Jacopo Ligozzi Death casting a Net over Hunters before 1626 drawing Musée du Louvre |
Antonio Tempesta Death of Absalom (Absalom unhorsed and caught on a tree branch in the background) before 1630 drawing (print study) Musée du Louvre |
Niccolò Berrettoni Death of the Virgin before 1682 drawing Musée du Louvre |
Gianfrancesco Modigliani Death of the Virgin ca. 1590-1600 oil on canvas Musei San Domenico, Chiesa di San Giacomo Apostolo, Forlì |
attributed to Bernardino da Asola Death of St Peter Martyr before 1540 oil on canvas National Gallery, London |
Antonio Zanchi Death of King Josiah ca. 1650-1700 oil on canvas private collection |
Francesco Panini Funeral Rites in Rome for King Joseph I of Portugal 1777 drawing Musée du Louvre |
Alessandro Algardi Design for Tomb with Weeping Infants before 1654 drawing Musée du Louvre |
Giulio Romano Design for the Tomb of Sigismondo Gonzaga ca. 1537 drawing Musée du Louvre |
François Masson Study for the Tomb of a Pope 1795 drawing Musée du Louvre |
Palma il Giovane The Entombment, with the Virgin swooning before 1628 drawing Musée du Louvre |
Gregorio Lazzarini Death of Dido ca. 1710 oil on canvas Palazzo Buonaccorsi, Macerata |
Dead Language Lesson
They lift their half-closed eyes out of the grammar.
What is the object of love? you,
Singular. The subject? I.
Aeneas has nothing to say for himself.
Even the boys confess that he
Didn't intend to come back, the girls
Already know the tale by heart.
They wheedle me for tangents, for
Anything not in a book,
Even though it's all from books:
The many-wiled Penelope,
Orpheus struck dumb with hindsight.
I confiscate a note in which
The author writes, "Who do you love?,"
An agony past all correction.
I think, as they wait for the bell,
Blessed are the young for whom
All languages are dead: the girl
Who twines her golden hair, like Circe,
Turning glib boys into swine.
– A.E. Stallings (1999)
Gabriel-François Doyen Death of Virginie (scene from Paul et Virginie by Bernardin de St Pierre) ca. 1790 drawing (study for painting) Musée du Louvre |
Jan van Somer after Karel Dujardin Four Figures gathered among Tombs (scene from The Soldier's Tale, or, The Widow of Ephesus) ca. 1670-80 mezzotint Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
Carlo Maratti Sick Woman recovering as Saint banishes Death ca. 1680 drawing Musée du Louvre |
Sébastien Bourdon Tobit giving Burial to the Dead before 1671 drawing Musée du Louvre |