Luigi Garzi Omphale with Lion Skin and Club and Hercules with Spindle and Tambourine ca. 1700-1710 oil on canvas Getty Museum, Los Angeles |
Giambattista Tiepolo Bacchus and Ariadne ca. 1743-45 oil on canvas National Gallery of Art, Washington DC |
Doccia Manufactory (Florence) Ariadne Dancing, attended by a Panther ca. 1780-90 porcelain Detroit Institute of Arts |
Gavin Hamilton Death of Cleopatra ca. 1767-69 oil on canvas Detroit Institute of Arts |
Anton Raphael Mengs Augustus and Cleopatra ca. 1759 oil on canvas Deutsche Barockgalerie, Augsburg |
Jan Steen Banquet of Antony and Cleopatra ca. 1673-75 oil on canvas Leiden Collection, New York |
Leonello Spada Judith with the Head of Holofernes ca. 1618 oil on canvas Galleria Nazionale di Parma |
Giovanni Baglione Judith with the Head of Holofernes ca. 1610 oil on canvas Galleria Borghese, Rome |
Simon Vouet Judith with the Head of Holofernes ca. 1620-25 oil on canvas Alte Pinakothek, Munich |
attributed to Elisabetta Sirani after Guido Reni Lucretia ca. 1655 oil on canvas Galleria Borghese, Rome |
Caspar Netscher Lucretia ca. 1665-67 oil on panel Leiden Collection, New York |
Luca Giordano Death of Lucretia ca. 1675-80 oil on canvas Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart |
workshop of Rembrandt Salome receiving the Head of John the Baptist ca. 1640-45 oil on canvas Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
David Teniers the Younger after Palma il Giovane Salome with the Head of John the Baptist ca. 1651-56 oil on canvas Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
Onorio Marinari Salome with the Head of John the Baptist ca. 1680 oil on canvas Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest |
Wilhelm Trübner Salome 1898 oil on cardboard Milwaukee Art Museum |
High Talk
Processions that lack high stilts have nothing that catches the eye.
What if my great-granddad had a pair that were twenty foot high,
And mine were but fifteen foot, no modern stalks upon higher,
What if my great-granddad had a pair that were twenty foot high,
And mine were but fifteen foot, no modern stalks upon higher,
Some rogue of the world stole them to patch up a fence or a fire.
Because piebald ponies, led bears, caged lions, make but poor shows,
Because children demand Daddy-long-legs upon his timber toes,
Because women in upper stories demand a face at the pane
That patching old heels they may shriek, I take to chisel and plane.
Malachi Stilt-Jack am I, whatever I learned has run wild.
From collar to collar, from stilt to stilt, from father to child.
All metaphor, Malachi, stilts and all. A barnacle goose
Far up on the stretches of night; night splits and the dawn breaks loose;
Because piebald ponies, led bears, caged lions, make but poor shows,
Because children demand Daddy-long-legs upon his timber toes,
Because women in upper stories demand a face at the pane
That patching old heels they may shriek, I take to chisel and plane.
Malachi Stilt-Jack am I, whatever I learned has run wild.
From collar to collar, from stilt to stilt, from father to child.
All metaphor, Malachi, stilts and all. A barnacle goose
Far up on the stretches of night; night splits and the dawn breaks loose;
I, through the terrible novelty of light, stalk on, stalk on;
Those great sea-horses bare their teeth and laugh at the dawn.
– W.B. Yeats (1939)
– W.B. Yeats (1939)