On returning to Basel [from military service] in 1870 Nietzsche observed the establishment of the German Empire and the following era of Otto von Bismark as an outsider and with a degree of skepticism regarding its genuineness. At the University, he delivered his inaugural lecture, “Homer and Classical Philology.”
Belvedere Apollo
Marble, 7 ft, Roman copy of a Greek original from the fifth century BC
[For] Johann Joachim Winckelmann…. the dominant characteristics of beauty found in ancient Greek works of art are expressed in terms of their "noble simplicity and quiet grandeur [edle Einfalt und stille Grösse]." The ideal qualities of harmony and composure characteristic of classical Greek sculpture reflect and embody the serene and happy world-view of the Greek artists and of classical Greek culture in general. [One of the] best examples of this character are found in the famous "Apollo Belvedere" statue. Dennis Sweet “The Birth of The Birth of Tragedy,”Journal of the History of Ideas 60.2 (1999) 345-359
Laocoön exemplifying Greek art.
“the expression in Greek figures reveal greatness and composure of the soul in all passions. This spirit is portrayed in the face of Laocoön, and not in the face alone, despite the most intense sufferings. The pain ... does not express itself with any violence, either in the face or in the posture as a whole.” J. J. Winckelmann, Gedanken über die Nachahmung der griechischen Werke in der Malerei und Bildhauerkunst (Stuttgart, 1755),
Dionysus, wrapped in a panther skin and ivy, holding a wine jar, with thyrsi around. Attic Red-figure amphora by the Kleophrades Painter, c. 500-490 BCE,
Phideas, sculpture of Athena, 400 BC, copy, and a reconstruction on the right
Greek vase showing Euripides Iphigenia among the Taurians
Stage model for opera 'Der Meistersinger von Nurnberg' by Richard Wagner (1813-83)
Wagner
Stage model for opera 'Tristan and Isolde' by Richard Wagner (1813-83)
“Nietzsche had already met Richard Wagner in Leipzig in 1868, and (some time later) Wagner's wife Cosima. Nietzsche admired both greatly, and during his time at Basel frequently visited Wagner's house in Tribschen in the Canton of Lucerne. The Wagners brought Nietzsche into their most intimate circle, and enjoyed the attention he gave to the beginning of the Bayreuth Festival Theatre. In 1870 he gave Cosima Wagner the manuscript of 'The Genesis of the Tragic Idea' as a birthday gift. In 1872 Nietzsche published his first book, The Birth of Tragedy.” “Nietzsche” Wikipedia accessed March 9, 2011.
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788 – 1860), left 1815
Schopenhauer 1819 [1818], Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung (The World as Will and Representation) [first edition, one volume]
Apollo in the Zeus Temple in Olympia, Greece, 460 BC
Ancient Greek image of Apollo sun god.
Apollo / Helios, from a Roman floor mosaic. All four reins in one hand (the left).
Religious fanatics dancing amid graves in a churchyard.
From a German engraving, about 1600.
St. Vitus Dance. [from Committee for Skeptical Inquiry website.]
Andreas Gursky, “Union Rave", 1995
Dionysus riding a leopard Mosaic located in Pella, the Ancient Capitol of Macedonia.
Dionysus on lion, Roman mosaic.
Eleusinian mystagogues, Greek pot
Eleusinian figures. Vase, 335-325 BCE (St. Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum)
Fragments of the Great Eleusinian Relief, 27 B.C.–14 A.D.; Augustan
Fragments of a Roman copy set in a plaster cast of the original Greek marble relief, ca. 450–425 B.C.
Horse-tailed satyr suspends his pipe-case from his erection, on an Attic black-figure plate, 520–500 BCE, from Vulci
Protective Gorgon on the shield of Achilles at his burial by Thetis; Corinthian black-figure hydria, 560–550 BC – Louvre. Right: Gorgon on the volute handle of the “Vix Krater", ca 500 BC.
Doric Temple Segesta, Sicily
Reconstruction of temple district of Delphi
Apollo kitharoidos (holding a kithara) and musagetes (leading the Musas). Marble, Roman artwork, 2nd century CE.
Goya, Witch’s Sabbath, 1789
Votive relief with a flute (auolos) player and his family in front of Dionysos and Artemis, theatreicl masks above. Attica, ca. 360–350 BC
Olympian Gods in council--the pro-Trojan faction Treasury of the Siphnians in Delphi, ca 525 BC.
Poseidon, Apollo, and Artemis on the Parthenon frieze, British Museum
In the Nathaniel Hawthorne version of the Midas myth, Midas's daughter turns to a statue when he touches her. Illustration by Walter Crane for the 1893 edition.
Drunken Silenus. Parian marble, Roman artwork of the 2nd century AD. May be inspired by the Pouring Satyr by Praxiteles
Raphael Transfiguration 1518-1520
Joachim Wtewael “The Battle Between the Gods and the Titans” 1600
