Wednesday, September 13, 2017

Bucolic Van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh
Two Cottages at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer
1888
drawing
Morgan Library, New York 


Vincent van Gogh
Three White Cottages in Saintes-Maries
1888
oil on canvas
Kunsthaus, Zürich

Vincent van Gogh
Cottages
1890
oil on canvas
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Who wrote this? – It was Sophronius – Where is he from?
From Phoenice – Which Phoenice? –  The crown of Lebanon.
Where did he live? – In Damascus – Are his parents alive?
No, they're not. Both are dead. – What were their names?
His mother was called Myro, his father was called Plynthas.
Did he have a sweet marriage, did he have many children?
He had neither marriage nor children.  He remained unwed.
What land was his monastery, under which roof did he live?
In the land that bore our Lord, in the hills around Jerusalem,
in the august monastery of our great monk, Saint Theodosius.
And for whom did he write and dedicate this wondrous hymn?
For Saint Cyrus and Saint John, the devout and pious martyrs.
Why did Sophronius submit himself to such hard mental labor?
– Among their many miracles they managed to heal his eyes.

– written in Greek by Sophronius (ca. 560-638), translated by Peter Constantine

Vincent van Gogh
Patch of Grass
1887
oil on canvas
Kröller-Müller Museum, Netherlands

Vincent van Gogh
Landscape with Bog Trunks (Travaux aux Champs)
1883
drawing
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

When you're moved to find out who you are,
study the graves you encounter as you pass by.
Inside rest the bones and weightless dust
of men once kings and tyrants, wise men, and those
who took pride in their noble minds, or wealth,
their fame, or their beautiful bodies. 
Yet what good was any of that against time?
All mortals come to know Hades in the end.
Look toward these to know who you are.

– written in Greek by Menander (ca. 344-292 BC), translated by Edmund Keeley

Vincent van Gogh
Wheat-field with Cornflowers
1890
oil on canvas
Fondation Beyeler, Switzerland

Vincent van Gogh
Wheat-field in Rain
1889
oil on canvas
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Vincent van Gogh
Undergrowth with Two Figures
1890
oil on canvas
Cincinnati Art Museum

The gold booty of Gyges means nothing to me.
I don't envy that Lydian king, nor am I jealous
of what gods can do, nor of the tyrants' great
powers. All these are realms beyond my vision.

– written in Greek by Archilochus (7th century BC), translated by Willis Barnstone

Vincent van Gogh
Plain of Auvers
1890
oil on canvas
Galerie Belvedere, Vienna

Vincent van Gogh
Olive Orchard
1889
oil on canvas
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City

Vincent van Gogh
Olive Trees
1889
oil on canvas
Museum of Modern Art, New York

I did not drink the blood of the fawn that I tore with my claws
               like a lion sure of its strength from its mother the hind.
I climbed the towering walls but did not sack the town.
               I yoked the steeds but did not mount the car.
Acting, I did not act. Completing, I did not complete.
               Achieving, I did not achieve. Doing, I didn't.

– written in Greek by Theognis (ca. 550 BC), translated by Barbara Hughes Fowler

Vincent van Gogh
Garden at Arles
1888
oil on canvas
Gemeentemuseum, The Hague

Vincent van Gogh
Landscape from Saint-Rémy
1889
oil on canvas
Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen

Vincent van Gogh
Les Vessenots in Auvers
1890
oil on canvas
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Fear us, mortal man! 
Our power is from the ancient gods;
The portion of fate is ours,
Willed by the ages. Honour us!
We live beneath the earth
In sunless slime,
The haunts of darkness.

– from the Furies' Song in the play Eumenides by Aeschylus, translated by Kenneth McLeish and Frederic Raphael