Jan Frans Beschey Assumption of the Virgin before 1799 oil on copper Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
Denys Calvaert Assumption of the Virgin ca. 1605 oil on copper Royal Collection, Windsor |
Connecting Train
When the three sisters came home from the ball, their father was dead. Next morning, it no longer helped to count the wagons of the freight trains. A little later the coffee house on the lower floor was closed down, too, and the garden cleared of garden chairs. What remained was the off-licence on the other side of the tracks, the umbrella shop and the nunnery that didn't take novices. They left school.
But even today the green trees give their greeting across the wall, the leaves through which you can blow as if through trumpets. The May wind sways the black smoke, scattering it. Children turn off into the Italian Embassy; shortly afterwards white clouds appear in the sky. The afternoon begins with a promise.
Who will cross the footbridge once more before evening and blow the song through the leaves? Who will help to count the wagons, and set the garden chairs out again in the smoke? The bells are ringing from the barracks' church. The moon is rising. The night begins with a question.
– poem written in German by Ilse Aichinger (2001), translated by Ron Butlin and Regi Claire for an anthology edited by Iain Galbraith, The Night Begins with a Question : XXV Austrian Poems, 1978-2002 (Carcenet, 2007)
Frans Francken the Younger Crucifixion of St Andrew ca. 1620 oil on copper Los Angeles County Museum of Art |
Karel van Mander the Elder Continence of Scipio 1600 oil on copper Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
David Teniers Judith with the head of Holofernes 1650s oil on copper Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
Peter Paul Rubens Portrait of a man 1597 oil on copper Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
Hendrik van der Borcht the Elder Still-life with collection of curiosities before 1651 oil on copper Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
Gonzales Coques Family of Jan Baptista Anthoine 1664 oil on copper Royal Collection, Windsor |
Jan Brueghel the Elder Gypsy Gathering ca. 1614 oil on copper Prado, Madrid |
Jan Brueghel the Elder River Landscape 1607 oil on copper National Gallery of Art, Washington DC |
Izaak van Oosten Landscape with boats 1650s oil on copper Prado, Madrid |
Paul Bril Landscape with goatherds ca. 1620 oil on copper Royal Collection, Windsor |
Joachim Wtewael The Golden Age 1605 oil on copper Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
Leonaert Bramer Sorrow of Hecuba ca. 1630 oil on copper Prado, Madrid |