The Delphic Oracle

Category

Library Item

Item no

32906

Title

The Delphic Oracle

Description

"M. Raemaekers' knowledge appears to be all embracing. It includes all the arts, many languages, and the literature and lore of every country. These he impresses into his services whenever need calls for them. It is not surprising, therefore, that when the Greek embroglio [sic] and enigma called for treatment at his hands, his mind travelled to the great Delphic oracle, and that he imaged Hellas at the venerated shrine over whose doors was inscribed the aptest of maxims, 'Know Thyself.' For here it was, at the central point of the Greek world, that, in the past, before any enterprise was undertaken, whether by the State or the individual, counsel was south of the great Apollo, the bringer of ills or the averter of evil. Now, once again, Greece demands from the veiled virgin an answer to the momentous question, 'Aye or nay, do we side with right or wrong?' In one respect only has the artist departed from tradition, namely, that instead of asking for an answer as a supplicant a reply is demanded sword in hand and with uplifted arm. The allegory may perhaps also be regarded from the point of view of a representative of the Allied nations calling for an answer from a veiled and hostile Tino."

Artist / maker

Raemaekers, Louis

Date

1917

Size

35.7 x 25.8 cm

Type

Chromolithograph

Location

Art and Design Library

Copyright

Louis Raemaekaers' drawings are reproduced by kind permission of the Louis Raemaekers Foundation.