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| Anonymous French Artist Design for Capital ca. 1640-50 drawing Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
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| Anonymous Italian Artist Corinthian Capital 19th century drawing, with watercolor Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
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| Anonymous Italian Artist Grotesque for Oblong Panel ca. 1730-50 drawing Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
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| Anonymous Italian Artist Rinceau Design ca. 1725-50 drawing Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
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| Anonymous French Artist Design for Herm ca. 1725-50 drawing Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
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| Domenico Maria Canuti Study for Herm ca. 1669 drawing National Gallery of Art, Washington DC |
from Nosce Tiepsum: of Human Knowledge
Why did my parents send me to the schools
That I with knowledge might enrich my mind?
Since the desire to know first made men fools,
And did corrupt the root of all mankind.
For when God's hand had written in the hearts
Of the first parents all the rules of good,
So that their skill infused did pass all arts
That ever were, before or since the flood,
And when their reason's eye was sharp and clear,
And, as an eagle can behold the sun,
Could have approached th' eternal light as near
As the intellectual angels could have done,
Even then to them the spirit of lies suggests
That they were blind, because they saw not ill,
And breathes into their incorrupted breasts
A curious wish, which did corrupt their will.
For that same ill they straight desired to know;
Which ill, being nought but a defect of good,
And all God's works the devil could not show
While men their lord in his perfection stood.
So that themselves were first to do the ill,
Ere they thereof the knowledge could attain;
Like him that knew not poison's power to kill,
Until, by tasting it, himself was slain.
Even so by tasting of that fruit forbid,
Where they sought knowledge, they did error find;
Ill they desired to know, and ill they did,
And to give passion eyes, made reason blind.
– John Davies (1594)
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| Anonymous Italian Artist Design for a Vessel ca. 1800 drawing Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
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| follower of Marco Marchetti Design for Ornamental Base with Kneeling Satyr and Satyresses ca. 1550-1600 drawing Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Anonymous Italian Artist Design for a Fountain 17th century drawing Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
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| Elihu Vedder Study for Fountain Design ca. 1890 drawing Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
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| Elihu Vedder Study for Fountain Design ca. 1890 drawing Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
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| Anonymous Italian Artist Classical and Pseudo-Classical Architectural Details ca. 1840 drawing Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
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| Anonymous Italian Artist Classical and Pseudo-Classical Architectural Details ca. 1840 drawing Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
Thompson's Lunch Room – Grand Central Station
Study in Whites
Wax-white –
Floor, ceiling, walls.
Ivory shadows
Over the pavement
Polished to cream surfaces
By constant sweeping.
The big room is coloured like the petals
Of a great magnolia,
And has a patina
Of flower bloom
Which makes it shine dimly
Under the electric lamps.
Chairs are ranged in rows
Like sepia seeds
Waiting fulfilment.
The chalk-white spot of a cook's cap
Moves unglossily against the vaguely bright wall –
Dull chalk-white striking the retina like a blow
Through the wavering uncertainty of steam.
Vitreous-white of glasses with green reflections,
Ice-green carboys, shifting – greener, bluer – with the jar of moving water.
Jagged green-white bowls of pressed glass
Rearing snow-peaks of chipped sugar
Above the lighthouse-shaped castors
Of grey pepper and grey-white salt.
Grey-white placards: "Oyster Stew, Cornbeef Hash, Frankfurters":
Marble slabs veined with words in meandering lines.
Dropping on the white counter like horn notes
Through a web of violins,
The flat yellow lights of oranges,
The cube-red splashes of apples,
In high plated épergnes.
The electric clock jerks every half-minute:
"Coming! – Past!"
"Three beef-steaks and a chicken-pie,"
Bawled through a slide while the clock jerks heavily.
A man carries a china mug of coffee to a distant chair.
Two rice puddings and a salmon salad
Are pushed over the counter;
The unfulfilled chairs open to receive them.
A spoon falls upon the floor with the impact of metal striking stone,
And the sound throws across the room
Sharp, invisible zigzags
Of silver.
– Amy Lowell (1916)
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| Anonymous Italian Artist Designs for Doorways 18th century drawing Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
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| Anonymous Italian Artist Design for Console Table 18th century drawing Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |