faust, die Gesellen fahren auseinander)

From their eyes, Error, take the iron band,
And let them see how the Devil plays a joke.

(He vanishes with Faust: the revellers separate)

SIEBEL:

Was gibt s?

What’s happening?

ALTMAYER:

Wie?

And how?

FROSCH:

War das deine Nase?

Was that your nose?

BRANDER (zu Siebel):

Und deine hab ich in der Hand!

(To Siebel)
And I’ve still got your nose in my hand!

ALTMAYER:

Es war ein Schlag, der ging durch alle Glieder!
Schafft einen Stuhl, ich sinke nieder!

It was a tremor that passed through every limb!
Pass me a stool: I’m sinking in!

FROSCH:

Nein, sagt mir nur, was ist geschehn?

Tell me: what happened there, my friend?

SIEBEL:

Wo ist der Kerl? Wenn ich ihn spüre,
Er soll mir nicht lebendig gehn!

Where is he? When I catch that fellow,
He won’t leave here alive again!

Altmayer now makes reference to the very origin of the Auerbachs Keller episode, buried deep in history and myth, which is the story of Dr. Faustus riding out of Auerbachs Keller on a barrel.

ALTMAYER:

Ich hab ihn selbst hinaus zur Kellertüre-
Auf einem Fasse reiten sehn--
Es liegt mir bleischwer in den Füßen.

(Sich nach dem Tische wendend.)

Mein! Sollte wohl der Wein noch fließen?

I saw him myself fly out of the cellar
Riding on a barrel – and then –
I feel there’s lead still in my feet.

(He turns towards the table.)

Ah! Does the wine still flow as sweet?

SIEBEL:

Betrug war alles, Lug und Schein.

It was deception, cheating, lying.

FROSCH:

Mir deuchte doch, als tränk ich Wein.

Still, it seemed that I drank wine.

BRANDER:

Aber wie war es mit den Trauben?

And what about all those grapes that hung there?

ALTMAYER:

Nun sag mir eins, man soll kein Wunder glauben!

Tell me, now, we shouldn’t believe in wonders!

And so ends the scene at Auerbachs Keller in Leipzig, as Faust and Mephistopheles depart on an adventure which shall take Faust to the palaces and battlefields of the Holy Roman Emperors, to the Mothers of Invention, to Ancient Greece, the shores of the Aegean and the valleys of the Peneus, to the fortresses of Mystra, and into the arms of Gretchen and of Helen of Troy, forever dissatisfied and forever striving onwards until he reaches the lowlands where he will finally learn to care. His brief sojourn at Auerbachs Keller, among its wine-barrels, and with his ever-present companion goading him on, was no more than a brief glimpse into the mortal life he was so intent on overcoming.

The Sanctuary at Dodona in Epirus

2011-12-30T16:17:00.000-08:00

Travel Diaries: The Sanctuary of Zeus-Naios at Dodona
November, 2000

View of the temenos: Ruins of the Temple of Zeus-Naios and sacred oaks on the site

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Dodona is a religious sanctuary associated with the Dorian Greeks, situated in a valley in the northern Greek province of Epirus, south of Joannina. As is the case in many other Greek religious sites, there is a superimposition of cults in this sanctuary. Originally it was the site of an oracle devoted to a Mother Goddess, Rhea or Gaia, but called Dione in Epirus. Eventually, no doubt after the coming of the Dorians, it became a shrine to Zeus, here called Zeus Naios (Zeus of the Spring of Naiads). At this sanctuary, or temenos, the ancient Greeks built a temple to Zeus-Naios, a Stadion, a great theatre and various smaller temples. The great theatre of Pyrrhus, built in the third century BCE, has been reconstructed and the remains of the temple of Zeus-Naios and other ruins of the ancient temenos, or sacred site, are visible. Even some of the oaks of the sacred grove are standing.

Map showing the location of Dodona (Source: Wikipedia)

Photo of the valley of Mt. Tomaros taken in the 1920's. (Hanns Holdt)

Dodona is located just south-west of the city of Ioannina, in the valley of Mount Tomaros in Epirus, Northern Greece.

The Sanctuary

Map of the Sanctuary (Baedeker)

Until 650 BCE, Dodona was a religious and oracular centre mainly for northern tribes, which were variously known as Pelasgians, Thesprotians and Moulossians. It is only after 650 BCE that it became significant to the southern tribes, most likely because of its conquest by the Dorians who descended from the Balkans into Greece through the valleys of Epirus.
The site was identified in 1873 by Constantinos Karapanos, who discovered a number of bronze objects now in the Archaeological Museum in Athens. More scientific excavations have been undertaken by the Greek Archaelogical Service since 1952, and there has been some restoration, particularly of the Theater of Pyrrhus.

View of the temenos in Dodona

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Views of the temenos and surrounding areas

The Great Theater at Dodona.

Approach to the Theater of Pyrrhus

The Hellenistic Revival: The Theater of Pyrrhus.

The Great Theater of Pyrrhus as it was in the 1920's (Hanns Holdt)

The Great Theater of Pyrrhus today.

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"Wintry Dodona" (Iliad, 16: 234)

Bust of Pyrrhus, or Pyrros, King of Epirus (319/318 BCE–272 BCE)

In c. 290 BCE, King Pyrrhus of Epirus (“Another such victory over the Romans and we’re undone!”), made Dodona the religious capital of his domain and beautified it by implementing a series of fantastic construction projects, including the great Temple of Zeus and the great theater, designed to enact festivals of athletic and musical competition. A wall was built around the oracle itself and the holy tree, as well as temples to Herakles and Dione.

The temple and theater were burned in 219 BCE by the invading Aetolians and the site abandoned. But there was reconstruction in the late 200’s BCE by King Philip V of Macedonia. Destroyed by the Romans under Aemilius Paulus once again, the sanctuary at Dodona was later rebuilt by the Emperor Augustus in 31 BCE, after his victory over Anthony and Cleopatra at Actium that same year, but he turned the theater into an arena. In 362 A.D., the Emperor Julian consulted the oracle prior to his military adventure against the Persians, where he lost his life. When the Christian Emperor Theodosius closed all pagan temples in 391-92 A.D., it is said that he cut down one of the last remaining oaks.

The theater of Pyrrhus was unearthed in the 1950’s and restored in 1960-63.

The temenos

Aristotle believed that the region around Dodona was the place where the Hellenes originated (Meteorologica at 1.14), but this is to take the Dorians as the original Hellenes, which is dubious.

The custom of interpreting the rustling of the leaves of the oak or beech trees probably antedates the Dorian invasion, but the Dorian priesthood became famous thereafter in its competition with the Delphic oracle.

At Dodona, Zeus was worshipped as "Zeus Naios" or "Naos" (god of the spring, or of the Naiads — there was a spring below the oak in the temenos or sanctuary. Originally an oracle of the Mother Goddess, the oracle was shared by Dione (whose name, like "Zeus," simply means "deity") and Zeus. Many dedicatory inscriptions recovered from the site mention both "Dione" and "Zeus Naios".

In the Iliad, Achilles prays to "High Zeus, Lord of Dodona, Pelasgian.” There is no mention of the temple or the theater in Homer, but there is mention of the high priests of the sanctuary, the Selloi.

“High Zeus, Lord of Dodona, Pelasgian, living afar off,
Brooding over wintry Dodona, your prophets about you
Living, the Selloi who sleep on the ground with feet unwashed. Hear me!”
(Richard Lattimore translation, 16: 233-235).

The oracle is also mentioned in Odysseus's fictive yarn about himself told to the swineherd Eumaeus: (Odyssey, 14.327-14.328). Odysseus, he tells Eumaeus, has been seen among the Thesprotians, having gone to inquire of the oracle at Dodona whether he should return to Ithaca openly or in secret (as the disguised Odysseus is actually doing).

“The man himself had gone up to Dodona
To ask the spelling leaves of the old oak
The will of God: how to return, that is,
To the rich realm of Ithaka, after so long
An absence – openly, or by stealth.” (14: 327-31)

Odysseus later repeats the same tale to Penelope, who may not yet have seen through his disguise. (Homer. Odyssey, 19: 299-303) His words reveal a familiarity with Dodona, a realization of its importance, and an understanding that it was normal to consult Zeus there.

And Socrates says to Phaedrus: "They used to say, my friend, that the words of the oak in the holy place of Zeus at Dodona were the first prophetic utterances. The people of that time, not being so wise as you young folks, were content in their simplicity to hear an oak or a rock, provided only it spoke the truth." [Plato, Phaedrus 275b (trans. Fowler)]

Hesiod

Hesiod, Catalogues of Women: Fragment 97 (from the Scholiast on Sophocles Trachinae 1167) (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C8th or 7th B.C.):

"There is a land Hellopia with much glebe and rich meadows, and rich in flocks and shambling kine. There dwell men who have many sheep and many oxen, and they are in number past telling, tribes of mortal men. And there upon its border is built a city, Dodona; and Zeus loved it and appointed it to be his oracle, reverenced by men . . . And they [the doves] lived in the hollow of an oak (phêgou). From them men of earth carry away all kinds of prophecy,--whosoever fares to that spot and questions the deathless god, and comes bringing gifts with good omens."

Herodotus

Fictitious portrait of Herodotus (490-425 BCE)

Herodotus (Histories 2:54–57) was told by priests at Egyptian Thebes in the 5th century BCE "that two priestesses had been carried away from Thebes by the Phoenicians; one, they said they had heard was taken away and sold in Libya, the other in Hellas; these women, they said, were the first founders of places of divination in the aforesaid countries."

Herodotus follows with what he was told by the prophetesses, called peleiades ("doves") at Dodona:

"...that two black doves had come flying from Thebes in Egypt, one to Libya and one to Dodona; the latter settled on an oak tree, and there uttered human speech, declaring that a place of divination from Zeus must be made there; the people of Dodona understood that the message was divine, and therefore established the oracular shrine. The dove which came to Libya told the Libyans (they say) to make an oracle of Ammon; this also is sacred to Zeus. Such was the story told by the Dodonaean priestesses, the eldest of whom was Promeneia and the next Timarete and the youngest Nicandra; and the rest of the servants of the temple at Dodona similarly held it true."

"But my own belief about it is this. If the Phoenicians did in fact carry away the sacred women and sell one in Libya and one in Hellas, then, in my opinion, the place where this woman was sold was in what is now Hellas, but was formerly called Pelasgia, and later Thesprotia; and then, being a slave there, she established a shrine of Zeus under an oak that was growing there; for it was reasonable that, as she had been a handmaid of the temple of Zeus at Thebes, she would remember that temple in the land to which she had come. After this, as soon as she understood the Greek language, she taught divination; and she said that her sister had been sold in Libya by the same Phoenicians who sold her."

"I expect that these women were called 'doves' by the people of Dodona because they spoke a strange language, and the people thought it like the cries of birds; then the woman spoke what they could understand, and that is why they say that the dove uttered human speech; as long as she spoke in a foreign tongue, they thought her voice was like the voice of a bird. For how could a dove utter the speech of men? The tale that the dove was black signifies that the woman was Egyptian."

(Histories at 2: 54–57)

View of the temenos and the sacred oak at Dodona, with Mount Tomaros in the background.

Works from the David M. Robinson Collection

2011-12-29T16:08:00.000-08:00

The David M. Robinson Collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities at the University of Mississippi Museum of Art is one of the finest collections of its kind in the United States. Covering the period from 1500 BCE to 300 AD, the collection contains Greek and Roman sculpture, Greek decorated pottery, architectural fragments, small artifacts in terracotta and bronze, and Greek and Roman coins.

The images shown below are photographs I took at the University of Mississippi Museum of Art in July, 2011, a few examples of black-figure and red-figure Attic pottery which are works of Athenian craftsmen from the sixth and fifth centuries BCE and part of the permanent collection there. There are only a few pieces depicted in the blog, but they reveal the main characteristics of each style. As well, I show a few oil lamps, and the painting on a kylix which reveals an unusual method of depilation by means of the oil lamp.

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Pallas Athena holding a helmet over an altar.

Amphora, Attic red-figure style, 500-490 BCE.

The Greek and Roman Antiquities Collection at the University of Mississippi Museum of Art is named after its donor, David M. Robinson, who was Professor of Classics at the University prior to his death in 1958.

David M. Robinson was born in Auburn, New York, in 1880. He received his A.B. degree in 1898 and his Ph.D. in 1904 from the University of Chicago. After serving as head of the Classics Department at Illinois College in Urbana from 1904-05, Robinson spent the majority of his career at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

Considered an influential figure in Mississippi Archaeology, Robinson conducted artifact excavations in Corinth, Greece (1902-1903) and in Sardis, also in Greece in 1910. In 1924, he directed the excavation of Pisidian Antioch and Sizma for the University of Michigan. His greatest archaeological achievement was the discovery and excavation of the ancient city of Olynthus from 1928 through 1938. Throughout his career, Robinson was widely published in Archaeology as well as Greek and Roman literature, history and linguistics.

In 1947, he retired from Johns Hopkins and accepted a position as Professor of Classical Archaeology at the University of Mississippi where he taught for ten years. Robinson passed away in 1958, leaving behind a wealth of published research and a unique collection of Greek and Roman antiquities, which was donated to the University of Mississippi Museum of Art. (Source: Museum notes)

Satyr, visible in the portrait of David Robinson, is a marble Greek bust from Pergamon, dated ca. 200 BCE, part of Robinson's private collection.

Attic Black-Figure Ceramics

Attic black-figure style emerged from the Proto-Attic style, towards the beginning of the seventh century BCE. It is a reflection of the Archaic or Lyric Art of the Greeks, primarily the style of the sixth century BCE. (See my blog of October 31, 2010: "Tragic Art: The Treasure House of the Siphnians.") A new method of outline drawing developed, with extensive use of white and an occasional but inconsistent admixture of incisions. Human figures are presented on a large scale, etched against a white or red background, or against the background of the warm brown of the clay. The figures are always shown frontally or in profile and in rigid pose. The representations are one-dimensional, formalized and stiff, in the form of religious imaging. Towards the year 630 BCE, the discipline of the Corinthian school begins to be emulated and a fully developed Archaic art of ceramics becomes prevalent in the Attic peninsula until the end of the sixth century BCE, when it is displaced by red-figure style (discussed below). Around 530 BCE, the inadequacy of the black-figure method of silhouette and incision will lead to the introduction of red-figure outline drawing. Yet the black-figure style did not die off immediately and works in this style are still being made in the fifth century. Due to the conservatism of the priestly classes and the ruling elites, the black-figure style was required on the amphoras presented full of oil to the victors in the Panathenaic Games.

I photographed only two examples of the black-figure style from the David Robinson Collection. The first is the neck-amphora of 530-515 BCE showing a warrior and two youths.

Neck-amphora. Attic Black-Figure Style, 530-515 BCE.

Note that the warrior and the two youths are depicted in profile and entirely in silhouette, in one-dimensional fashion, rigidly and formally facing one another. Their eyes are in profile and the eyeballs in the center of the eye, as was the formal tradition of this style. The garments, as well as the pose, are formally stylized; the line etchings are fine and crisp.

The oldest piece portrayed here is an Attic black figure Skyphos in the Boeotian style from the Fifth century BCE, which satirizes Circe and Odysseus. The figures depict a comic satire in the form of caricatures designed for comedic purpose. Circe stands above Odysseus who is receiving a gift from her.

Attic Red-Figure ceramics

The Attic red-figure style appeared rather suddenly in Athens around the year 530 BCE. It shows a tendency towards the naturalistic which is made possible by changes in technique. The figures are outlined, and the inner details are shown by thin lines of paint. This is similar to contemporary painted panels, but the black background and the lack of any other colors must have been the vase painters' own idea. As well, major lines are emphasized by the use of a thicker and more viscous solution on the black paint so that they stand out in relief. The overall effect is one of greater naturalism and grace.

Neck amphora in Attic Red-Figure style, 470 BCE, shows Triptolemos on a winged chariot.

In the red-figure style, figures are drawn in rather than engraved. Red-figure painting made it possible for the artist to convey a more naturalistic picture of human anatomy. In the last ten years of the sixth century BCE, vase painters working in red-figure style abandoned the ancient tradition of composing figures in strictly profile or frontal views. This was followed by a new anatomical system which placed this style within the tradition that has come to be known as Classical, characterized by anatomical verisimilitude, naturalistic expressions and movements, and flowing drapery and garments that hang naturally on the body of the human figures. The eye, for example, until almost the end of the sixth century, had always been shown frontally, with the eyeball in the center (see the Athena holding a helmet, below), even if the face was in profile. In red-figure style, the eyeball moves forward and the eye begins to open in front and is shortened to a correct profile view. As well, the drapery changes from a decorative to a more natural system of folds. Scenes of human life become more common, especially the convivial and the athletic, but even in such scenes, vigorous activity becomes less common than it was in the earlier black-figure style.

Amphora in Attic red-figure style, 500-490 BCE: Athena holding a helmet over an altar

Ease of movement and grace in action are evident in the representation of a Dyonisiac Maenad holding a thyrsos, the staff made of giant fennel stalks carried by the Bacchiadae, and a snake on her right arm, below:

Kylix. Attic red-figure 490-80 BCE: Maenad with thyrsos and snake.

Note that the eyeball of the maenad has moved forward in this representation, compared to the Athena directly above. As well, the garment flows more naturally and hangs gracefully from the outline of the thigh and left knee.

Kylix. Attic red-figure 490-80 BCE: Maenad with thyrsos and snake.

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The more naturalistic representation of the eye and eyeball in Attic red-figure style is evident in the figure of the bride below, both upon her receipt of a gift and as she looks at herself in the mirror, in the Lebes Gamikos of 450-440 BCE.

Lebes Gamikos. Attic red-figure 450-440 BCE: Bride seated receiving gifts and shown on the reverse side with attendants and a mirror.

The Lebes Gamikos, literally meaning “nuptial vase” (plural - lebetes gamikoi) is a form of ancient Greek Pottery used primarily in marriage ceremonies, probably in the ritual sprinkling of the bride with water before the wedding. In form, it has a large bowl-like body and a stand that can be long or short. Painted scenes are placed on either the body of the vessel or the stand. Below are two images of the stand of the vase depicted above. It shows the hero Perseus pursuing the nymph Thetis. The classical style is evident in the representation of the eye, the graceful depiction of the movement of the limbs and the naturalness of the draped garment.

Lebes Gamikos. Attic red-figure 450-440 BCE: Perseus pursuing Thetis (detail on stem)

Oil Lamps

Oil Lamps were not only used for light but also served as votive offerings in sanctuaries and also as tomb furniture. Lamp forms are highly varied, ranging from simple to elaborate. Lamps used in ancient Greece could sit on stands or be suspended from cords or chains. Olive oil was a popular fuel and a wick would be placed in the lamp and out the nozzle to ensure even burning. Lamps from Athens changed around the VIIth. century BCE, with more shallow lamps and longer nozzles being made in molds. This popular form was the standard fro thousands of years. Larger and more decorative lamps were specialty items and usually denote ceremonial status. (Source: Museum notes)

Kylix depicting a woman removing her pubic hair by burning it with an oil lamp.

Oil lamps were also used for personal hygiene. On this Kylix (drinking cup), a woman is shown holding an oil lamp near her pubic region just close enough to singe the hair as she squats over a water basin with a sponge in her right hand as a precautionary measure. This practice was common for pubic depilation in Greece and its depiction on Grecian art is extremely rare. (Source: Museum notes).

MY ANCESTORS: THE ABBESSES OF QUEDLINBURG

2011-10-04T15:35:00.000-07:00

TRAVEL DIARIES: QUEDLINBURG, SACHSEN-ANHALT
April-May, 2011

Castle Hill in Quedlinburg

I owe many thanks to Margrid Raitzammer, Librarian of the Quedlinburg Abbey and Curator of the Abbey’s Museum, for her gracious and learned assistance in making various documentary sources pertaining to the Kranichfeld Abbesses available to me during my visit to the Quedlinburg Schloßberg on April 30, 2011, as well as to Frank Sperling, who made my visit there possible.

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The river Bode flows through the city of Quedlinburg

To step today into the narrow streets of the small town of Quedlinburg in the Harz region of Germany is to step into the Ottonian Middle Ages of the German so-called Holy Roman Empire. As early as the beginning of the tenth century, the Central European Empire created by Charlemagne was ruled by Saxon kings. The first one of the line of rulers which have come to be known as the Ottonian Emperors, related to one another by blood, was Henry I (876-936 A.D.), Duke of Saxony since 912 and German King from 919. He was called ‘the Fowler’ (der Finkler, or der Vogler), presumably because of his interest in falcons and other hunting birds of prey, for I do not think he had ornithological interests in particular. This Saxon Henry is the founder of the Abbey of Quedlinburg, a convent for unmarried nuns of noble families, that governed that small town until the nineteenth century.

Henry the Fowler and his Queen Mathilda

When Henry was elected King of the Germans in 919 A.D., the old fortress built on the hill in Quedlinburg, as well as the surrounding area, were converted into an imperial stronghold. After his death in 936, Henry was buried in a small chapel palatine which is below the Collegiate Church. His widow, the queen dowager Mathilde, founded the Abbey, and King Otto I, her son, endorsed the Foundation document that same year. The first Church of St. Servetius began to be built above the palatine chapel shortly thereafter, but even before the death of the Abbess Mathilde, who died in 999, the building of the present Collegiate Church of St. Servetius was begun, in full and splendid Ottonian Romanesque style.

The Gothic Choir and Portal on the eastern side of the Church were completed in 1320, under the sponsorship and direction of my ancestress, Abbess Jutta von Kranichfeld. The interior of this new Gothic ‘wing’ was tampered with by the Nazis in the 1940’s, but the exterior of the apse retains its Gothic character. Previously, during the late nineteenth century (1863-1882), a general renovation and reconstruction of a “Romanesque” west front took place, but otherwise the Collegiate Church remains one of the most outstanding original Romanesque structures in all of Germany.

The Church is surrounded by various residences, once monastic, and by a castle, built during the sixteenth century, which together constitute the Castle Hill (Schloßberg) above the town of Quedlinburg. The Abbey was dissolved in 1803 and, together with the other buildings on the hill, became a museum in 1928.

The Castle at Quedlinburg

The foundation of the Abbey was almost entirely the work of Henry the Fowler’s wife, Mathilde, who was reputed to be an extremely religious woman. The 936 Foundation granted the Abbey independent election of an Abbess and such legal immunities as made it independent of both the temporal jurisdiction of the local Lords and Saxon chieftains as well as of the clerical authority of the Bishop of Halberstadt, the local spiritual suzerain. The Abbess was therefore subject only to the Emperor and the Pope.

The Foundation of 936 decreed that the protection of the Abbey’s sovereignty was entrusted to the imperial family for as long as it was to exist. It was a school for the daughters of the high nobility. If these girls remained unmarried they could stay in the Abbey for ever.

Medieval Nuns

Queen Mathilde managed the Abbey for thirty years after the death of Henry the Fowler. In 966, her granddaughter Mathilde, daughter of King Otto I, was consecrated as the first Abbess, at the age of eleven. Thereafter, the Abbesses had the status of princesses of the realm. The Abbey played an important role in the affairs of the Empire and was hence visited by sixteen emperors and kings, over 69 times, before the end of the twelfth century.

When the Saxon dynasty of Holy Roman Emperors ceased to exist, the office of Reeve (in German, Vogt, the Emperor’s representative and advocate for a property or imperial estate, known as the Vogtei) ceased to be the property of the imperial family and was increasingly granted or sold as a sinecure to various ducal families in Germany. This marked a decline in the grandeur and prestige of the Foundation. Tension between the Abbey and the Reeve mirrored the civil wars caused by the Investiture struggle (Invesiturstreit) of the twelfth century and the struggle between the Emperor and the territorial sovereigns during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Nevertheless the Abbey continued to be a refuge for religious women of the nobility until the time of the Reformation.

Quedlinburg has remained a medieval town to this day, dominated by the Castle Hill upon which the old monastery and its Abbey Church of St. Servetius were originally built. The town boasts the greatest variety of Fachwerk (half-timbered framed) buildings in all of Germany.

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Fachwerk in Quedlinburg

The architecture of the Collegiate Church and of the Abbey of Quedlinburg, with one significant exception, - significant to my story in particular -, is in the style of the Ottonian Romanesque. The museum on the Castle Hill exhibits Ottonian capitals, jewelry and other small sculptures, also in the Ottonian style, as well as a fantastic tapestry, or rather fragments of a tapestry, of knit wool, that was knitted and woven over many years by the nuns of the convent. This kind of laborious textile work was as distinguishing of the endeavors of aristocratic women in the Middle Ages as was weaving for the aristocratic women of Ancient Greece. Like Penelope in Ithaka, these women would labor over tapestries and other weavings and knittings over the long and dark afternoons of Quedlinburg, for centuries on end. The Quedlinburg Knüpfteppich (knotted carpet) is a great work of art that resulted from such labor. It is fully discussed and illustrated below.

Ottonian Romanesque capitals in the Quedlinburg Abbey Museum

Romanesque Pieta, at the Quedlinburg Abbey Museum

Romanesque reliquaries, at the Quedlinburg Abbey Museum

THE KRANICHFELD ABBESSES

The Kranichfeld Abbesses of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, whose scant histories, culled from contemporary records of the Foundation, are recorded below, were ancestress of mine. The connection is, to be sure, rather tenuous. For a chronicle of how the family’s genealogical line evolved over time, and its peregrinations from Germany to Argentina and to the United States, I refer the reader to my blog posts of October 25 and 26, 2010.

It requires an effort of the mind today to envision these powerful women who ruled autocratically over the old convent, given the scarcity of factual information we have about them. But for a few facts and figures, and the bare abstraction of their physical images in their official seals, the outlines of a caricature, we would know nothing about them at all. Yet they existed, and they did so in the deeply religious element that was, until recent times, the matrix of all European history. I have no way here to make them come alive, although the personality of Jutta von Kranichfeld, a fighting Abbess, comes through somewhat in the documents that attest to her feverish efforts at raising money.

Kunigundis von Kranichfeld

Seal of Cunigundis von Kranichfeld

The official Seal of Kunigundis, or Cunigundis, von Kranichfeld reads as follows: CON-GUNDIS – DEI - GRA- IN- QUEDELINGEBURH – ABBATISSA (Cunidgundis, by the Grace of God, in Quedlinburg, Abbess).

Kunigundis von Kranichfeld, the fourteenth Abbess (Äbtissin) of Quedlinburg, ruled the Abbey briefly (1230 to 1231) during the reign of the Emperor Frederick II (Stupor Mundi), Holy Roman Emperor between 1220 and 1250. She was the sister of Meinhard I von Kranichfeld, Bishop of Halberstadt (1245-1259).

In 1222, Kunigundis was already Canoness at the Abbey. (Anton Ulrich von Erath, Codex Diplomaticus Quedlinburgensis, S, 140). During the reign of her predecessor, Bertradis I von Krosigk (1226-1230), when the position of Provost of the Abbey, previously held by Bertradis, became vacant, Kunigundis was appointed as her successor, on April 20, 1227. (K. von Krosigk, Urkundenbuch der Familie von Krosigk, III, 3, S.311). She became Abbess thereafter, upon the death of Bertradis in 1230. (cf. Anton Ulrich von Erath, op.cit. Codex Diplomaticus Quedlinburgensis, S, 140-151). Yet despite her accomplished ascent within the bureaucracy of the Abbey, she was not to last for very long as Abbess. There is only one record issued during her reign with the official Seal, early in 1231. She died later in the same year and nothing further is known about her.

Jutta von Kranichfeld

Seal of Jutta von Kranichfeld

The official Seal of Jutta von Kranichfeld reads as follows: SIGIL - IUTTE - DI - GRA - IN - QUIDELINGEBURCH - ABBATISSE (Seal of the Abbess Jutta, By the Grace of God, in Quedlinburg). She called herself (in medieval German) “Jutta, von der Ghenade Goddes Ebdesche oppe der Borch des Goddeshuses to Quedelingeborch.” (Jutta, by the Grace of God, Abbess of the Town of God’s House in Quedlinburg).

Jutta von Kranichfeld (Jutta, or Jitta, is an abbreviation of Brigitta) was the eighteenth Abbess of Quedlinburg (Äbtissin) whose rule over the Abbey extended from 1308 to 1346, during the reign of the Emperor Louis IV, the Bavarian (1314-1347). She died in 1347.

The Abbey documents record the following: Jutta was descended from the Thuringian family of the Counts of Kranichfeld, which had already provided the Abbey with one previous Abbess, Kunigundis von Kranichfeld (see above). Her father was Count Volrad VIII von Kranichfeld, and her mother was named Bia. In 1290 she was already a resident of the Abbey and by 1303, five years before the death of Abbess Bertradis II von Barby, she was already being addressed as Abbess (cf. Anton Ulrich von Erath, Codex Diplomaticus Quedlinburgensis, op. cit. S. 338). She had probably been thus designated by the aging Bertradis herself, who had ruled over the Abbey for thirty three years. On January 22, 1309, Jutta was certainly the ruling Abbess in the convent.

Jutta von Kranichfeld received her Imperial Confirmation from the Emperor Ludwig of Bavaria in 1323. (Boehmer-Ficker, Reg. Imperii, VII, 615. Erath, op.cit. S. 398). Until then, the imperial confirmation as Abbess was obtained personally from the Emperor at his court, but in Jutta’s case it was done by letter because Jutta was referred to in the document as “tanta debilitate corporis pergravata” (very seriously debilitated in body) and the Emperor wished to spare her the journey to his court.

During the course of her rule of the Abbey, Jutta promoted, financed and carried out the building of a Gothic style extension to the Church of St. Servetius, which is otherwise entirely in the Ottonian Romanesque style. This was an early experiment in the adaptation of the French Gothic style in Germany. The new Gothic wing, completed in 1320, was built over the Crypt and the Eastern Choir, in the mid-section of the Collegiate Church, parts of which were by then close to collapse. Carved above the Portal are the following words: ANNO DM/M.CCCXX OPIBUS.IUTTA ABBA DE/KRANEKEFELD/EDIFICATU EST. (Roughly translated it means: On the Year of our Lord 1320, built with the help of Iutta of Kranichfeld, Abbess).

Gothic addition to the Collegiate Abbey Church at Quedlinburg

By 1320, she had financed and directed the building of the new Choir and apse above the Romanesque crypt of the Collegiate Church, underneath which she now lies buried. In order to pay for the construction she was forced to alienate various assets of the Abbey and to obtain loans on other properties as collateral. The documentary sources list many of the estates that were sold for this purpose, although several properties were also purchased during Jutta’s reign. Many of these transactions involved the designation or revocation of advocacies (Vogtei), the official position of reeves of the estates, which were the crucial component of late medieval politics. These tenures were valuable assets of any estate and were bargained for as property.

An example of such a transaction is provided by an official letter, or record, written by Jutta on January 2, 1320, which describes in detail the alienation of lands and advocacies of the Quedlinburg Foundation, involving both the Counts of Brandenburg and the Dukes of Saxony as sureties for various loans. (Lehnbrief über die Schutzvoigtei des Stifts vom 1.2.1320):

“Von Gottes Gnaden Wir Jutta &c. Kranichfeld Abbatissin zu Quedlinburg etc. bekennen und bezeugen in diesem unsern offenen Brieffe, daß wir den Achtbahren Fürsten, Herzogen Rudolphen von Sachsen und seinen rechten Erben haben geliehen und leihen zu einem rechten Lehne die Voigtey zu Quedlinburgk mit allen Rechten, als die Achtbahren Fürsten von Brandenburg etc. etc. von uns zu rechte hatten und haben sollen. . . . .”

[By the Grace of God, We, Jutta etc. Abbess of Quedlinburg etc. do avow and give witness in this, our open Letter, that we have granted as security on a loan the Reeve of Quedlinburg with all Rights thereunto attached, to the Worthy Duke Rudolph of Saxony and his rightful Heirs, as the Worthy Prince of Brandenburg etc. etc. from us had it and should have it. . . . ]

Jutta’s manorial estate politics involved her in various feuds and quarrels with local magnates, both spiritual and temporal lords, such as the Ascanian dynasty of Anhalt and the Dukes of Saxony. But though the costs of re-building the Abbey forced Jutta to sell vast properties belonging to the Foundation, she continued as well to increase its estates during her reign, and the Gothic addition to the Church still stands. For a woman that is repeatedly described in the documents as having been devotedly pious, she seems to have also been a very clever politician.

Gothic addition to the Collegiate Abbey Church at Quedlinburg

The last documentary record issued by Jutta von Kranichfeld is dated November 11, 1346, and there is one last mention of her for April 30, 1347. She died on November 5, 1347, and was succeeded by the Abbess Luitgard von Stolberg on February 4, 1348. It is from her time that the documentary records of the Abbey begin to be composed and recorded in the archaic German language of the Middle Ages.

In the nineteenth century, Julius Wolff wrote a novel, “Der Raubgraf” (The Robber Count: A Story of the Hartz Country, 1884), purporting to depict an episode in the life of Jutta von Kranichfeld. In this fictionalized account, the Abbess Jutta is portrayed as having fallen in love with a local magnate, the “Robber Count” Albrecht II von Regenstein. This representation of a love relationship between the two is purely the creation of Julius Wolff, who does not very much respect his subject’s chronology in the novel. The book was translated into English by W. Henry Winslow and Elizabeth R. Winslow, and published in New York by Thomas Crowell & Co. in 1890. I have not yet read it.

THE ATTEMPTED ERASURE OF JUTTA VON KRANICHFELD'S GOTHIC LEGACY: THE NAZI SS TAKES OVER THE ABBEY CHURCH

Nazi youth on Castle Hill at Quedlinburg
(Source: publication of the Abbey Museum Quedlinburg)

In 1936, Heinrich Himmler, chief of the SS, decided to adopt Henry the Fowler as a forerunner of the Nazi regime and turn the Collegiate Church and the Castle of Quedlinburg into a shrine for the Nazi regime. The Nazi ideology regarded the early Middle Ages as a glorious epoch of Germanic culture that was appropriately free of any foreign influence. On the anniversary of the death of the Emperor Henry, the SS Reichsführer Himmler celebrated the occasion at the Abbey Church with delegations of SS troops and Nazi youth corps. The tomb of the Emperor was opened to reveal the remains therein, but as the bones were rather small (“kleinen Knöchelchen”) for the aspirational expectations of the Nazis, doubts were ventilated as to whether the remains were those of the Emperor himself.

Heinrich Himmler at the celebration of the 1000 year anniversary of Henry the Fowler's death, in 1936, at the Quedlinburg Abbey crypt

In 1938 the SS took over the Collegiate Church for the purposes of restoring it in its entirety to the Romanesque style, which the Nazis considered to be the true authentic style of the Germans (“arteigene deutsch-germanishe Stil”). Accordingly, the interior of Jutta von Kranichfeld’s Gothic apse was demolished and re-built as a Romanesque apse (see photo below).

The Nazis' "Romanesque" reconstruction of the interior of the Gothic Apse at the Collegiate Church in Quedlinburg

A gigantic golden eagle (Reichsadler) was installed and framed above the apse. After the war, in an effort to disguise the damage to the interior, the apse windows were walled-up in 1945 to preserve the integrity of the exterior Gothic structure. The broken remains of the Nazi eagle are exhibited in the Museum (below).

The Church was closed from 1938 and throughout the war. Liberation in 1945 brought back the Protestant bishop and the church bells, and the Nazi style eagle was taken down.

THE QUEDLINBURG TAPESTRY (Knüpfteppich)

Phronesis (Reason) prepares her daughter Philologia for the wedding with Mercury: Detail from the Quedlinburg Tapestry

During the reign of the Abbess Agnes II von Meissen (1139-1203), a magnificent work of Ottonian Romanesque art was commissioned and undertaken by the nuns of the Quedlinburg Abbey, shortly before the appearance in the convent of my ancestress, Kunigundis. This masterpiece, strangely attributed to Agnes herself, was a knitted, or knotted, carpet now hanging as a tapestry, which represents the marriage of the god Mercury to an allegorical representation of the humanistic discipline of Philology. It is the best preserved work of Romanesque textile still extant, and I imagine my ancestress probably participated in the labor of knitting it. Only five fragments remain from the original ‘knotted carpet’ (Knüpfteppich) that was originally used as a rug on the floor of the Collegiate Church.

Mercury turns to the Cardinal Virtues for help: Detail from the Quedlinburg Tapestry

The work was intended to be a gift for Pope Innocent III, but it was never sent to him. Documents in the Library of the Abbey indicate that the tapestry was unfinished at the time of Abbess Agnes’ death in 1203.

Seal of Abbess Agnes of Meissen
(Source: Wikipedia)

A listing of the Abbey’s treasures dating from the year 1600 has made it possible to reconstruct the size of the carpet and place the remaining fragments in context (below). The size of the original carpet has been estimated to have been 7.4 x 5.9 meters.

Although the scenes are organized as for a hanging tapestry, it is evident from surviving documentary sources that as late as the sixteenth century it was being used as a floor rug in the Choir of the Collegiate Church. In the course of the following centuries the value of the carpet began to be recognized and it was thereafter willfully cut into pieces, many of which were removed from the Abbey, including a portion of the edge border which ended up in Vienna. The only remaining fragments today are the five that are exhibited in the Abbey’s Museum.

The technique of producing knotted carpets had reached a high level of skill at the Abbey workshops over the course of many centuries. In this type of textile, the threads of linen yarn that constitute the warp course vertically and interlace with the woolen knots that make up the figures on the tapestry. The knots of colored wool enclose, in these figures, one, and in the surrounding backgrounds two, interlocking threads of linen yarn. Behind each row of woolen knots, there threads one very strong linen weft yarn, to provide the necessary tightness and strength.

The allegory which provides the narrative of the tapestry is that of the marriage of Mercury (Hermes, the Greek god of commerce and communication) to Philology, De Nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii, or, in other words, of the spread of language. The source was the Encyclopaedia of Martianus Capella, a book that was beloved of the nuns in the Quedlinburg Abbey during the Middle Ages, and which had been written after the fall of Rome to the Gothic chieftain Alaric in the year 410 A.D. Martianus had settled in Carthage, where he worked as a solicitor, and he wrote this book shortly before the conquest of northern Africa by the Vandals in 429. In that brief interlude of peace and culture, between continuous barbarian induced catastrophes, the work was written as an intended pedagogy, an encyclopedia of the still surviving liberal culture, written in a mixture of prose and verse and dedicated to his son Marianius.

The god Mercury has grown weary of celibacy, but has been refused by Wisdom, Divination and the Soul. Apollo speaks favorably of a charming and wise young maiden named Philologia. The gods give their consent to this union provided that the girl is immortalized by being made divine. Philologia agrees to this. Her mother, Reflection or Reason, as well as the Muses, the cardinal virtues, and the three graces, surround her and dress her for the nuptials. Philologia drinks the cup of ambrosia which makes her immortal and she is then introduced to the gods. The wedding gifts are examined. Phoebe offers in her husband's name, a number of young women who will be Philologia's slaves. These women are the seven liberal arts: Grammar, Dialectics, Rhetoric, Geometry, Arithmetic, Astronomy and Harmony. The first and second books of De Nuptiis contain this allegory.

Sophia (Wisdom) and Psyche: Detail from the Quedlinburg Tapestry

The allegory of Marcianus Capella is well-known to have had a large body of admirers among the humanists of the north and to have been very beloved in the religious houses. It is a sign of the incipient Renaissance that, originating in Italy, would conquer the intellectual centers of northern Europe prior to the Reformation. It is therefore well worth while to note the details of the allegory and to analyze their representation in the art work of the nuns of Quedlinburg.

In the tapestry at Quedlinburg, the frieze represents the story of the wedding of Mercury and Philologia in a series of abbreviated allegorizations and personifications of which, as stated above, only five fragments remain. The frieze on the tapestry condenses the narrative: Mercury, after selecting Philologia as his bride, requests the Counsel of the Gods as to whether he can bring Philologia into the ranks of the immortals. Mercury requests this of the gods so that he can marry the mortal woman. She is decked out in jewels by her mother Phronesis and is invited into Olympus and immortality by the Muses. The analogy of the adornment of Philology by Reason refers to the contributions of Reason to the study of Philology, and the invitation, the inducements, of the Muses, represents the creative inspiration that attends the work of the philologist. As Athanasia provides Philologia with the drink of immortality, Philologia opens up a whole new library of the sciences. An interpretation of this scene would suggest that the draught of immortality, the divinization of this science, has acted to inspire Philology to open up new chambers of the human mind. Finally, Apollo leads the married couple to the wedding and Harmonia leads the newlyweds finally to the bridal chamber. Why does Harmony lead the way to the consummation of the union between Hermes, the god of commerce and communications, and Philologia, the now "goddess" of language? One might suggest that the social harmony universally enforced by peaceful communication through language is the humanistic ideal which is being promoted in this classical allegorical work.

[The following is my own liberal translation from Deutsche Romanische Bildteppiche aus den Domschätzen zu Halberstadt und Quedlinburg, (Herausgegeben von Heinrich L. Nickel, Insel-Verlag, Leipzig), 1976, on which this section generally relies]

Fragment 1

Fragment 1 fills the extreme top left corner of the tapestry as it is chronologically the beginning of the narrative frieze. The edge-border and the one standing figure on the left, with the inscription Fortitudo (Fortitude), are disfigured by a broad band of discoloration. To the right of the fragment stands Prudentia (Prudence) in a green cloak, holding a snake and pointing to it with her right hand. The snake in the grass has surprised many a human being by its covert and unexpected attack, including Eve in the Garden of Eve, and is a representation of the inducements to Sin. Prudence counsels us to beware of the snake.

In the border edge design, we notice, with difficulty, the torso of a bejeweled figure with a head-kerchief and green cloak, and the inscription Pudicicia (Latin, Pudicitia: ‘modesty’ or ‘sexual virtue’).

Prudence (Prvdecia) holding a snake

Fragment 2

In Fragment 2, the meaning of the narrative is made quite clear. In the middle stand the entwined female images of Pietas (Piety) and Justitia (Justice), and on either side of them the seated images of Imperium, the Empire (IP, IV) or Temporal Lordship, and of Sacerdotius, or Spiritual Lordship. The civil and spiritual authorities are guarantors of piety and justice in the land. On the far right of this Fragment stands the pacing figure of a woman drinking from a jug of water. The inscription Tempanti (temperance) indicates that she is the personification of Virtue.

Fragment 3

In Fragment 3 there is a row of seven figures, starting on the left with the author of the allegory, Martianus Capella. Next to him is Mercury, with a light cloak over his left shoulder, turning towards the three figures on his left for help. The one directly next to him is Manticen, the Seer (from the Greek ‘mantis’ which means prophet), and she holds a banner with an inscription, barely visible, that reads verba ipfecta relinqv(o), “I renounce all unrealized Words.” This directly pertains to the allegory of Philology, which is to be Mercury’s bride, as the prophetess promises to relinquish all words that have failed to achieve the fulfillment of their promise, in short, false words.

The figure next to the prophetess is Psyche (Sichem), who holds in her hand a banner with the inscription constanter iv (vo), meaning “I help steadfastly.” Next to her, in turn, stands Sophia (Wisdom), whose banner is no longer decipherable. Finally, Mercury and Philologia are joined together in wedlock on the extreme right section of the Fragment.

Martianus Capella: Detail from Fragment 3 of the Quedlinburg Tapestry

Philologia prepares for her nuptials: Detail from Fragment 3 of the Quedlinburg Tapestry

Fragment 4

Here, Philologia is being dressed and bejeweled by her mother, Pronesis (Reason) in preparation for the nuptials. Next to them stands Genius with a quill in his hand, ready, as the scribe of Jupiter (Scriba Jovis) to memorialize the nuptial contract. Castus Amor, the personification of chaste love, stands to the right of the scribe and directs our attention to the nuptial bed with his right hand.

Fronesis (Reason) prepares her daughter Philologia for her nuptials: Detail from Fragment 4 of the Quedlinburg Tapestry

Castus Amor (Chaste Love) directs our attention to the nuptial bed: Detail from Fragment 4 of the Quedlinburg Tapestry

Fragment 5

Fragment 5 shows the conclusion of the allegory. The god Mercury encounters the chariot of Apollo on his way to Heaven (Olympus). Apollo is not only the god of poetry and music, instructor of the Muses, but is identified with Helios, the Sun, whose carriage he drives daily into earth-circling Oceanus. In the center of the fragmentary scene, Venus (Cipris), the goddess of love, holds the wheel of Apollo’s carriage, which is in turn held up by the boy Amor (Cupid). To the left, the god of spring (ver) blasts his horn. To his left, the god of fall and on the extreme right a Naiad, constitute the marginal figures that round out the scene. Apollo has made sure that the newlyweds will be carried by Venus to the location of their bridal night.

Venus at the Wheel: Detail from Fragment 5 of the Quedlinburg Tapestry

The God of Spring blasts his horn to announce the wedding of Mercury and Philologia: Detail from Fragment 5 of the Quedlinburg Tapestry

The Quedlinburg tapestry was knitted over many decades, which explains the stylistic differences between the first three fragments and the latter two. The earlier fragments are more Byzantine in their treatment. The color scheme is richer. The yellow stars on the blue background are reminiscent of Byzantine mosaics, although also of Frankish miniatures. On the other hand, the figures in the later fragments are not grounded in the same classical models and the color schemes are not as deeply contrasted. The earlier fragments appear to be of aesthetically superior quality. The end of the twelfth century is a transitional period in the intellectual and artistic climate of Europe, as the dawn of southern humanism comes in contact with the spread of the Gothic style in the north. The art of the late Middle Ages thus shows a certain confusion of styles caused by new winds of change blowing from elsewhere. In the case of the Quedlinburg tapestry, these influences blow onto the rich soil of the late Romanesque style, and within the cloistered environment of a religious house.

THE PALATINATE: CHURCH OF ST. WIPERTI (Sanctus Wupertus) IN THE OUTSKIRTS OF QUEDLINBURG

Crypt of the Ottonian Romanesque Church of St. Wiperti

The Quedlinburg castle complex founded by King Henry the Fowler and later and built up by his son, Otto I, in 936, was an imperial palatinate of the Saxon emperors. Instead of remaining near the person of the king, some of the counts palatine were sent to various parts of the empire to act as judges and governors, and the districts ruled by them were called palatinates.

In medieval Quedlinburg, the palatinate was in the valley below the Castle Hill. It included a convent for male monks, deliberately far removed from the nuns on the Castle Hill. There were also quarters for visiting court officials in the palatinate. However, only the church of St. Wiperti survives today in that location from the earlier complex of medieval buildings.

Ottonian capital in the Crypt of the Church of St. Wiperti

In 961, the Canon's monastery was established with the Church of St. Wiperti, to the south of the Castle Hill. It was abandoned in the 16th century, and at one time the church, which boasts a magnificent Romanesque crypt from the 10th century, was even used as a barn and a pigsty before being restored in the 1950s.

Emperor Otto I (Source: Wikipedia)

Theophanou of Byzantium, daughter-in-law of Otto I

In 973, shortly before the death of emperor Otto I, a Reichstag, as the Imperial Convention was known, was held at the imperial court in Quedlinburg. Here were present Mieszko, the Duke of Poland, and Boleslav, duke of Bohemia, as well as numerous other nobles from as far away as the kingdom of the Bulgars and the Byzantine Empire, gathered to pay homage to the German emperor. In this occasion, Otto the Great introduced his new daughter-in-law Theophanou, a Byzantine princess whose marriage to Otto II brought hope for recognition and continued peace between the rulers of the Eastern and Western empires. All this occurred in the unprepossessing location of the little church of St. Wiperti, a church without a tower.

RETABLOS OF CIUDAD RODRIGO

2011-10-01T18:48:00.000-07:00

The Retablos of Ciudad Rodrigo (1480-1488, 1493)
(Fernando Gallegos, Maestro Bartolome and their Workshops)
University of Arizona at Tucson, Museum of Art

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Detail from the panel "Jesus in the House of Simon"

The Retablos (“altarpieces”) of Ciudad Rodrigo are one of the great masterpieces of the Late Spanish Gothic, painted in the workshops of Salamanca artists during the time of the Catholic monarchs, Queen Isabel of Castile and King Fernando of Aragon, who reigned jointly from 1474 until the Queen’s death in 1504. The panels show the influence of Flemish painting, and are oil on wooden panels, characteristic of the new flamboyant style of the Flemish masters. It is now quite certain that the altar panels were painted between 1480 and 1488, some after 1493, in the workshops of Fernando and Francisco Gallego and Maestro Bartolome, either in or near Salamanca. They were commissioned by the cathedral of Ciudad Rodrigo.

Hall of the Retablos at the University of Arizona, Museum of Art

By the year 1812 they were no longer in place in the cathedral at Ciudad Rodrigo, but were stored, warped, peeling and molding, in a basement of the church. It was during that year, as the British Army under the command of the Duke of Wellington stormed the city, that a cannon ball ripped through one of the panels and left a gaping hole which, for the purposes of historical actualization, has deliberately not been repaired to date (below).

Details from the panel "Ecce Homo" (Fernando Gallego, oil on panel) showing damage caused by one of the Duke of Wellington's cannon balls.

After the Napoleonic Wars, the panels were purchased by a British Lord who housed them in his country house in the precarious condition in which they had survived. Twice thereafter, the panels were shipped to New York, as they changed hands from one owner to another.

The last trip of the panels across the Atlantic resulted in their purchase by Samuel H. Kress, owner of the Five and Dime Stores, in New York. Sam Kress’ mother used to spend her winters in Tucson, which led to the bond between the family and the desert city. Kress donated the panels to the University of Arizona in 1957 and required that a museum be built to house them. Accordingly, the University’s Museum of Art building was constructed at its present site, and the panels were placed on the second floor in a dark room with pin-point lighting, where they are shown today.

The panels were initially re-framed and partially restored upon their arrival in Tucson. Thereafter, they were shipped to Dallas, where further expert restoration on the painted surfaces was carried out. The panels were exhaustively studied, semiotics analyzed, and the individual painters identified by means of the various signs and clues. The photograph below highlights an example of the sort of clues that were followed and illustrates the methodology by which each panel’s author was identified.

There are twenty-six panels, but I did not photograph all of them. I focused on a few of them, and on some of their striking details. Above all, I tried to photograph the faces, portraits, which I believe are the most fascinating feature of these masterworks.

St. John the Evangelist (Fernando Gallego)

St. Bartholomew (Fernando Gallego)

St. Peter
(Fernando Gallego)

St. Andrew (Fernando Gallego)

The boy Jesus preaching to the Doctors at the Temple

Details from the panel 'Jesus Preaching to the Doctors' (Maestro Bartolome, oil on panel)

The Doctors generally look like cretins and fools, or drunkards.

Even the Doctor who appears to have been persuaded by the teachings of Jesus, and who has ripped up his sources, still looks like an idiot.

Note the open mouths and the curled, hanging lips.

Detail: The boy Jesus preaching to the Doctors.

Jesus in the House of Simon

Details from the panel 'Jesus in the House of Simon' (Maestro Bartolome, oil on panel)

The face of Jesus: Detail from the panel "Jesus in the House of Simon"

Details from the panel 'Jesus at the House of Simon'

Portrait of Simon: Detail from the panel "Jesus in the House of Simon"

Jesus in the House of Simon (filtered color)

Christ on the way to Calvary

Details from the panel 'The Way to Calvary' (Maestro Bartolome)

The Crucifixion

Details from the panel 'The Crucifixion' (Maestro Bartolome, or his Workshop, 1480-88) Oil on wood panel.

The Crucifixion (detail)

'The Crucifixion' (detail)

Jesus on the Cross: Detail from the panel "The Crucifixion"

Detail from the panel "The Deposition" (Fernando Gallegos Workshop). Note the Flemish background landscape.

The Circumcision of Our Lord

Details from the panel "The Circumcision of Our Lord" (Fernando Gallego)

The Circumcision (detail)

Detail from the panel "Christ and the Samaritan Woman"

The Last Judgment

Details from the panel "The Last Judgment" (Fernando Gallego, Francisco Gallego and Workshop, oil on panel)

Detail from "The Last Judgment": The saved and the damned.

The Transfiguration

Detail from the panel 'The Transfiguration' (Maestro Bartolome and Workshop, oil on panel): The face of Jesus

The Creation of Eve

Details from the panel 'The Creation of Eve' (Maestro Bartolome, after 1493, oil on panel)

The Charge to Peter

Details from the panel 'The Charge to Peter' (Fernando Gallego, oil on panel)

The Entry into Jerusalem

Details from the panel "The Entry into Jerusalem" (Maestro Bartolome, oil on panel)

The Last Supper

Details from the panel "The Last Supper" (Maestro Bartolome and Workshop, oil on panel)

Peter, who will betray Jesus that same night, looks at us and points to Judas, who is holding his nose.

HARVEST MOON

2011-10-01T17:39:00.000-07:00

Harvest Moonshine
Escondido, September 12, 2011

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O sähst du, voller Mondenschein,
Zum letztenmal auf meine Pein,
Den ich so manche Mitternacht
An diesem Pult herangewacht:
Dann über Büchern und Papier,
Trübsel’ger Freund, erschienst du mir!
Ach! könnt’ ich doch auf Bergeshöhn
In deinem lieben Lichte gehn,
Und Bergeshöhle mit Geistern schweben,
Auf Wiesen in deinem Dämmer weben,
Von allem Wissensqualm entladen,
In deinem Tau gesund mich baden!

Goethe, Faust I (Nacht) 386-397

[O gentle moonlight, how I wish that you
could see the end of all my misery!
How often at this desk I sat
into the depth of night and looked for you
until over these books and papers
you appeared to me, my melancholy friend.
If I could roam on mountain heights in
your dear light,
drift with hovering spirits over caverns,
weave over meadows in your twilight glow,
I would expel the smoke of learning
and be drenched to wholeness in your dew.]

BATTLEFIELD OF SHILOH, TENNESSEE

2011-09-15T14:05:00.000-07:00

BATTLE OF SHILOH
April 6th. and 7th., 1862

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Monument to the Confederate dead at the battlefield of Shiloh, at the Shiloh National Military Park in Tennessee.

The Railroad Crossing in Corinth, Mississippi

The battle of Shiloh was fought for the control of the railroad crossing at Corinth, Mississippi. Subsequent to having won control of Western Tennessee, it was General Grant's ambition to take this important railroad crossing and wrest control of northern Mississippi from the Confederacy. The crossing connected Memphis on the Mississippi River with Charleston, South Carolina on the East Coast, and Columbus on the Ohio River with Mobile Bay on the Gulf. Control of the crossing would sever rail communication throughout the South.

This map shows the movement of the Confederate armies from the town of Corinth to Shiloh, where the Union armies under Generals Grant and Sherman were camped at Pittsburg Landing. The Confederates refused to wait until that time when Grant would decide to move south to take the Corinth rail junction, and so they surprised the Union by attacking first. Just before sunrise on April 6, the Supreme Commander of the Confederate armies, Albert Sidney Johnston, told his staff, "Tonight we will water our horses in the Tennessee River."

The town of Corinth, Mississippi, is visible on the map in the extreme lower left corner.

Railroad line towards the south

Rail line towards the north

Corinth rail junction: view towards the west.

The railroad line heading towards the east.

The Fish Pond House: Headquarters of Confederate General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard in the town of Corinth

Oak Home: Built originally in 1857 for Judge W.H. Kilpatrick, it became the headquarters of Confederate General Leonidas Polk in Corinth, prior to the battle of Shiloh.

The Corinth-Shiloh Road

The Corinth Shiloh road along which the Confederate Army moved north during the three days prior to the battle.

Map showing the commencement of the battle at 5:00 a.m. on April 6, 1862, at Fraley Field, and the movement of the Confederate army northwards towards Shiloh Church, where the Union armies under the command of William Tecumseh Sherman were headquartered.

Fraley Field: Commencement of the Battle on April 6, 1862

Fraley Field seen from the south-west, the view of the Confederate pickets on the morning of April 6th., 1862.

Map shows the initial early morning skirmish at Fraley Field, when Union and Confederate pickets met before dawn.

Fraley Field as seen from the north-east, the Union side.

Confrontation at Fraley Field, from the perspective of the Union army.

Shiloh Church

Interior of Shiloh Church.

The modern church at Shiloh is only a few yards from the old church.

One of the many cemeteries at the Shiloh National Military Park, this one being next to Shiloh Church where the Union battalions under the command of General William Tecumseh Sherman were camped on the night before the battle.

The map shows the movement of the two armies as they met at the Shiloh Branch, below the old Church and General Sherman's headquarters.

Union General William Tecumseh Sherman

The approach towards Shiloh Church.

Looking down towards the thicket surrounding the Shiloh Branch.

Sherman's troops on the move.

Monument to the Confederate Second Tennessee Regiment, Army of the Mississippi

The Hornet's Nest

Some detachments from the Union army made determined stands after their gradual retreat from Shiloh Church, and by afternoon, they had established a battle line at the sunken road, known as the “Hornet's Nest.” Repeated Confederate attacks failed to carry the Hornet's Nest, but massed artillery helped to turn the tide as Confederates surrounded the Union troops and captured, killed, or wounded most. The Confederacy's Supreme Commander, Albert Johnston, had been mortally wounded earlier in the course of the battle and his second in command, Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard, took over the command of the Southern armies. The Union troops established another line covering Pittsburg Landing, anchored with artillery and augmented by General Buell’s men who began to arrive and take up positions. Fighting continued until after dark, but the Union held.

The Hornet's Nest

The "Sunken Road"

Hornet's Nest

Looking down into the Hornet's Nest.

Monument to the dead Union soldiers from the State of Minnesota, near the Hornet's Nest.

The Hornet's Nest: Diorama at the Shiloh Museum.

Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston

Confederate General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard

Monument to the Confederate dead at Shiloh National Military Park.

"Bloody Pond"

"The Peach Orchard":
The Peach Orchard in the distance. The peach trees were in bloom in April and the fusillade from both armies caused a blanket of petals to fall upon the dead.

John Clem, "The Drummer Boy of Shiloh"

John Clem, the twelve year old drummer boy of Shiloh, attached to the 22nd Michigan regiment of the Union army. (Photograph at the Shiloh Museum)

Drummer boys for the Union. Photograph at the Shiloh Museum.

The Union Army retreats to the Tennessee River: April 6th. afternoon and evening.

Ulysses S. Grant

Pittsburg Landing on the Tennessee River

Scene of mass confusion and panic among the Union ranks at Pittsburg Landing toward the end of the fighting on April 6, 1862

The Tennessee River at Pittsburg Landing

Dénouement: The battle of April 7th., 1862

Ulysses S. Grant (Photograph at the Shiloh Museum)

Sherman: "Well, Grant, we've had the devil's own day, haven't we?"
Grant: "Yes. Lick 'em tomorrow, though."
(After the first day's battle at Shiloh, April 6, 1862)

Monument to the Union dead from the State of Iowa

The battle of Shiloh was so brutal, and resulted in so many casualties to both sides, that General Grant concluded the war could no longer be waged as a war for the old Union, but rather for a total and unconditional conquest of the South. The surrender of the South that followed was the ultimate victory of capitalism in the United States. The republic was now poised to take off on its flight towards world empire.

PORTRAITS FROM THE SAN DIEGO MUSEUM OF ART

2011-09-15T11:56:00.000-07:00

PORTRAITS

SAN DIEGO MUSEUM OF ART
BALBOA PARK

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Charles Hawthorne, "Young Girl Holding a Plate of Fish" (1912)

Hawthorne, "Young Girl Holding a Plate of Fish" (1912) Detail

Goya, "Marquez de Sofraga" (1795)

Henri Fantin-Latour, "Portrait of a Woman" (1856)

Giorgione, Portrait of a Man, 1510 (Oil on panel)

Anthony Van Dyck, "Portrait of Henrietta Maria of France, Queen Consort of England" (1636) The hapless wife of Charles I.

Van Dyck, "Portrait of Henrietta Maria" Detail

Van Dyck, "Portrait of Henrietta Maria" Detail

Van Dyck, "Portrait of Henrietta Maria" Detail

Van Dyck, "Portrait of Henrietta Maria" Detail

Van Dyck, "Portrait of Henrietta Maria" Detail

Alonso Sanchez Coello, "Infante Don Felipe III" (1580)

William-Adolphe Bouguereau, "Young Shepherdess" (1885)

Charles Edouard Boutibonne, "After the Prom" (1868)

Amadeo Modigliani, "The Blue-eyed Boy" (1916)

Jules Pascin, "Seated Woman" (no date)

From the collection of Perez Simon, Goya, Portrait of a Lady

Sin Titulo (Retrato de Daniela Rossell)
Untitled (Portrait of Daniela Rossell)
Oil on wood (1990)

This portrait of Mexican artist Daniela Rossell (b. 1973) was painted after Ortiz-Torres had arrived in the United States. Ortiz-Torres was thinking of Rossell as he acclimated to Los Angeles and the environment of Cal Arts. The scar on Rossell’s arm was the result of a recent injury, received as Ortiz-Torres prepared to depart for California. The mark became, however, a metaphor for Ortiz-Torres’ feelings about the U.S. For him, the border exists as a type of scar: once you cross it you can never be healed. Today both Ortiz-Torres and Rossell are highly-regarded international artists. Rossell is perhaps best known in the United States for her body of work, the rich and the Famous (1998-2002), in which she photographed wealthy Mexican women in their homes.

Jean Dubuffet, "Bonne Mine" (Looking good) 1961

Gautama Buddha

MISSISSIPPI DELTA BLUES

2011-08-23T10:49:00.000-07:00

TOUR OF THE MISSISSIPPI DELTA
July 21, 2011

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On the road to Avalon, Carroll County, Mississippi

King Cotton

'Carroll County Blues'

The Tallahatchie River on the road to Avalon

Bobbie Gentry, Ode to Billy Joe

Old Rural Church near Avalon, Mississippi

Fisk Jubilee Singers, 'Oh Lord, I Done What You Tole Me To Do' (1909)

John Hurt, Avalon Blues, 1928

Graveyard by the swamps, near Avalon

The Civil Rights trail: Murder of Emmett Till in Money, Miss. in 1955

Emmett Till

The Bryant store today

The Tallahatchie River at Money, Miss., where the mutilated body of Emmett Till was found.

A witness points at the murderers in the course of the trial: the beginning of the Civil Rights struggle in Mississippi

Funeral home in Tutwiler where the body of Emmett Till was dressed and prepared for burial in Chicago.

This photo of Emmett Till's remains, at the open-casket funeral in Chicago, was published with permission of his mother in order to shock the world.

Gravesite of Fannie Lou Hamer in Ruleville, Miss.

Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman Farm

Mose Allison, 'Parchman Farm' 1957

Bukka White, 'Parchman Farm Blues'

Graveyard by the swamps near Tutwiler, Mississippi

The tomb of Sunny Boy Williamson

Sunny Boy Williamson, 'Don't Start Me Talkin' 1955

The Blues Trail: Tutwiler, Mississippi

Rail Station at Tutwiler, Miss.

Tutwiler from a distance

Clarksdale, Mississippi

The crossroads of Mississippi State Highways 61 and 49 is reputedly the place where Robert Johnson met with the Devil and exchanged his immortal soul for the skill of playing the guitar.

Robert Johnson, 'Crossroad Blues' 1936

The Riverside Hotel in Clarksdale, Mississippi

Rat, the owner of the Riverside Hotel

No. 6: John Lee Hooker's room at the Riverside Hotel

No. 6

John Lee Hooker

Room where Bessie Smith died, at the Riverside Hotel in Clarksdale, in 1937

Autographed poster of D-Bone at the Riverside Hotel

Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale, Mississippi

Inside the Delta Blues Museum

Muddy Waters, 'Got My Mojo Workin'

John Lee Hooker, 'Boom, Boom'

John Lee Hooker's guitar at the Delta Blues Museum, Clarksdale, Miss.

Home of Tennessee Williams in Clarksdale, Mississippi

Road back to Oxford, Mississippi

Leadbelly, 'House of the Risin' Sun' (1944)