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| Giuseppe Passeri Cardinal Albani is offered the Tiara 1700 drawing Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf |
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| Antonio Gherardi Institution of the Eucharist before 1702 drawing British Museum |
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| Giovanni Odazzi Martyrdom of Apostles Philip and James the Less before 1704 drawing Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf |
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| Benedetto Luti Study for the head of St Crispin 1710 drawing, gouache Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf |
from EMILY DICKINSON'S LETTER TO SUSAN GILBERT, OCTOBER 9, 1851
"I wept a tear here, Susie, on purpose for you – because this "sweet, silver moon" smiles in on me and Vinnie, and then it goes so far before it gets to you – and then you never told me if there was any moon in Baltimore – and how do I know Susie – that you see her sweet face at all? She looks like a fairy tonight, sailing around the sky in a little silver gondola with stars for gondoliers. I asked her to let me ride a little while ago – and told her I would get out when she got as far as Baltimore, but she only smiled to herself and went sailing on."
"I think she was quite ungenerous – but I have learned the lesson and shan't ever ask her again. To day it rained at home – sometimes it rained so hard that I fancied you could hear its patter – patter, patter, as it fell upon the leaves – and the fancy pleased me so, that I sat and listened to it – and watched it earnestly. Did you hear it Susie – or was it only fancy? Bye and bye the sun came out – just in time to bid us goodnight, and as I told you sometime, the moon is shining now."
"It is such an evening Susie, as you and I would walk and have such pleasant musings, if you were only here – perhaps we would have a "Reverie" after the form of "Ik Marvel", indeed I do not know why it wouldn't be just as charming as of that lonely Bachelor, smoking his cigar – and it would be far more profitable as "Marvel" only marvelled, and you and I would try to make a little destiny to have for our own."
The poet Anne Carson quotes this letter concerning "a triangular reverie of moonlit women" in a note to one of her translations from Sappho in If Not, Winter (New York: Knopf, 2002). Here is Carson's context for the letter – "More explicitly than Sappho, Emily Dickinson evokes the dripping fecundity of daylight as foil for the mind's voyaging at night. Almost comically she personifies the moon as chief navigator of the liquid thoughts that women like to share in the dark, in writing. And perhaps Ik Marvel (a popular author of the day, who dwelt upon his own inner life in bestselling "Reveries") is a sort of Homeric prototype – out of whose clichés she may startle a bit of destiny for herself."
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| Giuseppe Passeri Flagellation ca. 1714 drawing Royal Collection, Windsor |
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| Francesco Trevisani Prophet Baruch 1718 drawing Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf |
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| Guillielmus de Grof Design for monument to Maximilian II Emanuel ca. 1716-40 wash drawing Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf |
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| Jean-Baptiste Oudry Porcupine 1730s drawing on blue paper Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin |
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| Jean-Baptiste Oudry Still-life with Fish and Parrot 1740 drawing on blue paper Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
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| François Boucher Landscape near Beauvais 1740s drawing on blue paper Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| François Boucher Study for reclining nude ca. 1750 drawing Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
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| Giovanni Battista Piazzetta Diana 1743 drawing National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne |
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| Louis Joseph Le Lorrain Architectural fantasy with Fountain and Obelisk ca. 1745 wash drawing Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
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| Charles Joseph Natoire Allegory of Painting 1751 drawing Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf |