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| Anonymous Genoese Artist David with the Head of Goliath ca. 1610 oil on canvas Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena |
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| Domenico Fetti David with the Head of Goliath before 1623 drawing Musée du Louvre |
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| Giovanni Battista Vanni Triumph of David 1623 oil on canvas Palazzo Pretorio, Prato |
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| Antonio Viviani Jonah with the Great Fish before 1620 drawing (study for fresco) Musée du Louvre |
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| Pietro Novelli (il Monrealese) David with the Head of Goliath ca. 1630-40 oil on canvas Musée des Beaux-Arts de Marseille |
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| Pietro Novelli (il Monrealese) Moses before 1647 oil on canvas Palazzo Abatellis, Palermo |
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| Cavaliere d'Arpino (Giuseppe Cesari) Study for Susanna and the Elders before 1640 drawing Musée du Louvre |
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| Philippe de Champaigne Moses with the Tablets of the Law ca. 1650-60 drawing (damaged by fire in 1720) Musée du Louvre |
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| Michel Corneille the Younger Adam and Eve ca. 1660-70 drawing Musée du Louvre |
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| Jacob Jordaens Susanna and the Elders ca. 1653 drawing Musée du Louvre |
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| Simon Vouet Moses with the Tablets of the Law before 1649 drawing Musée du Louvre |
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| attributed to Antonio Zanchi Samson and Delilah ca. 1655-65 oil on canvas Northampton Museum and Art Gallery, Northamptonshire |
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| Pietro Liberi Jephthah encounters his Daughter (detail) 1665 oil on canvas Fondazione Cavallini Sgarbi, Ferrara |
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| Giovanni Andrea de Ferrari Abraham and the Three Angels ca. 1660-65 oil on canvas St Louis Museum of Art, Missouri |
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| Aniello Falcone Jacob is shown Joseph's Bloody Coat before 1665 oil on canvas Palazzo Lanfranchi, Matera |
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| Aniello Falcone Jacob is shown Joseph's Bloody Coat (detail) before 1665 oil on canvas Palazzo Lanfranchi, Matera |
C'è un'altra possibilità
I refuse to accept
the soul at death
shoots outward consumed
in wind & light.
More likely it arcs
back into the past,
eager to review
every face & word,
poisons as well as
blessings. And whatever
once seemed puzzling,
without reason, mysterious,
will be clear. A long
calming look will
explain the red
banner of the PCI.
Across it, yellow, the phrase
c'è un'altra possibilità,
fluttering, while he
spoke to us, mumbled,
something about meeting
Dante at evening – a drunk,
or the creature who "bit
himself like one whom
fury devastates within."
Fingers gnawed, spavined,
scabbed, clenching
and unclenching when
he went off to watch
the intersection of a rower's
scull with clouds suffused
by violet & reflected at sunset
in the muddy river.
One look, to pierce
his terrors. And each
of his confusions will be
grasped, along with the cures
of many others. Even
the quickest & most
coaxing of your smiles.
Or the noon we ate
in that square outside
Santa Croce, by engraved
copper doors, near
the mother who tossed
scoops of bread crumbs
onto the head & shoulders
of her little boy,
so pigeons roosting
on all the cornices
swooped down to flock
and swirl around him,
even his laughter & shrieking
will be understood.
And what then?
Then the soul will see,
finally, how useless wisdom
is, & save itself
by being reborn.
– David Rivard (1990)