Three Dimensional Lyricism - III

Christoph Weiditz
Hercules plucking a thorn from his foot
(derived from the antique Spinario)
ca. 1540-50
ivory
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Ingebrigt Vik
The Youth
1913
bronze
National Gallery of Norway, Oslo

Royal Copenhagen Manufactory
Lord Byron
1835
porcelain
(after a marble of 1831 by Bertel Thorvaldsen)
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Petronio Tadolini
The Samaritan Woman
1767
painted terracotta
Minneapolis Institute of Art

Giovanni Francesco Susini
Young St John the Baptist
ca. 1610
marble
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Giacomo Serpotta
Winged Heads of Three Putti
ca. 1690
painted terracotta
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri

Augustus Saint-Gaudens
Head of Mourning Figure
(study for memorial to Clover Adams)
modeled in plaster, 1892-93
cast in bronze, 1912
Art Institute of Chicago

Auguste Rodin
Head of Sorrow
1889
bronze
Yale University Art Gallery

Roman Empire
Mars Cobannus
AD 125-175
bronze
Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Roman Empire
Torso
1st-2nd century AD
marble
National Gallery of Norway, Oslo

Ivan Meštrović
Torso of Strahinja Banović
(mythical Serbian hero)
1908
marble
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Tilman Riemenschneider
Pair of Kneeling Angels
ca. 1505
limewood
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

William Henry Rinehart
Woman in Mourning
ca. 1860-70
marble
Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia

George Rennie
Cupid kindling the Torch of Hymen
ca. 1831
marble
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Auguste Préault
Venus and the Sphinx
1868
plaster modello
(for garden sculpture at Château de Fontainebleau)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Auguste Préault
Jupiter and the Sphinx
1868
plaster modello
(for garden sculpture at Château de Fontainebleau)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Our Best Poets, by Theodore Maynard. Henry Holt & Co.

Certain books move one to wonder, not why they were written – for anyone may jog a typewriter – but why they ever secured a publisher.  Mr. Maynard's competence, whether as poet or critic, is not yet so authoritatively recognized in his own country as to encourage us colonials to lend him our ears.  The value of his utterances may be gauged by his list of the "twelve leading poets," arranged "in their order of merit" as follows:

     1st   G.K. Chesterton

     2nd  Alice Meynell

     3rd  Charles Williams

     4th  Walter de la Mare

     5th  Ralph Hodgson

     6th  W.B. Yeats

     7th  Hilaire Belloc

     8th  J.C. Squire

     9th  W.H. Davies

   10th  Lascelles Abercrombie

   11th  Laurence Binyon

   12th  John Masefield

Mr. Yeats will doubtless be gratified at his inclusion; and Mr. Masefield, arriving by the skin of his teeth at the end of the procession, will hasten to send a letter of thanks.  

–  from a review by Harriet Monroe printed in Poetry, May 1923

Laurencin - Floris - Morris - Cook

Marie Laurencin
Three Women
1935
oil on canvas
Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York

Marie Laurencin
Woman
ca. 1921
oil on canvas
Dallas Museum of Art

Marie Laurencin
Jeune Fille
ca. 1935
oil on canvas
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide

Marie Laurencin
Bon-Bon
ca. 1930
lithograph
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

Frans Floris
Studies of Antique Sculpture
ca. 1540-50
drawing
Kupferstichkabinett, Kunstmuseum Basel

Frans Floris
Studies of Antique Sculpture
ca. 1540-50
drawing
Kupferstichkabinett, Kunstmuseum Basel

Frans Floris
Study Head of Roman Emperor
ca. 1560
oil on panel
Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp

Frans Floris
Study Head of Woman
before 1570
oil on panel
Rubenshuis, Antwerp

William Morris
Floral Repeat-Pattern
ca. 1876
graphite and gouache on paper
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide

William Morris (designer)
Apple Pattern
1877
block-printed wallpaper
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide

William Morris (designer)
Evenlode
ca. 1925
block-printed cotton textile
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide

William Morris (designer)
Floral Tiles
ca. 1878
glazed earthenware
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide

Ray Cook
Assault on Persia: Self Portrait, Heavy with Child
1993
gelatin silver print
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane

Ray Cook
Mother of Nations:
Portrait of the Artist neglecting to keep Himself Nice
1993
gelatin silver print
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane

Ray Cook
Symbiosis: Meg and Su
1990
gelatin silver print
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane

Ray Cook
Untitled
1992
gelatin silver print
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane

from The Sea and the Mirror

Alonso:

Dear Son, when the warm multitudes cry,
Ascend your throne majestically,
But keep in mind the waters where fish
See sceptres descending with no wish
To touch them, sit regal and erect,
But imagine the sands where a crown
Has the status of a broken-down
Sofa or mutilated statue:
Remember as bells and cannon boom
The cold deep that does not envy you,
The sunburnt superficial kingdom
Where a king is an object. 

Expect no help from others, for who
Talk sense to princes or refer to
The scorpion in official speeches
As they unveil some granite Progress
Leading a child and holding a bunch
Of lilies? In their Royal Zoos the
Shark and the octopus are tactfully
Omitted; synchronised clocks march on
Within their powers: without, remain
The ocean flats where no subscription
Concerts are given, the desert plain
Where there is nothing for lunch. 

Only your darkness can tell you what
A prince's ornate mirror dare not,
Which you should fear more – the sea in which
A tyrant sinks entangled in rich
Robes while a mistress turns a white back
Upon his splutter, or the desert
Where an emperor stands in his shirt
While his diary is read by sneering 
Beggars, and far off he notices
A lean horror flapping and hopping
Toward him with inhuman swiftness:
Learn from your dreams what you lack,

For as your fears are, so must you hope.
The Way of Justice is a tightrope
Where no prince is safe for one instant
Unless he trust his embarrassment,
As in his left ear the siren sings
Meltingly of water and a night
Where all flesh had peace, and on his right
The efreet offers a brilliant void
Where his mind could be perfectly clear
And all his limitations destroyed:
Many young princes soon disappear
To join all the unjust kings. 

– W.H. Auden (1942-44)

Three Dimensional Lyricism - II

Pablo Picasso
Seated Satyr
1964
glass
Albright-Knox Art Gallery Buffalo, New York

attributed to Orléans Manufactory
Abduction of Proserpine
ca. 1760-70
soft-paste porcelain
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

attributed to Giuseppe Mazzuoli
A Nereid
ca. 1705-1715
marble
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Giuseppe Mazza
Bust of Diana
ca. 1692-93
marble
Art Institute of Chicago

Wilhelm Matthiä
Crouching Venus
(derived from antique models)
1853-57
marble
Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart

Joseph-Charles Marin
Bacchante
ca. 1800
terracotta
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art,
Kansas City, Missouri

Lomonosov Porcelain Factory, Saint Petersburg
 Prima Ballerina Galina Ulanova
ca. 1950
porcelain
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

attributed to Giovanni Battista Locatelli
The Dancer Baccelli,
mistress of the 3rd Duke of Dorset
1778
plaster
National Trust, Knole, Sevenoaks, Kent

attributed to Giovanni Battista Locatelli
The Dancer Baccelli,
mistress of the 3rd Duke of Dorset (detail)
1778
plaster
National Trust, Knole, Sevenoaks, Kent

Jean-Louis Lemoyne
La Crainte des Traits de l'Amour
1739-40
marble
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Chauncey Bradley Ives
Pandora
1864
marble
Detroit Institute of Arts

Anonymous Italian Artist
Four Cherub Heads
(crèche fragment)
18th century
painted plaster
Albright-Knox Art Gallery Buffalo, New York

Anonymous Italian Artist
Winter
ca. 1700-1720
ivory
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Anonymous Italian Artist
Venus
ca. 1580-90
bronze
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Anonymous Italian Artist
Hercules Pomarius
ca. 1490-1510
bronze
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Malvina Hoffman
Bacchanal
ca. 1925
bronze
Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio

Selected Lyrics, by Amelia Josephine Burr. George H. Doran Co.

These poems will be familiar to many who read the standard magazines and the women's periodicals in which they have been widely published.  A book so filled with sound sense and bright ideas should be easier to read than this one.  One difficulty is with the poet's untrained ear.

Prophet of a Nameless God, by Joseph Kinmont Hart. Harold Vinal (publisher)

As a theological or philosophical modern interpretation of the biblical story of Elijah, this book may have value – we do not pretend to say.  But we are fairly sure that as a poem it has none; it turns the grand old tale, so briefly told in the Books of the Kings, into 178 pages of futile wordiness.

–  from Brief Notices, anonymously printed in Poetry, May 1928

Brown - Hannaford - Hele - Staffordshire

Joan Brown
Flora
1961
oil on canvas
Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California

Joan Brown
Girl in Chair
1962
oil on canvas
Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Joan Brown
Noel on a Pony with Cloud
1963
oil on canvas
Phoenix Art Museum, Arizona

Joan Brown
The Journey #1
1976
enamel on canvas
San Jose Museum of Art, California

Robert Hannaford
Self Portrait
1966
drawing
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide

Robert Hannaford
Self Portrait
ca. 1980
drawing
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide

Robert Hannaford
Self Portrait with Anatomical Studies
ca. 1969
drawing
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide

Robert Hannaford
Self Portrait
1969
drawing
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide

Ivor Hele
Self Portrait
ca. 1935
oil on canvas
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide

Ivor Hele
Self Portrait
ca. 1959
drawing
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide

Ivor Hele
Artist's Wife Reading
ca. 1960
drawing
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide

Ivor Hele
Artist at Work
1929
drawing
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide

Staffordshire Potteries
Basket and Stand
ca. 1805
glazed earthenware (creamware)
Newport Mansions Preservation Society, Rhode Island

Staffordshire Potteries
Teapot and Creamer
ca. 1930
glazed earthenware
(commissioned by Cunard Steamship Lines)
Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto

Staffordshire Potteries
Teapot
ca. 1745
salt-glazed stoneware
Newport Mansions Preservation Society, Rhode Island

Staffordshire Potteries
Vase with Dolphins
ca. 1790
glazed earthenware (pearlware)
Newport Mansions Preservation Society, Rhode Island

from The Sea and the Mirror

Gonzalo:

Evening, grave, immense, and clear,
Overlook our ship whose wake
Lingers undistorted on
Sea and silence; I look back
For the last time as the sun
Sets behind that island where
All our loves were altered: yes,
My prediction came to pass,
Yet I am not justified,
And I weep but not with pride.
Not in me the credit for
Words I uttered long ago
Whose glad meaning I betrayed;
Truths to-day admitted, owe

Nothing to the councillor
In whose booming eloquence
Honesty became untrue.
Am I not Gonzalo who
By his self-reflection made
Consolation an offence?

There was nothing to explain:
Had I trusted the Absurd
And straightforward note by note
Sung exactly what I heard,
Such immediate delight
Would have taken there and then
Our common welkin by surprise,
All would have begun to dance
Jigs of self-deliverance.
It was I prevented this,
Jealous of my native ear,
Mine the art which made the song
Sound ridiculous and wrong,
I whose interference broke
The gallop into jog-trot prose
And by speculation froze
Vision into an idea,
Irony into a joke,
Till I stood convicted of
Doubt and insufficient love.

Farewell, dear island of our wreck:

All have been restored to health,
All have seen the Commonwealth,
There is nothing to forgive.
Since a storm's decision gave
His subjective passion back
To a meditative man,
Even reminiscence can
Comfort ambient troubles like
Some ruined tower by the sea
Whence boyhoods growing and afraid
Learn a formula they need
In solving their mortality,
Even rusting flesh can be
A simple locus now, a bell
The Already There can lay
Hands on if at any time
It should feel inclined to say
To the lonely – "Here I am",
To the anxious  – "All is well".

     One tongue is silent, Prospero,

          My language is my own;

     Decayed Gonzalo does not know
     The shadow that Antonio
          Talks to, at noon, alone.

– W.H. Auden (1942-44)