 |
| Adam Elsheimer St Lawrence prepared for Martyrdom ca. 1600-1601 oil on copper National Gallery, London |
 |
| Pieter Lastman Christ and the Woman of Canaan 1617 oil on panel Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
 |
| Pieter Lastman Baptism of Christ 1629 oil on panel National Galleries of Scotland |
 |
| Nicolas Poussin Mystic Marriage of St Catherine ca. 1628-29 oil on panel National Galleries of Scotland |
 |
| Nicolas Poussin Bacchanal before a herm of Pan 1631-33 oil on canvas National Gallery, London |
 |
| Nicolas Poussin Dance to the Music of Time ca. 1638 oil on canvas Wallace Collection, London |
Dora Williams
When Reuben Pantier ran away and threw me
I went to Springfield. There I met a lush,
Whose father just deceased left him a fortune.
He married me when drunk. My life was wretched.
A year passed and one day they found him dead.
That made me rich. I moved on to Chicago.
After a time met Tyler Rountree, villain.
I moved on to New York. A gray-haired magnate
Went mad about me – so another fortune.
He died one night right in my arms, you know.
(I saw his purple face for years thereafter.)
There was almost a scandal. I moved on,
This time to Paris. I was now a woman,
Insidious, subtle, versed in the world and rich.
My sweet apartment near the Champs Élysées
Became a center for all sorts of people,
Musicians, poets, dandies, artists, nobles,
Where we spoke French and German, Italian, English.
I wed Count Navigato, native of Genoa.
We went to Rome. He poisoned me, I think.
Now in the Campo Santo overlooking
The sea where young Columbus dreamed new worlds,
See what they chiseled: "Contessa Navigato
Implora eterna quiete."
– Edgar Lee Masters (1915)
 |
| Claude Lorrain Pastoral Landscape with Lake Albano and Castel Gandolfo 1639 oil on tin painted for Pope Urban VIII Barberini Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge |
 |
| Claude Lorrain Landscape with Apollo and the Muses 1652 oil on canvas Claude's largest landscape, painted for Cardinal Pamphili National Galleries of Scotland |
 |
| Willem Romeyn Landscape with woman milking a goat 1649 oil on canvas Dulwich Picture Gallery, London |
 |
| Jacob Pynas Jupiter and Io before 1650 oil on panel Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge |
 |
| Johannes Lingelbach Peasants Dancing 1651 oil on canvas Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
 |
| Gaspard Dughet Landscape (with figures by Jan Miel) before 1663 oil on canvas Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge |
 |
| Gaspard Dughet Classical Landscape before 1675 oil on canvas National Galleries of Scotland |
 |
| Cornelis van Poelenburgh Landscape with the Finding of Moses before 1667 oil on panel Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge |
 |
| attributed to Frederik van Frytom Italianate Landscape Scene ca. 1670-1700 faїence plaque Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
Blue China Doorknob
I was haunted by the image of a blue china doorknob. I never used the
doorknob, or knew what it meant, yet somehow it started the current of images.
Robert Lowell
Rooms may be
using us. We
may be the agents
of doorknobs'
purposes, obeying
imperatives china
dreams up or
pacing dimensions
determined by
cabinets. And if
we're their instruments –
the valves of their
furious trumpets,
conscripted but
ignorant of it –
the strange, unaccountable
things we betray
were never our secrets
anyway.
– Kay Ryan (2004)
– poems from the archives of Poetry (Chicago)