Thebes - Late Afternoon

Eleanor Rappe

Rappe's interest in ancient civilizations frequently shows up in her intaglio prints from the 1970s. Here, she depicts the Aetheopian sphinx - a woman with the haunches of a lion and the wings of a bird - sent to guard the gates of Thebes. In the Greek myth, the sphinx would demand the answer to a riddle for those hoping to gain entry; if the traveler did not answer correctly, she would devour them. She was ultimately defeated by Oedipus, at which point she devoured herself.

Rappe chose to depict the sphinx at the gate, backed by the light of a cloudless dawn. Rappe's decorative borders would use elements of the main subject of her compositions; in this case, the fragmented columns. Each fragment, as well as the central image, are done on separate plates that have been painstakingly cut into their irregular shapes, some as small as 1/2" at the narrowest point, showcasing Rappe's fine touch when using the intaglio technique.

The 1970s was particularly pivotal for Rappe's development as a printmaker, and was also when her love of Greco-Roman and North African antiquity and mythology became major focuses of her work. Two years after she made this print, Rappe and fellow Bay Area printmaker Eleanor Bender held an exhibition at the De Young Museum of Art in San Francisco, titled "Caerulea: Ruins and Excavations." In it, the two artists collaborated on artworks exploring global antiquities and myths.