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| Giambattista Tiepolo Head of Satyr ca. 1750 drawing Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Giandomenico Tiepolo Flying Angels and Cherubs with Instruments of the Passion ca. 1760 drawing Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Giandomenico Tiepolo Flying Angels with Trumpets accompanied by Putti ca. 1760 drawing Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
Angels
I am tired of angels,
of how their great wings
rustle open the way a curtain opens
on a play I have no wish to see.
I am tired of their milky robes,
their star-infested sashes,
of their perfect fingernails
translucent as shells
from which the souls
of tiny creatures have already fled.
Remember Lucifer, I want to tell them,
his crumpled bat wings
nose-diving from grace.
But they would simply laugh
with the watery sound a harp makes
cascading through bars of music.
Or they would sing to me in
my mother's lost voice,
extracting all the promises
I made to her but couldn't keep.
– Linda Pastan (1991)
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| Giandomenico Tiepolo Two Trumpet-blowing Angels ca. 1750 drawing Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Giandomenico Tiepolo Trumpet-blowing Angel ca. 1750 drawing Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Giandomenico Tiepolo Milliner's Shop ca. 1791 drawing Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Giandomenico Tiepolo The Visitation - Mary and Elizabeth ca. 1775-85 drawing Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| attributed to Filippo Pedrini Ceiling Design with Bacchus and Ariadne, Diana and Minerva ca. 1795-1800 drawing Art Institute of Chicago |
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| attributed to Jean-Baptiste Pater Man playing the Flute before 1736 drawing Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
The Magic Flute
The last scant petal falls
From the slender flower of sound.
The echoes strew the halls
Like fragrance, curled to slight
echoes of echoes dwindling,
Thinned to silence. Still
On fertile air the spindling
Flower unfolds delight . . .
– Irene Wilde (1941)
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| Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun Study of a Woman ca. 1775-85 drawing Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Giovanni David Death of Cleopatra ca. 1776 etching Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Giovanni Battista Mengardi Sacrifice of Isaac before 1796 etching Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Ignaz Johann Bendl Rest on the Flight into Egypt 1700 etching Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Francisco Goya after Diego Velázquez King Philip III on Horseback 1778 etching Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |