Picturae Cassae: Aeneid 9/12 is a lithograph from 1982 by American printmaker Herlinde Spahr. It is from a suite of twelve lithographs inspired by Virgil’s poem “Aeneid.” Picturae Cassae: Aeneid 9/12 is pencil signed, titled and editioned 9/25. It was printed by the artist on Arches 88 white wove paper and the image measures 19-9/16 x 15-3/8 inches. Picturae Cassae: Aeneid 9/12 is illustrated as plate 18 in Spahr’s illustrated catalog Open Studio.
Herlinde Spahr channels Virgil’s epic poem “Aeneid (Aeneis)” as the inspiration for this lithograph. “Aeneid” was written by the Roman poet between 29 and 19 BC in twelve volumes that trace the wanderings of its hero in the first six books and the last six books tell the story of the Trojans’ victory over the Latins. Aeneis had been a hero in Homer’s “Iliad” from the eighth century BC. Book twelve focuses on the siege of the Trojan camp by Turnus, who eventually battles Aeneis and is slain by him. As part of a deal between the gods Juno and Jupiter, the Trojans agree to take on the language of the Latins.
The translated text of the twelfth book, verses 908-912 is pencil inscribed on verso by the artist : “Just as in dreams by night, when languid sleep / has closed your eyes, in vain we seem to want / to forge our anxious path, but halfway along, / discouraged, we falter; our tongues are now helpless,/ our bodies have lost their reliable strength, / neither voice nor word can follow.”
Herlinde Spahr, printmaker and author, was born in Antwerp, Belgium on December 19, 1952. She was an exchange student in Greene, Iowa under the program Youth for Understanding for the school year 1971-1972, and then attended the School for Dramatic Art in Antwerp, Belgium in 1972-1973. Spahr received her MA from the University of Antwerp, Cum Laude, in 1977. That same year she moved to Northern California as a graduate student and, in 1987, she received her Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of California Berkeley, Cum Laude.
Spahr began exploring stone lithography in the early 1980s when she discovered an old Griffin press at the ASUC Studio on the UC campus. Her current studio, Lithium Press, is located in Orinda, California. She began her career making lithographs printed from limestone but, in the 1990s, she printed collaged lithographs from stone onto Formica. Recently Spahr began creating unique works on large panels of Formica incorporating techniques from printmaking.
Her work has been featured in the books The Best in Printmaking. An International Collection by Lynne Allen and 60 Years of North American Prints. 1917-2007 by David Acton. Spahr has written a series of articles about the nature of printmaking and she published three books documenting her work.
Spahr has been awarded a Fulbright Grant, a Chancellor Fellowship at U.C. Berkeley, a Princess Beatrix Scholarship, and a Kala Institute Fellowship. She was an Artist in Residence at Kasterlee, Belgium; the Kala Institute; and the Frans Masereel Center, Kasterlee. Spahr is a member of the California Society of Printmakers and her work has been featured in numerous exhibitions. Solo exhibitions of her work have been mounted at the International Center for the Graphic Arts, Kasterlee, Belgium; the San Francisco Public Library; School for Humanities and Sciences, Stanford University; and the Moffitt Library, University of California Berkeley. A solo exhibition of her work, Herlinde Spahr. The Precipice Within, was held at the Monterey Museum of Art in June and July 2021.
Herlinde Spahr’s work is represented in the collections of the Royal Museum of Antwerp, Belgium; the Prentenkabinet at Antwerp and at Brussels; the Morrison Collection at the University of California Berkeley; the Janet Turner Print Museum, University of California at Chico; the Vietnam National Fine Arts Museum, Hanoi; the Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, California; the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, California; the Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts; and the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
