Egidio van der Rye St Catherine laid to rest by Angels 1597 oil on copper Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
Anonymous Italian Artist Dead Christ supported by Angels ca. 1600-1620 gilt-bronze relief Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
Peter Paul Rubens and workshop Lot and his Family fleeing Sodom ca. 1613-15 oil on canvas (formerly in the Blenheim Palace collection) John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota |
Antiveduto Grammatica St Cecilia with Musical Angels ca. 1615-20 oil on canvas Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
workshop of Anthony van Dyck St Sebastian tended by an Angel ca. 1628-32 oil on canvas Galleria Sabauda, Turin |
Guercino Dead Christ with Mourning Angel ca. 1630 drawing Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille |
Dirck Bleker Tobias with the Archangel Raphael taking leave of his Family ca. 1660 oil on canvas Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest |
Michael Willmann St Jerome hearing the Last Trumpet ca. 1664 oil on canvas Národní Galerie, Prague |
Adriaen van de Velde Hagar and the Angel ca. 1665-70 drawing Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest |
Giovanni Battista Gaulli (il Baciccio) Sacrifice of Abraham ca. 1700 oil on canvas High Museum of Art, Atlanta |
Francesco Maria Raineri Dream of St Joseph ca. 1710-20 oil on canvas Accademia Carrara, Bergamo |
Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini Flight of Lot from Sodom ca. 1720 oil on canvas Princeton University Art Museum |
Sebastiano Ricci Christ on the Mount of Olives ca. 1730 oil on canvas Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
Anton Raphael Mengs Dream of St Joseph ca. 1774-79 oil on panel John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota |
Filippo Daelli Plague called down from Heaven by King David 1786 oil on canvas Galleria Nazionale di Parma |
Ubaldo Gandolfi Angel preventing the Sacrifice of Isaac ca. 1770-80 drawing Yale University Art Gallery |
from All Souls' Night
Midnight has come and great Christ Church bell
And many a lesser bell sound through the room;
And it is All Souls' Night.
And two long glasses brimmed with muscatel
Bubble upon the table. A ghost may come;
For it is a ghost's right.
His element is so fine
And many a lesser bell sound through the room;
And it is All Souls' Night.
And two long glasses brimmed with muscatel
Bubble upon the table. A ghost may come;
For it is a ghost's right.
His element is so fine
Being sharpened by his death,
To drink from the wine-breath
While our gross palates drink from the whole wine.
To drink from the wine-breath
While our gross palates drink from the whole wine.
I need some mind that, if the cannon sound
From every quarter of the world, can stay
Wound in mind's pondering,
As mummies in the mummy-cloth are wound;
Because I have a marvellous thing to say,
A certain marvellous thing
None but the living mock,
From every quarter of the world, can stay
Wound in mind's pondering,
As mummies in the mummy-cloth are wound;
Because I have a marvellous thing to say,
A certain marvellous thing
None but the living mock,
Though not for sober ear;
It may be all that hear
Should laugh and weep an hour upon the clock.
* * *
But names are nothing. What matter who it be
So that his elements have grown so fine
The fume of muscatel
Can give his sharpened palate ecstasy
No living man can drink from the whole wine.
I have mummy truths to tell
Whereat the living mock,
though not for sober ear,
For maybe all that hear
Should laugh and weep an hour upon the clock.
Should laugh and weep an hour upon the clock.
Such thought – such thought have I that hold it tight
Till meditation master all its parts,
Nothing can stay my glance
Till meditation master all its parts,
Nothing can stay my glance
Until that glance run in the world's despite
To where the damned have howled away their hearts,
And where the blessed dance;
To where the damned have howled away their hearts,
And where the blessed dance;
Such thought, that in it bound
I need no other thing,
Wound in mind's wandering
Wound in mind's wandering
As mummies in the mummy-cloth are wound.
– W.B. Yeats (1920)
– W.B. Yeats (1920)