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| Jacques-Louis David Sheet of Studies after the Antique ca. 1775-80 drawing Musée du Louvre |
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| Jacques-Louis David Dionysus and Youth (study of antique busts) ca. 1775-80 drawing Musée du Louvre |
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| Jacques-Louis David Jupiter Ammon and Youth (study of antique busts) ca. 1775-80 drawing Musée du Louvre |
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| Jacques-Louis David Farnese Flora and Head of Philosopher (study of antique statue and the School of Athens fresco by Raphael) ca. 1775-80 drawing Musée du Louvre |
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| Jacques-Louis David Winged Woman with Palm and Wreath (study of antique relief) ca. 1775-80 drawing Musée du Louvre |
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| Jacques-Louis David Palm-Bearing Woman with Trophy of Armour (study of antique relief) ca. 1775-80 drawing Musée du Louvre |
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| Jacques-Louis David Woman giving Alms to a Man (study of antique relief) ca. 1775-80 drawing Musée du Louvre |
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| Jacques-Louis David Draped Figure of Woman offering Alms (study of antique relief) ca. 1775-80 drawing Musée du Louvre |
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| Jacques-Louis David Older Man with Body of Younger Man (study of antique sarcophagus relief) ca. 1775-80 drawing Musée du Louvre |
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| Jacques-Louis David Study for The Oath of the Horatii ca. 1785 drawing Musée du Louvre |
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| Jacques-Louis David Cuirass of Mars (study of antique statue) ca. 1775-80 drawing Musée du Louvre |
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| Jacques-Louis David Académie ca. 1778 drawing Musée du Louvre |
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| Jacques-Louis David Portrait Study of Napoleon ca. 1797 drawing Musée du Louvre |
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| Jacques-Louis David Study of Horse Skull ca. 1775-80 drawing Musée du Louvre |
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| Jacques-Louis David Study of Horse Skull ca. 1775-80 drawing Musée du Louvre |
Field of Skulls
Stare hard enough at the fabric of night,
and if you're predisposed to dark – let's say
the window you've picked is a black
postage stamp you spend hours at,
sleepless, drinking gin after the I Love
Lucy reruns have gone off – stare
like your eyes have force, and behind
any night's taut scrim will come the forms
you expect pressing from the other side.
For you: a field of skulls, angled jaws
and eye-sockets, a zillion scooped-out crania.
They're plain once you think to look.
You know such fields exist, for criminals
roam your very block, and even history lists
monsters like Adolf and Uncle Joe
who stalk the earth's orb, plus minor baby-eaters
unidentified, probably in your very midst. Perhaps
that disgruntled mail clerk from your job
has already scratched your name on a bullet – that's him
rustling in the azaleas. You caress the thought,
for it proves there's no better spot for you
than here, your square-yard of chintz sofa, hearing
the bad news piped steady from your head. The night
is black. You stare and furious stare,
confident there are no gods out there. In this way,
you're blind to your own eye's intricate machine
and to the light it sees by, to the luck of birth and all
your remembered loves. If the skulls are there –
let's say they do press toward you
against night's scrim – could they not stare
with slack jawed envy at the fine flesh
that covers your scalp, the numbered hairs,
at the force your hands hold?
– Mary Karr (1993)