Drawn to the Sphinx

Aeolipile (steam blower), South German, Augsburg, or Bohemian, Prague (Czech Republic), ca. 1590-1600, bronze with dark patina, silver

After re-visiting the Della Robbia exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, I first meandered through the nearby Northern Renaissance Gallery, then found myself among the antiquities of Greece and Rome. Along the way, I was drawn again and again to the figures of the Sphinx.

Winged, beautiful, and deadly, the offspring of Orthus and the Chimera (or, in some traditions, of Typhon and Echidna) belongs to that shadowy realm where beauty and terror become inseparable. An enigmatic creature of ancient Hellas, her riddle meant revelation or death. It is little wonder that artists and poets found her irresistible.

As I wandered through the museum halls, it felt as if I were passing through a dream where sacred mysteries, strange creatures, and intimations of death converged. The Sphinx seemed perfectly at home there, silently guarding the threshold between beauty and oblivion.

~ By Giovanni di Napoli, August 30th, Feast of Santa Rosa da Lima, the Holy Martyrs of Salerno, and San Fiacrio

Intended to be filled partway with water through an opening in the sphinx's headpiece and then heated, this mysterious vessel releases pressurized steam through a pin-sized hole between her lips. If blown over glowing coals, the steam can create a flammable gas composed of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, so that the sculpture appears to spit fire just like the mythological sphinx

Marble capital and finial in the form of a sphinx, Greek, Attic, ca. 530 B.C.

Marble stele (grave marker) of a youth and a little girl, Greek, Attic, ca. 530 B.C. Inscribed on the base: To the dead Philo and Me [...] the father erected (this) monument, and together the dear mother...

Limestone Sphinx, Greek, Attic, ca. 550-525 B.C.

(L) Marble sphinx on a cavetto capital, Greek, Attic, ca. 580-575 B.C.
Inscribed on the plinth: I am the monument of [ ]linos.
(R) Sphinx stand, Greek, Attic, red-figure, ca. 520 B.C.

Nenfro statue of a winged lion, Etruscan, ca. 550 B.C.

Several statues of this type, made from nenfro, a kind of volcanic stone used
extensively at Vulci, depict winged lions and sphinxes. These were set up to
protect the entrances to subterranean chamber tombs covered by a tumulus
(earthen mound). They often appear in pairs and represent the Etruscan
response to a long tradition of guardian figures stretching back to
ancient Egypt and the Near East