Wednesday, January 25, 2023

Satyrs and Centaurs

Jacopo Bellini
Cupid with Young Satyr on Pegasus
before 1470
drawing on vellum
Musée du Louvre

Piero di Cosimo
Battle of Lapiths and Centaurs (detail)
ca. 1500-1515
oil on panel
National Gallery, London

Giulio Romano
Satyr playing Pipes
ca. 1527-28
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Bernardino Luini
St Anthony and the Centaur
before 1532
drawing
Musée du Louvre

School of Fontainebleau
Satyrs pursuing Nymphs turned into Trees
16th century
drawing
Musée du Louvre

attributed to il Pordenone
(Giovanni Antonio Licinio)
Satyr and Satyress
before 1539
drawing
Musée du Louvre

il Pordenone
(Giovanni Antonio Licinio)
Youth resisting Satyr's Embrace
before 1539
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Girolamo da Santacroce
Banquet with Satyr Musicians
ca. 1545
oil on panel
Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht

Michelangelo Buonarroti
Head of a Satyr
before 1564
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Anonymous Dutch Artist
Hercules overcoming Centaur
ca. 1600
drawing
Musée du Louvre

attributed to Bartolomeo Schedoni
Sleeping Nymph surprised by Satyrs
before 1615
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Jacob Jordaens
Satyr dining with Peasants
ca. 1635
drawing, with watercolor
Musée du Louvre

Carlo Maratti
Satyrs harvesting Grapes
ca. 1660
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Charles Le Brun
Centaur drawing Bow
ca. 1672-74
drawing
(study for cupola decoration)
Musée du Louvre

Charles Le Brun
Bacchus and Satyr
before 1690
drawing
(study for painting)
Musée du Louvre

Giandomenico Tiepolo
Punchinello abducted by Centaur
ca. 1800
drawing
Musée du Louvre

from Counting to Six Million

You burst into the room, fifth grade facts burning your tongue
like Moses' coal. 100 people die every minute, you tell me
as I turn down the TV; and then, gleefully: 50 since I've been
in this room, and now 75 and now . . . O my little census bureau,
my prince of darkness, my prophet of numbers, riddle me this:

how many grains of sand before you can call it a desert?
And where were you the day Kennedy was shot? CNN, interrupting,
asks. My grandmother clicks her tongue like she's chopping onions
in the old country. Poor boy, she says, pointing, 
And there's John-John again, waving that little flag, still saluting.

                               *                     *                   *

There are more people breathing this very moment, my son insists,
than have ever died. He's home from college, so I don't double-check. 
He's driven a long way to surprise me on my birthday. Are you sure
you can't stay, I ask, holding him close. He looks full of hope;
a woman I've never seen before at his side. Welcome home,

I tell my wife. She's just turned twenty-four. I'm childless,
fatherless. It's the day of the funeral; Nineteen years until 
the twin towers. Three thousand since Moses murdered
the overseer. But that's not what I'm thinking. One, two, three,
she says, guiding me inside.  . . . 

– Richard Michelson (2006)