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| Michelangelo Buonarroti Study for Ignudo - Sistine Ceiling ca. 1510-11 drawing Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio |
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| Baccio Bandinelli Figure Study ca. 1516-20 drawing Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio |
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| Just de Juste Human Pyramid ca. 1540-50 etching Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Just de Juste Human Pyramid ca. 1540-50 etching Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Just de Juste Human Pyramid ca. 1543 etching Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam |
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| Just de Juste Human Pyramid ca. 1550 etching Los Angeles County Museum of Art |
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| Francesco Primaticcio Figure of Satyr ca. 1552-56 drawing (study for wall decoration, Salle de Bal, Château de Fontainebleau) British Museum |
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| Francesco Primaticcio Thetis and Bacchus ca. 1552-56 drawing (study for wall decoration, Salle de Bal, Château de Fontainebleau) British Museum |
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| Taddeo Zuccaro Study of Soldier before 1566 drawing British Museum |
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| Cecco Bravo St John the Baptist before 1661 drawing Morgan Library, New York |
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| Cornelis van Dalen the Younger Narcissus at the Fountain before 1664 engraving Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Claude Gillot Académie ca. 1693-95 drawing Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio |
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| Carel de Moor Christ on the Cross ca. 1700 drawing Groeningemuseum, Bruges |
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| Paolo de' Matteis Flying Figure approaching Figure enthroned Aloft before 1728 drawing Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Edme Bouchardon Académie ca. 1735-50 drawing Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio |
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| François Boucher Académie (with Wings) ca. 1745-50 drawing Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio |
What DNA Knows
What is death to us? We've heard that myth,
a ghost story to tell around a camp fire.
We're too busy to think. Our copies constantly
clamor around our waists like children. They rush
from their cramped classrooms into the red light
of the first time – wanting a push on the swings.
Surrounded by salty currents, how can we ask them
to stay close? They backstroke, flipstroke, frontstroke
toward the wide mouth of the deep where they break
into form. They mortar. They solder. They tower.
They make us proud. And what is birth to us?
Nothing and everything. We are one thing:
desire. Isn't that what all gods are?
More green, more grow, more grass.
We direct "circle time" every
second. Criss-cross, apple-sauce, we'll sing-song
to them, pointing to the picture book that instructs:
to them, pointing to the picture book that instructs:
Initiation, Elongation, Termination. We know who
can sit together and who can't keep their hands
to themselves. So, we have an order: T and A.;
C and G. Our voice drones on and on,
a push, a pull, a parcel of wet letters to
the messenger who waits in the hall, ready
to run and weave, to repeat and repeat and repeat.
Charlotte Pence (2020)