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| attributed to Willem van den Broeck Sleeping Nymph ca. 1550-60 alabaster Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Willem van den Broeck Resurrection of Christ ca. 1560-80 alabaster relief Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Tilman Riemenschneider Annunciation Group - Angel Gabriel ca. 1485-87 alabaster Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Tilman Riemenschneider Annunciation Group - Virgin ca. 1485-87 alabaster Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
from Hugh Selwyn Mauberley
The age demanded an image
Of its accelerated grimace,
Something for the modern stage,
Not, at any rate, an Attic grace;
Not, not certainly, the obscure reveries
Of the inward gaze;
Better mendacities
Than the classics in paraphrase!
The "age demanded" chiefly a mould in plaster,
Made with no loss of time,
A prose kinema, not, not assuredly, alabaster
Or the "sculpture" of rhyme.
– Ezra Pound (1920)
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| Anonymous sculptor (Southern Netherlands) Beheading of John the Baptist ca. 1550-75 alabaster relief Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Anonymous sculptor (Southern Netherlands) Head of John the Baptist ca. 1500 alabaster Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Anonymous Sculptor Nymph Callisto asleep in the forest ca. 1600 alabaster relief Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
Poem 291
It sifts from Leaden Sieves –
It powders all the Wood.
It fills with Alabaster Wool
The Wrinkles of the Road –
It makes an even Face
Of Mountain, and of Plain –
Unbroken Forehead from the East
Unto the East again –
It reaches to the Fence –
It wraps it Rail by Rail
Till it is lost in Fleeces –
It deals Celestial Vail
To Stump, and Stack – and Stem –
A Summer's empty Room –
Acres of Joints, where Harvests were,
Recordless, but for them –
It Ruffles Wrists of Posts
As Ankles of a Queen –
Then stills its Artisans – like Ghosts –
Denying they have been –
– Emily Dickinson (1862)
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| Anonymous sculptor (Southern Netherlands) St Joseph 1600 alabaster Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Anonymous sculpture St Augustine as Bishop of Hippo ca. 1500 alabaster relief Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Anonymous sculptor (Southern Netherlands) Domestic Altar with The Last Supper ca. 1500 alabaster relief Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Anonymous sculptor (Southern Netherlands) Domestic Altar with The Last Supper ca. 1550 alabaster relief Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
Requiem for the Plantagenet Kings
For whom the possessed sea littered, on both shores,
Ruinous arms; being fired, and for good,
To sound the constitution of just wars,
Men, in their eloquent fashion, understood.
Relieved of soul, the dropping-back of dust,
Their usage, pride, admitted within doors;
At home, under caved chantries, set in trust,
With well-dressed alabaster and proved spurs
They lie; they lie; secure in the decay
Of blood, blood-marks, crowns hacked and coveted,
Before the scouring fires of trial-day
Alight on men; before sleeked groin, gored head,
Budge through the clay and gravel, and the sea
Across daubed rocks evacuates its dead.
– Geoffrey Hill (1959)
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| workshop of Tobias Tissenaken Baptism of Christ ca. 1600-1625 alabaster relief Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Anonymous sculptor Jacob's Ladder ca. 1600 alabaster relief Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Anonymous Italian sculptor working in India Portrait of Shah Jahan ca. 1630-50 alabaster relief Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |