Bruno Zach, The Riding Crop, 1924

Edward Burne-Jones, The Death of Medusa II, 1875

Willem Linnig the Younger, The Incantation, 1886

Czene Béla , Nude in Red Shoes , 1976

Adolph Alexander Weinman , Descending Night , 1914

Edward Burne-Jones, The Death of Medusa I, 1875

Joseph Christian Leyendecker, The Sleuth (Cover of the Saturday Evening Post, June 2), 1906

This Mortal Coil, Tarantula

I'm living, but I'm feeling numb
Can see it in my stare
I wear a mask so falsely numb
And I don't know who I am
This void that wells inside of me
Is eroding me away
I've noticed in other eyes
Time's closing in 

But when the thunder breaks
It breaks for you and me
Tarantula, tarantula, tarantula, tarantula

The future's looking rather grim
Strange black tide
Decisions lie with stupid men
Alone with my life
That choking and the hype in me
Expecting me to fall
But only if I'm threatened
Will the tables turn

But when the thunder breaks
It breaks for you and me
Tarantula, tarantula, tarantula, tarantula

My world's under a sentence of death
I was born underground
But when the pressure gets too much for me
I bite

Michael Pacher , Saint Augustine and the devil (part of Altarpiece of the Church Fathers), c1475

Dean Cornwell , It's Hard to Explain Murder, 1920

Francesco Hayez , Melancholy , 1841

Auguste Levêque , Bacchanalia , c1900

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” ~ Viktor Frankl

Henri-Léopold Lévy, The Death of Orpheus, 1870

Zbigniew Herbert

”Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart. The really great men must, I think, have great sadness on earth.” ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky

August Rieper, Medusa, c1900