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| Donatello Head of St George ca. 1416 marble Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence |
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| Tullio Lombardo Bacchus and Ariadne ca. 1505-1510 marble relief Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
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| Anonymous Italian Artist Bust of an Ancient Roman ca. 1520-30 bronze Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Antonio Begarelli Bust of Christ ca. 1550 terracotta Bode Museum, Berlin |
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| Francesco Mochi Bust of a Youth ca. 1630-40 marble Art Institute of Chicago |
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| attributed to Pietro Tacca Bust of Philip IV, King of Spain before 1640 marble Museo del Prado, Madrid |
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| Antonio Giorgetti Head of an Angel 1668 terracotta Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Gianlorenzo Bernini Bust of the Savior ca. 1679 marble Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia |
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| Anonymous French Artist Bust of dramatist Jean Racine 18th century bronze private collection |
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| Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne the Younger Portrait Bust of the Comtesse de Feuquières (daughter of painter Pierre Mignard) ca. 1738 terracotta Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
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| Jean-Antoine Houdon Head of composer Christoph Willibald Gluck 1775 plaster Neue Pinakothek, Munich |
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| Augustin Pajou Bust of architect Pierre Rousseau ca. 1785 terracotta Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Francis Legatt Chantrey Bust of Mr Warp 1816 marble Tate Gallery |
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| Aimé-Jules Dalou Portrait Mask of photographer Étienne Carjat ca. 1891 bronze National Gallery of Art, Washington DC |
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| William Robert Colton The Young Diana 1919 marble Royal Academy of Arts, London |
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| Frank Dobson Study for the Head of Pax 1933 bronze Royal Academy of Arts, London |
from The Arrogance of Physics
The twentieth century was the century of physics:
The physical world came close to being tamed
By understanding, making it harder to understand
Or even imagine, on the scale of the cosmos
And on the order of the very small: time passes
As your twin ages, while you remain perpetually young –
Though a lot of good it does you, existing as you do
At no place in particular, smeared out everywhere
By understanding, making it harder to understand
Or even imagine, on the scale of the cosmos
And on the order of the very small: time passes
As your twin ages, while you remain perpetually young –
Though a lot of good it does you, existing as you do
At no place in particular, smeared out everywhere
Until someone sees you and your wave packet collapses.
It was also the century of poetry, modern poetry
And the question it engendered, which it keeps repeating:
And the question it engendered, which it keeps repeating:
"Are you going to go on writing poems like this,
Writing for posterity? Posterity isn't interested
Unless you are, because instead of a quaint immortality,
Unless you are, because instead of a quaint immortality,
It offers merely intermittent moments of attention
Before moving on, maybe to return, but probably not.
You can't displace your heroes in the pantheon,
Before moving on, maybe to return, but probably not.
You can't displace your heroes in the pantheon,
Because there isn't one: just this giant, happy band
Of suppliants, each one knowing what the others know.
Of suppliants, each one knowing what the others know.
I realize this isn't what you'd hoped for, but please,
Don't get discouraged – celebrate temporality instead."
Don't get discouraged – celebrate temporality instead."
– John Koethe (2016)