Plate 24: Ulysses's companions stealing the oxen sacred to Apollo 1756

Curator: Here we have "Plate 24: Ulysses's companions stealing the oxen sacred to Apollo," an engraving by Bartolomeo Crivellari, created around 1756. It's currently housed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. What are your initial thoughts? Editor: My first impression? It’s a theatrical set piece! Look at the dramatic framing and those stylized figures. It feels less like witnessing an actual event and more like watching a Baroque opera unfold on a very, very small stage. Curator: I think you're right. It captures that very performative sense. Visually, there is much emphasis on storytelling rather than documentary-like fidelity. The oxen, for example. Do they evoke something to you, Iconographer? Editor: The oxen, being sacred to Apollo, obviously represent a transgression against divine order, and perhaps civilization itself. The act feels loaded. But it’s how those animals are depicted, so serene even in this moment of thievery, which piques my interest. Like passive participants in an unavoidable, dark plot. They’re metaphors for blind fate perhaps. Curator: They exude almost a willful ignorance, which heightens the drama! What also strikes me is how Crivellari balanced classical forms with the narrative's inherent tension. Those companions aren't merely stealing; there is betrayal and disrespect on display. Do you think it's reaching too much if I mention that it gives an idea about colonialism? Editor: It resonates on so many levels! Greed, sacrilege, the corruption of man—all universal, but filtered through this very particular artistic lens. You know what I find fascinating? The way these ancient myths and images still worm their way into our collective consciousness, triggering new interpretations across centuries. Curator: Absolutely. Art like this reminds us that certain human behaviors, for better and for worse, are eternally, cyclically reborn. Editor: Indeed! And the symbolism that can be distilled! So much of the past in just one symbolic image!