Wednesday, September 21, 2022

Devotional Representations (Unassigned Italian Drawings)

Anonymous Italian Artist after Cavaliere d'Arpino
Expulsion of Adam and Eve
17th century
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Anonymous Italian Artist after Carlo Maratti
Christ at the Column
17th century
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Anonymous Italian Artist
Cain and Abel
ca. 1650-1700
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Anonymous Italian Artist
Jael and Sisera
ca. 1650-1700
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Anonymous Italian Artist
Sacrifice of Abraham
ca. 1650-1700
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Anonymous Italian Artist
St Helena
16th century
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Anonymous Italian Artist
Pietà
17th century
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Anonymous Italian Artist
Pietà with Four Saints
ca. 1550-1600
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Anonymous Italian Artist
The Flagellation
ca. 1550-1600
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Anonymous Italian Artist
Ecce Homo
16th century
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Anonymous Italian Artist
The Crowning with Thorns
ca. 1600-1650
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Anonymous Italian Artist
Joseph's Bloody Coat brought to Jacob
ca. 1650-1700
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Anonymous Italian Artist
Adoration of the Shepherds
ca. 1550-1600
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Anonymous Italian Artist
The Resurrection
17th century
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Anonymous Italian Artist
Saint in Glory
18th century
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Glory

Though a moment of glory every once in a while
isn't too much to hope for, it isn't likely
In the one hour of the day remaining
Now being filled with a family movie.
Here is the comfort of familiar shadows
But not the glory of leading those shadows
Out of the flickering dark, into the living present.
Maybe if I keep the distinction clear
I can pride myself at least on a glorious honesty.

The sight of my cousins, uncles and aunts,
Huddled around the cake with my parents
On my seventh birthday shows how cherished I was,
A boy likely to grow to manhood
At ease with himself, confident of his gifts,
Daring the loneliness required by causes
Gloriously unlikely to triumph, which by now
I should be able to name more readily.

At least with birthdays like this to fall back on,
I can be strong enough to confront my failings,
Beginning with the pleasure I took in being coddled
More than my brothers were by those who mattered.
And if that memory leaves me feeling guilty,
It shows I'm not indifferent to justice
And isn't regard for justice a glorious virtue?

If that doesn't fill the day's quota of glory,
I can show the film in reverse and watch an uncle
Bring an empty fork to his mouth and remove it
Mounded with cake; I can watch the forkfuls
Arrange themselves on the plates as slices
Pointed into the past to defy time's arrow.

And when the cake's restored, the birthday child
Blows the candles to flame with his hot breath.
And here's mother taking a match to unlight them.
And here's father smiling as he backs the cake to the kitchen
To box it and send it off to countries less fortunate
Whose inhabitants haven't learned to create from nothing.

– Carl Dennis (1999)