Monday, July 6, 2026

Traces

Polidoro da Caravaggio and Maturino da Firenze
Perseus rescuing Andromeda
ca. 1525
detached exterior fresco from demolished Roman palazzo
Museo di Roma a Palazzo Braschi


Chim (David Seymour)
Maria Callas
1955
gelatin silver print
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (Achenbach Foundation)

Domenico Brusasorci
Venus, Cupid and Vulcan
ca. 1550
detached exterior fresco from Palazzo Fiorio della Seta, Verona
Museo degli affreschi Giovanni Battista Cavalcaselle, Verona

László Moholy-Nagy
D IV
1922
oil on canvas
Buffalo AKG Art Museum, New York

Polidoro da Caravaggio and Maturino da Firenze
Scene of Sacrifice
ca. 1525
detached exterior fresco from demolished Roman palazzo
Museo di Roma a Palazzo Braschi

Chim (David Seymour)
Audrey Hepburn rehearsing in Paris
1956
gelatin silver print
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
(Achenbach Foundation)

Domenico Brusasorci
Apollo and the Muses
ca. 1550
detached exterior fresco from Palazzo Fiorio della Seta, Verona
Museo degli affreschi Giovanni Battista Cavalcaselle, Verona

László Moholy-Nagy
Untitled
1923
lithograph
Museum of Modern Art, New York

Polidoro da Caravaggio
Triumph of Paullus Macedonicus
before 1543
tempera on canvas (grisaille)
Palazzo Barberini, Rome

Chim (David Seymour)
Republican Soldiers looting a Church, Barcelona
1936
gelatin silver print
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (Achenbach Foundation)

Domenico Brusasorci
Juno with Peacock
ca. 1550
detached exterior fresco from Palazzo Fiorio della Seta, Verona
Museo degli affreschi Giovanni Battista Cavalcaselle, Verona

László Moholy-Nagy
Z VII
1926
oil paint and graphite on canvas
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Polidoro da Caravaggio
Triumph of Paullus Macedonicus
before 1543
tempera on canvas (grisaille)
Palazzo Barberini, Rome

Chim (David Seymour)
Bernard Berenson, Rome
1955
gelatin silver print
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
(Achenbach Foundation)

Domenico Brusasorci
Minerva, Pluto, Mercury and Jupiter
ca. 1550
detached exterior fresco from Palazzo Fiorio della Seta, Verona
Museo degli affreschi Giovanni Battista Cavalcaselle, Verona

László Moholy-Nagy
Red Cross & White Balls
1921
ink and gouache on paper
Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf

Polidoro da Caravaggio
Virgin of the Annunciation
1528
detached fresco
Museo di Capodimonte, Naples

from Argument

Before the forenoon of discussion, as the dawn-gust wrinkles the pools, I waken with an idea of building.
    Speak the name only with meaning only for us, meaning Him, a call to our clearing.  Secret the meeting in time and place, the time of the off-shore wind, the place where the loyalty is divided.  Meeting of seven, each with a talent. 
    On the concrete banks of baths, in the grassy squares of exercise, we are joined, brave in the long body, under His eye.  (Their annual games under the auspices of the dead.)  Our bond, friend, is a third party.
    Smile inwardly on their day handing round tea. (Their women have the faces of birds.)  Walking in the mountains we were persons unknown to our parents, awarded them little, had a word of our own for our better shadow.  Crossing ourselves under the arch of a bridge we crucified fear.
    Crofter, leader of hay, working in sweat and weathers, tin-streamer, heckler, blow-room major, we are within a vein's distance of your poisoned blood.  Stranger who cannot read our letters, you are remembered.  

– W.H. Auden, The Orators (1931)