Jacobus Johannes Lauwers Life-Drawing Studio ca. 1770 watercolor Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
Jacobus Johannes Lauwers Model posed as St Sebastian ca. 1770 drawing Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
Jacobus Johannes Lauwers Académie ca. 1770 drawing Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
Jacobus Johannes Lauwers Académie ca. 1770 drawing Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
Hendrik de Flines Académie ca. 1784-98 drawing Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
Christiaan Welmeer Académie 1791 drawing Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
Egbert van Drielst Académie ca. 1775 drawing Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
Egbert van Drielst Académie 1777 drawing Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
Egbert van Drielst Académie c1780- drawing- Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
Cornelis Joseph d'Heur Académie before 1762 drawing Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
Cornelis Joseph d'Heur Académie before 1762 drawing Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
Cornelis Joseph d'Heur Académie before 1762 drawing Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
Cornelis Joseph d'Heur Académie before 1762 drawing Teylers Museum, Haarlem |
Cornelis Joseph d'Heur Bound Slave (study of a cast) before 1762 drawing Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
Cornelis Joseph d'Heur Atalanta and Hippomenes (study of a cast) before 1762 drawing Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
The Flight
Just seen, running, and silver-gray
along the top tube of a fence between myrtles and me,
too slinky for a bird and even at this distance
unmistakably a quadruped and
nimble, some sort of unspoiled animal, but which?
It ran as if away
from a threat, peril was everywhere,
a footsole crunches it, it is mangled
by a tire's treads, hawk scoops it, turkey buzzard
pecks at it, no speech mitigates its pains,
even the cat fools with it, until, inedible,
it is kicked into the gutter. There she goes,
the slinky silver-gray Atalanta of reptiles
vanishes in no time, for the wind
whisks from her feet such tenuous gusts of air –
brisk now where turnpikes stretch their webs,
and not forever can an earthiness
so sweet as this propel such grace.
She'll have got to the mantis eggs by now,
at each gulp of hatchling
she slowly blinks with satisfaction.
– Christopher Middleton (2014)