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The content of Matisse's "Apollo" (fig. 1) is full of mystery. Several different motifs—a face, water, three trees, a fan, leaves in various colours, and two posts-are brought together in a symmetrical composition. Attempts have been made to regard the picture as illustrating certain passages in the Apollo myth, for instance the story of Daphne and Apollo, or of Phaethon, the son of the Sun- god. It was the course of events in the myth that was to identify and explain the various motifs, but these attempts led to disparate and conflicting conclusions. The author of this paper endeavours to find out whether Matisse had any particular way of treating mythological themes. The two Icarus pictures he made in 1943 do not reflect the conflict situation of the myth, for Icarus is portrayed in a night scene against a background of stars instead of the sun: the vax in his wings would not melt in this setting. In actual fact the figures represent airmen on a night-attack who were being fired at: the white figure (an aircraft) is caught in the beam of a searchlight, has been hit, and is beginning to fall (fig. 4), while the black one (fig. 3) has not been struck by the projectiles. "Amphitrite" (fig. 5) does not show the goddess herself, but her watery surroundings. The various sea motifs are easily identifiable: an amoeba, sea horses, a sea serpent, pieces of coral. Each is shown in a section of its own and creates the effect of an underwater photograph. In 1947, when Matisse made this picture, Jacques- Yves Cousteau had popularized marine research, and this was the source of his inspiration. This article also points Out the model on which the composition was based: a Roman relief, "Mithras" (fig. 7), reproduced in the book on Roman antiquities Montfaucon published in 1719-24. The bull has been transformed into the bottom piece of coral (the head, legs and the bifurcated tail retaining their original form). The smaller figures at waist height on either side of Mithras have become the two sea horses and Mithras himself has shrunk to become the amoeba in the central section, his mantle being reproduced by the double outline round the amoeba. "Venus" (fig. 8) is shown as a torso modelled on the late-Hellenistic, twisted statues in the Louvre. The figure itself is the negative space between two paper cut-outs. The author demonstrates that Matisse never illustrated any myths but merely reproduced the mythological figured in them (Icarus, Venus); he symbolized Amphitrite by showing her environment in the depths of the sea. Title and form are chosen and treated to awaken general associations; when these have been established, recognition of the particular way in which Matisse's representation differs from the conventional one will open the way to further interpretations. The composition of "Apollo" is allied to that of the middle part of "Amphitrite" in conjunction with another of Montfaucon's illustrations, "Le Soleil" (fig. 6), also a Roman relief. This was found in the Palazzo Mattei in Rome and is described in the younger Aleandro's treatise of 1616. The relief portrays various classical gods in emblematic form. Phoebus Apollo (the bust and the lyre) and Bacchus (the krater) provide the central axis, which is flanked on either side by the attributes of Hercules (the lion skin and the club), thereby also creating an association with the Pillars of Hercules (the rock of Gibraltar and Jebel Muse). The piles of stones and the caducei together are attributes of Hermes (Mercury). The garland of fruit may be a symbol of Venus, and the fact that the caducei touch it might be an allusion to her love affair with Hermes, the product of which was Hermaphroditos. The "Le Soleil" relief inspired several artists even in the 17th century: Poussin's "The Judgement of Solomon" and "Neptune and Amphitrite" as well as Girardon's "Apollo and the Nymphs" (fig. 9) all employ the same scheme of composition.… [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When Alfred Lichtwark (1852-1914) was appointed director of the Hamburg Kunsthalle in 1886 he set about reorganising the museum's art collections in order to create a modern museum and pave the way for a cautious approach to impressionism. He invited to Hamburg for this purpose many avant-guarde artists from Germany and elsewhere such as Max Liebermann, Leopold von Kalckreuth, Pierre Bonnard, Edouard Vuillard and others, to paint local motifs. The Swedish painter Anders Zorn (1860-1920) was one of the first guests, being expected to give a model for modern colourism. His watercolour, The Port of Hamburg, was signed in 1891. Strangely enough, it was not integrated into the museum's collection until 1901. The first part of the present paper deals with the question of why Zorn's picture "disappeared" for a ten year period. Comparisons with other paintings that suffered a similar fate throughout the 1890's backed up by a study of archive material give an indication that Zorn's watercolour did not conform to the conservative tastes of the public at the time. So Zorn never became a famous name in connection with Hamburg's collection of local motifs. Nevertheless, The Port of Hamburg deserves attention because it seemes to shed a light on the cultural and political conflicts that Lichtwark had to face in order to support the development of modern art in Hamburg. On the other hand, as the second part of this paper points out, Lichtwark succeeded very effectively in introducing Zorn's engraved works as a model for modern art. The Kunsthalle collection of Zorn's etchings rose to international prominence. Famous personalities such as Gustav Schiefler and Aby Warburg supported Lichtwark's endeavour in this field. By 1910 the Hamburg Kunsthalle was in the position to own one of the most comprehensive German public collections of Zorn's etchings. The local press was also won over by Lichtwark's preferences and wrote frequently about Zorn's participation in various exhibitions. Influential privat collectors purchased Zorn's engraved works and the Commeter art gallery in Hamburg met demand for his etchings all over Germany. It is noteworthy that Zorn's art reached the pinnacle of its reputation at a time when the master engraver was no longer in the forefront of modern art. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The still-lifes known as 'quod-libet' still-lifes—illusionistically rendered wooden surfaces in which a ribbon for holding letters is depicted filled with documents, letters and other trifles—developed into an independent genre in the Netherlands in the 1650s and 1660s. One of the earliest painters to work with the genre, the Dutchman Samuel van Hoogstraten, used the motif to create a composition which would characterise himself as an artist and a writer (fig. 2). In Sweden the presentation of an intellectual portrait of this kind was to dominate the content of quod-libet paintings. Among the works dealt with in this article, one or two with a vanitas motif (figs. 16 & 19) and a few that seem to lack any intellectual meaning are exceptions. It is also noticeable that the majority of these exceptions stem from the middle of the 18th century and later, in other words when the tradition had already passed its heyday, and that many of them are also markedly provincial. The two earliest known artists who painted quod-libet still-lifes in Sweden were both from the Netherlands. Cornelis Norbertus Gijsbrechts spent the winter of 1673-74 in Stockholm, when he completed the still-life, fig. 3, commissioned by the burgesses of Stockholm as a gift to Claes Rålamb, the governor of the city. Gijsbrechts had specialised in trompe l'oeil motifs and even in an international perspective can be seen as one the first artists who helped to create the quod-libet genre. In other respects his works in general seem to lack any features of portraiture. Rålamb's painting constitutes an exception in Gijsbrechts' work in that the recipient's name is stated on the documents depicted. In 1678 one of van Hoogstraten's pupils, Cornelis van der Meulen, established himself in Stockholm. His still-life, fig. 1, is an intellectual self-portrait, in which letters addressed to the artist himself have been combined with the artist's implements and products. It is probable that the painting is identical with the small work with letters that van der Meulen presented when, according to the guild's records, he became a member of the guild of artists in Stockholm in 1679. Johan Kiopper and Carl Hofwerberg belong to the generations that came next. Klopper, the older of the two, had spent some years studying abroad, when he returned to Sweden in 1694. "Portraits" dominate among the relatively few works known to be his. Hofwerberg was an officer, but is best known for a series of altar-pieces in churches in the northern provinces of Sweden. Up to now there has been no certainty about his artistic training and the similarities between the one quod-libet still-life known to have been painted by Kiopper, fig. 4, and two still-lifes signed by Hofwerberg are therefore significant. Klopper acted as the drawing-master at the University of Uppsala, and it is probable that Hofwerberg, who studied for a few years at the university, beginning in 1713, was one of his pupils. Hofwerberg's two quod-libet still-lifes, figs. 5 & 6, were painted in 1737 for two brothers, Count Ture Gabriel Bielke and Count Carl Gustaf Bielke, and reflect the spheres of interest of each of them. Hofwerberg also had commissions from the De Geer family for their manor house at Leufstabruk. On the basis of documentary records and similarities with the signed quod-libet works, the author of the article attributes a still-life dedicated to Charles De Geer the younger (fig. 8) to Hofwerberg. Among the best known interiors from the rococo period in Sweden are the wall panels in the billiard room at the manor house in Akerö (fig. 10). They were painted in 1753 by Johan Pasch, and commissioned by Count Carl Gustaf Tessin for the dining room of the castle of Läckö.… [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]