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| George Frampton Female Head Blindfolded (representing the Old Testament) ca. 1910 plaster Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| George Frampton Female Head (representing the New Testament) ca. 1910 plaster Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| Alfred Stevens Mask of Medusa (after the classical original in Munich) ca. 1850 plaster Victoria & Albert Museum |
Medusa
I had come to the house, in a cave of trees,
Facing a sheer sky.
Everything moved, – a bell hung ready to strike,
Sun and reflection wheeled by.
When the bare eyes were before me
And the hissing hair,
Held up at a window, seen through a door.
The stiff bald eyes, the serpents on the forehead
Formed in the air.
This is a dead scene forever now.
Nothing will ever stir.
The end will never brighten it more than this,
Nor the rain blur.
The water will always fall, and will not fall,
And the tipped bell make no sound.
The grass will always be growing for hay
Deep in the ground.
And I shall stand here like a shadow
Under the great balanced day,
My eyes on the yellow dust, that was lifting in the wind,
And does not drift away.
– Louise Bogan (1923)
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| Auguste Rodin Cupid and Psyche ca. 1898 marble Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| Auguste Rodin Male Torso modeled 1877-78, cast 1979 bronze Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Gaston Lachaise Female Torso ca. 1924 nickel-plated bronze Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| attributed to Francesco Celebrano St Michael the Archangel before 1814 polychromed terracotta Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
Archangel
It's dark in here,
your halo looks flat as a plate.
Maybe we're still there. Was that lightning?
You look like a cat when you sleep.
I'm not sleeping. You reading?
I'm looking for this poem,
about a cat – wait a minute –
Go on.
You can read to me all you want.
That time it was lightning.
Is it you? Rolling the green grass back?
I love it when you smile like that.
Is this the white dawn, Angel, in the book?
It's dawn. Look.
Where are they bringing that rock back?
Where are you going?
– Jean Valentine (1969)
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| Doccia Manufactory (Florence) Farnese Hercules (copy) ca. 1791-1806 hard-paste porcelain Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| Marchino di Campertogno Sleeping Nymph (after the Borghese Hermaphrodite) 1823 ivory relief Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| Anonymous European sculptor Hercules (after engraving of ancient Roman gem) ca. 1750-1800 ivory plaque Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| workshop of Joseph Wilton Apollo Belvedere (copy) 1762 marble statuette Getty Museum, Los Angeles |
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| Étienne-Maurice Falconet Bathing Nymph ca. 1760 marble statuette Victoria & Albert Museum |
from A Late History
Now, now, if ever, love opening your eyes,
The great blind windows lifted toward the sun, the doors
Thrown open wide. I said to my heart,
Do I wake or sleep? – Soon, soon, these closings start
Where mornings held the garden captive; and early dusk,
Laden with mist and smoke, drift upward from the grass.
The wind dies. The scraping leaves are still. I said to my heart,
Ravaged by darkness, "Now, Soon, and Later have become
Each other – doors all closed, the windows blocked and barred for good –
All and sink down together to the bottom of the sea.
Do I wake or sleep? It is late tonight as it will ever be."
– Weldon Kees (1914-1955)
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| Jacques Saly Bust of a Young Girl ca. 1770 marble Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| Anonymous Italian sculptor working in Naples Cherub ca. 1750-1800 polychromed wood Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |