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| Anonymous Greek artist Eros flying 200-150 BC (Hellenistic) terracotta statuette Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Marcantonio after Raphael Poetry personified as winged woman ca. 1515 engraving Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| follower of Albrecht Dürer Study of Bittern's wings, showing both sides 1515 watercolor on vellum Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
Nailing Wings to the Dead
Since we nail
wings to the dead,
she calls ravens
from the sky
to inspect our work. "For flight,"
they say, "first remove their boots."
She leans in,
inspects a fresh hex
behind my eyes,
takes my feet
and lays them on the fire,
to burn it out, roots first.
We're the last,
babička and me.
We've survived on
chance and bread
baked from the last store of grain.
And as we're out of both,
we will die soon.
They are gathering
in the well.
We disrobe.
She hums whilst I nail her wings,
she tells me a tale, her last gift –
"This dark stain,
passed kiss to kiss-stained
fevered mouth,
blights love, is pulsed
by death-watch beetle's
tick, timing our decay.
They know this.
They wait by water,
gulping despair.
The ravens keep watch,
they say the contagion's here,
they promises to take us first."
Her tale done,
we go winged and naked
to the well.
We hear them
climbing the walls, caterwauling,
but ravens are swift, and swoop.
– Eleanor Hooker (2015)
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| Adamo Scultori after Giulio Romano Two winged putti riding parallel above the water on dolphins before 1587 engraving Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Giulio Cesare Procaccini Cupid ca. 1615-20 oil on canvas (fragment) National Galleries of Scotland |
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| Cherubino Alberti after Polidoro da Caravaggio Winged genius seated on a cloud and sounding a trumpet 1628 engraving Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Pieter Withoos Study of five butterflies, a wasp, and two flies ca. 1680-92 watercolor Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| William Gouw Ferguson Six butterflies and a moth on a rose branch ca. 1690 oil on panel National Galleries of Scotland |
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| Charles-Germain de Saint-Aubin Ballet Champêtre ca. 1756-60 etching Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Titian Ramsay Peale Caligo Martia (Butterflies) 1878 oil on paper Philadelphia Museum of Art |
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| Frans Xaver Wagenschön Daedalus forming the wings of Icarus out of wax before 1790 drawing Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| James Justus Tucker Angel proclaiming the end of time before 1842 oil on canvas Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge |
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| Edward Burne-Jones The Passing of Venus (tapestry design for Morris & Co) 1898 gouache on cardboard Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Odilon Redon In the shadow of the wing the black creature bit 1891 lithograph Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Johannes Josephus Aarts Prometheus before 1934 drawing Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Anonymous Mexico artist Angel (from Day of the Dead ofrenda) 1980s painted plaster British Museum |