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| Bernardino Butinone Descent from the Cross ca. 1485 tempera on panel Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Cosimo Rosselli Descent from the Cross ca. 1485 tempera and oil on panel Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Raphael The Entombment 1507 oil on panel Galleria Borghese, Rome |
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| Rosso Fiorentino Pietà ca. 1537-40 oil on panel, transferred to canvas Musée du Louvre |
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| Il Pordenone (Giovanni Antonio de' Sacchis) The Raising of Lazarus before 1539 oil on canvas Prague Castle Picture Gallery, Czech Republic |
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| Jan van Troyen after Il Pordenone The Raising of Lazarus ca. 1656-60 etching and engraving Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Giacomo Piccini after Il Pordenone The Entombment (copy of lost cloister fresco in Chiesa di Santo Stefano, Venice) ca. 1656 engraving British Museum |
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| Jacopino del Conte The Deposition ca. 1550 oil on panel Château de Chantilly |
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| Caravaggio The Entombment 1603-1604 oil on canvas Pinacoteca Vaticana, Rome |
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| Sisto Badalocchio The Entombment ca. 1610 oil on canvas Galleria Borghese, Rome |
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| Charles Le Brun Descent from the Cross ca. 1645-50 oil on canvas Los Angeles County Museum of Art |
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| Guillaume Courtois (Il Borgognone) St Abdon and St Sennen bearing off for burial the remains of early Christian Martyrs ca. 1656-57 fresco Basilica San Marco Evangelista, Rome |
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| Guillaume Courtois (Il Borgognone) St Abdon and St Sennen bearing off for burial the remains of early Christian Martyrs ca. 1656-60 etching British Museum |
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| Luca Giordano Descent from the Cross ca. 1659 oil on canvas Museo de Santa Cruz, Toledo, Spain |
Paterson: The Falls
What common language to unravel?
The Falls, combed into straight lines
from that rafter of a rock's
lip. Strike in! the middle of
some trenchant phrase, some
well packed clause. Then . . .
This is my plan. 4 sections: First
the archaic persons of the drama.
An eternity of bird and bush,
resolved. An unraveling:
the confused streams aligned, side
by side, speaking! Sound
married to strength, a strength
of falling – from a height! The wild
voice of the shirt-sleeved
Evangelist rivaling. Hear
me! I am the Resurrection
and the Life! echoing
among the bass and pickerel, slim
eels from Barbados, Sargasso
Sea, working up the coast to that
bounty, ponds and wild streams –
Third, the old town: Alexander Hamilton
working up from St. Croix,
from that sea! and a deeper, whence
he came! stopped cold
by that unmoving roar, fastened
there: the rocks silent
but the water, married to the stone,
voluble, though frozen: the water
even when and though frozen
still whispers and moans –
And in the brittle air
a factory bell clangs, at dawn, and
snow whines under their feet. Fourth,
the modern town, a
disembodied roar! the cataract and
the clamor broken apart – and from
all learning, the empty
ear struck from within, roaring . . .
– William Carlos Williams (1944)