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| David Teniers and Jan van Kessel Presentation of the Captain-General's Baton to Antonio de Moncada in 1410 oil on copper 1664 Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid |
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| David Teniers and Jan van Kessel Submission of the Sicilian rebels to Antonio de Moncada in 1411 oil on copper 1663 Museo Thyssen-Bronemisza, Madrid |
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| David Teniers Guardroom with deliverance of St Peter from prison ca. 1645-47 oil on copper Metropolitan Museum of Art |
"So Austrian, but at the same time so permeated by the whole world, and by the world surrounding this world," – as remarks one of Thomas Bernhard's characters about the following poem by Ingeborg Bachmann –
Bohemia, a Country by the Sea
If houses here are green, I'll step inside a house.
If bridges here are sound, I'll walk on solid ground.
If love's labor's lost in every age, I'd gladly lose it here.
If it's not me, it's one who is as good as me.
If a word here borders on me, I'll let it border.
If Bohemia still lies by the sea, I'll believe in the sea again.
And believing in the sea, thus I can hope for land.
If it's me, then it's anyone, for he's as worthy as me.
I want nothing more for myself. I want to go under.
Under – that means the sea, there I'll find Bohemia again.
From my grave, I wake in peace.
From deep down I know now, and I'm not lost.
Come here, all you Bohemians, seafarers, dock whores, and ships
unanchored. Don't you want to be Bohemians, all you Illyrians,
Veronese and Venetians. Play the comedies that make us laugh
until we cry. And err a hundred times,
as I erred and never withstood the trials,
though I did withstand them time after time.
As Bohemia withstood them and one fine day
was released to the sea and now lies by water.
I still border on a word and on another land,
I border, like little else, on everything more and more,
a Bohemian, a wandering minstrel, who has nothing, who
is held by nothing, gifted only at seeing, by a doubtful sea,
the land of my choice.
– by Ingeborg Bachmann (1926-1973), translated by Peter Filkins and published in Darkness Spoken : the Collected Poems of Ingeborg Bachmann (Zephyr Press, 2006)
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| David Teniers Peasants playing cards before 1649 oil on copper private collection |
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| David Teniers Temptation of St Anthony ca. 1645 oil on copper Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Cornelis van Poelenburgh Annunciation 1635 oil on copper Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
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| Willem Cornelisz Duyster Portrait of a man 1627 oil on copper Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Frans Pourbus the Younger Portrait of Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia, Archduchess of Austria ca. 1600 oil on copper Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Frans Francken the Younger Visit to the art dealer before 1642 oil on copper Hallwyl Museum, Stockholm |
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| Joachim Wtewael Lot and his Daughters ca. 1603-1608 oil on copper Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Joachim Wtewael Holy Family with Saints and Angels ca. 1606-10 oil on copper Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid |
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| Johann Rottenhammer Suffer the little children to come unto me 1607 oil on copper Los Angeles County Museum of Art |
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| Pieter Isaacsz Women of Rome storming the Capitol ca. 1600-1602 oil on copper Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Gustave Doré Landscape with gorge 1878 oil on copper Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |