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| Benedetto Montagna Young Man with an Arrow ca. 1510 engraving Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Jan Hermensz Muller after Adriaen de Vries Mercury and Psyche ca. 1597 engraving Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Pierre Aveline after François Boucher Académie (Seconde Livre de Figures d'Académies) 1745 etching Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Jean-Baptiste Perronneau after Carle Vanloo Académie (Seconde Livre de Figures d'Académies) 1745 etching Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Pierre Soubeyran after Edme Bouchardon Académie (Seconde Livre de Figures d'Académies) 1745 etching Art Institute of Chicago |
The Models
Music begins, and here they come toward us,
Not walking or dancing along the ramp, but making
Angular progress with no destination
But our poor eyes, which they meet in vain in passing
But wouldn't dream of meeting twice, not even
Now or again as they turn and pause, then turn
Again and pause again while they lift open
And shut the bizarre, the seemingly freely floating
And seamless openings of those smooth trappings
Someone imagined they should hold above us
And loosen lightly and fling aside from their skins
And bones, then close too soon as we gape back
And forth and up to them, trying to think
Of anything else, since they don't eat or speak
A living tongue, don't drink because their fingers
Have never gathered together into hands
Like ours and would never feel a common need
To applaud or wash themselves and because those legs
Couldn't stand still in rooms with us or bend
To allow those torsos to sit down in rows
Like us to watch their perfect counterparts
Enter the only light. Now, just as we thought,
They turn and disappear behind curtains.
– David Wagoner (2003)
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| Carle Vanloo Académie (title-page for portfolio of six) 1743 etching Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Carle Vanloo Académie (from portfolio of six) 1743 etching Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Carle Vanloo Académie (from portfolio of six) 1743 etching Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Carle Vanloo Académie with two models (from portfolio of six) 1743 etching Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Carle Vanloo Académie (from portfolio of six) 1743 etching Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Carle Vanloo Académie (from portfolio of six) 1743 etching Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Peterpaul Ott Torso I (from Calendar of the Chicago Society of Artists) 1936 relief print Art Institute of Chicago |
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| George Platt Lynes Untitled ca. 1930 gelatin silver print Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Henry Moore Six Reclining Figures 1963 lithograph Art Institute of Chicago |