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| Joseph-Antoine Romagnési Minerva protecting the young King of Rome 1811 painted plaster relief Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Bertel Thorvaldsen The Day ca. 1815 marble relief Harvard Art Museums |
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| Bertel Thorvaldsen The Night ca. 1815 marble relief Harvard Art Museums |
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| John Gibson Venus and Cupid ca. 1839 marble relief Victoria & Albert Museum |
Heart's Desire
There it is, by heaven. Look.
No sacred star or rainbow
leads you to it. No path of crystal trees,
gruff ferryman with dripping oars,
or wise guide crouched in urchin guise.
No writing in any tongue on any wall.
At least here's proof it exists,
however unrecordably.
None of anyone's dreams did it justice.
The bonfires of expectancy
all these years had cast a chill,
and now you are warm,
getting warmer!
But please stand back to look your fill.
Your closer gaze would cause alarm,
or pierce, or char, or ossify.
Your sigh would be its chloroform.
Memorize the contours of its shadow,
the notes of silence it won't break.
Swoon at the scent it slyly withholds
like the night-blooming cereus
at noon.
– J. Allyn Rosser, from Mimi's Trapeze (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2014)
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| Thomas Eakins Youth playing the pipes 1884 plaster relief Philadelphia Museum of Art |
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| Thomas Eakins Pastoral 1883-84 plaster relief Philadelphia Museum of Art |
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| Thomas Eakins Horse Skeleton 1878 plaster relief Philadelphia Museum of Art |
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| Augustus-Saint Gaudens Portrait of Homer Schiff Saint-Gaudens (age 17 months) modeled 1882, carved 1906-07 marble relief Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| César Isidore Henry Cros Pasiphaë adorning the Bull with Flowers ca. 1891-1907 pâte de verre Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| George James Frampton Agriculture before 1896 marble relief Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| George James Frampton Commerce before 1896 marble relief Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| George James Frampton Literature, Art and Science before 1896 marble relief Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| Henri Gaudier-Brzeska The Wrestlers 1914 plaster relief Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| George Segal Miles & His Photographs 1990 plaster, wood, paint, photographs Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut |