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| Giovanni Antonio Amadeo Profile-portrait of Cicero ca. 1450-1500 marble relief Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| attributed to workshop of Mino da Fiesole Diva Faustina ca. 1450-1500 marble relief Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
from Profile
The clear lines of her profile reminded me of an ancient relief
I saw at the Louvre – some Caesar's wife
Tranquil and wise, gazing unregretfully
Across the hysteric ages into old Rome.
* * *
That was perhaps in Rome: but I know now
My lady has a leper's heart; her lips
Are torture, and her eyes reflect such shame
There is no help; and on her cheek there clings
The sad voluptuousness of drunken Time,
Dancing like a cretin in an aimless whirl.
– Charles deGuire Cristoph (published in Poetry, 1921)
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| Mino da Fiesole Profile-portrait of Bernardo Giugni (Florentine official) ca. 1464-68 marble relief Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| Anonymous Italian sculptor Profile-portrait of Ercole I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara ca. 1471-1500 marble relief Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| attributed to Sperandio Savelli Profile-portrait of Eleonora of Aragon ca. 1473 marble relief Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
from Hugh Selwyn Mauberley
Turned from the "eau-forte
Par Jaquemart"
To the strait head
Of Messalina:
"His True Penelope
Was Flaubert,"
And his tool
The engraver's.
Firmness,
Not the full smile,
His art, but an art
In profile;
Colouorless
Pier Francesca,
Pisanello lacking the skill
To forge Achaia.
– Ezra Pound (London: Ovid Press, 1920)
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| Matteo Civitali Profile-portrait of a youth ca. 1475-1500 marble relief Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| Anonymous Italian sculptor Profile-portrait of Francesco Cinzio Benincasa (humanist and poet) 1478-80 marble relief Victoria & Albert Museum |
from Jean-Paul Belmondo
it begins with your face of a stone
where lips repose like two seals
in a coastal mist of cigarette smoke
you move through the streets –
listing them
is as useless as naming waves.
(that city is so handsome for a reason –
it was made out of your rib)
– Valzhyna Mort (published in Poetry, 2009)
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| Adriano Fiorentino Profile-portrait of Giovanni Giovano Pontano (leading humanist in Naples) ca. 1490 marble relief Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| attributed to Tullio Lombardo Profile-portrait of Gentile Bellini (after Bellini self-portrait drawing) ca. 1500 marble relief Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Anonymous Italian sculptor Profile-portrait of Valerio Belli (gem-cutter) ca. 1530-40 marble relief Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| Baccio Bandinelli Profile-portrait of a bearded man ca. 1550-60 marble relief Victoria & Albert Museum |
from Dear Adam
Adam says did you see my beard.
We talk about money awhile.
I ride my bike. Get off the phone goes
ding. It's his beard calling. I go oh.
you have what I want.
he says lol
then skull
then rocket
then turkey
green pistol
and a flame. I
don't know what to say back to that
I say bike and go.
– Eileen Myles (published in Poetry, 2018)
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| follower of François Girardon Profile-portrait of King Louis XIV ca. 1680-1700 marble relief Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Edward Lanteri Beatrice ca. 1885-1904 marble relief Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| Victor Peter Profile-portrait of Auguste Rodin ca. 1900 marble relief Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |