 |
| Cherubino Alberti after Michelangelo St Jerome in the Desert ca. 1575 engraving Art Institute of Chicago |
 |
| Anonymous Artist working in the Netherlands Susanna and the Elders ca. 1550-75 tempera, lacquer, gold leaf and silver foil on glass Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
 |
| Anonymous Artist working in Germany The Crucifixion ca. 1530 painted wood relief Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
 |
| Domenico Beccafumi Adoration of the Shepherds before 1551 engraving Princeton University Art Museum |
 |
| Domenico Beccafumi Holy Family before 1551 oil on panel private collection |
Chester
Wallace Stevens is beyond fathoming, he is so strange; it is as if he had a morbid secret he would rather perish than disclose.
– Marianne Moore to William Carlos Williams
Another day, which is usually how they come:
A cat at the foot of the bed, noncommital
In its blankness of mind, with the morning light
Slowly filling the room, and fragmentary
Memories of last night's video and phone calls.
It is a feeling of sufficiency, one menaced
By the fear of some vague lack, of a simplicity
Of self, a self without a soul, the nagging fear
Of being someone to whom nothing ever happens.
Thus the fantasy of the narrative behind the story,
Of the half-concealed life that lies beneath
The ordinary one, made up of ordinary mornings
More alike in how they feel than what they say.
They seem like luxuries of consciousness,
Like second thoughts that complicate the time
One simply wastes. And why not? Mere being
Is supposed to be enough, without the intricate
Evasions of a mystery or offstage tragedy.
Evenings follow on the afternoons, lingering in
The living room and listening to the stereo
While Peggy Lee sings "Is That All There Is?"
Amid the morning papers and the usual
Ghosts keeping you company, but just for a while.
The true soul is the one that flickers in the eyes
Of an animal, like a cat that lifts its head and yawns
And stares at you, and then goes back to sleep.
– John Koethe (2007)
 |
| Domenico Beccafumi Holy Family ca. 1540-50 oil on panel Princeton University Art Museum |
 |
| Leonhard Beck St George and the Dragon ca. 1513-14 oil on panel Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
 |
| Sebald Beham after Barthel Beham Adam and Eve 1543 engraving Art Institute of Chicago |
 |
| Sebald Beham Women's Bath ca. 1530-40 woodcut Art Institute of Chicago |
 |
| follower of Giovanni Bellini Madonna and Child with Saints and Donors ca. 1515 oil on panel Harvard Art Museums |
 |
| attributed to Andrea Boscoli Olympias, Mother of Alexander the Great, visited by Zeus in the Guise of a Serpent ca. 1595 drawing Art Institute of Chicago |
 |
| attributed to Andrea Boscoli after Polidoro da Caravaggio Procession as Frieze late 16th century drawing Minneapolis Institute of Art |
 |
| Patricio Cajés Liberation of St Peter late 16th century drawing Minneapolis Institute of Art |
 |
| Luca Cambiaso Allegorical Subject (Angel above Two Sibyls on Clouds) ca. 1560-65 drawing Art Institute of Chicago |