Torso

Henry Moore
Large Torso: Arch
1963
bronze
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri

George Richmond
Boswood's Thigh, and the right arm of Michelangelo's David
1828
drawing
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Francesco Hayez
The Kiss
1859
oil on canvas
Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan

Francesco Xanto Avelli
Dish with Ulysses confronting Circe
1533
maiolica
Musée du Louvre

Grace Henry
Still Life with Torso
ca. 1920-30
oil on canvas
National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin

George Richmond
Hagar and Ishmael in the Wilderness
ca. 1829-33
drawing
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Peter Behrens
The Kiss
1898
color woodblock print
Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York

Francesco Xanto Avelli
Plate with Love Suicide of Aesacus, Prince of Troy
1533
maiolica
Musée du Louvre

Henry Moore
Draped Torso
1953
bronze
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri

George Richmond
Seated Pilgrim
ca. 1831
drawing (study for painting)
British Museum

Rocco Morabito
The Kiss of Life
1967
gelatin silver print
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Francesco Xanto Avelli
Plate with Apollo and Marsyas before Midas
ca. 1527-30
maiolica
Musée du Louvre

Steven Haas
Torso of Cristoph
1996
gelatin silver print
Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York

George Richmond
Sheet of Studies
ca. 1847
drawing
British Museum

Duncan Grant
Embrace
ca. 1920-30
gouache and graphite on paper
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Anonymous Italian Makers
Dish with Diana and Actaeon
1539
maiolica
Musée du Louvre

Roman Empire
Torso Satyr
1st-2nd century AD
marble
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri

Unhappy men, why do we travel so,

emptily optimistic, before death?

Here was Seleukos, perfect of his kind

in talk and manners, briefly at his prime:

on the far edge of Spain, a world from Lesbos,

he lies a stranger on the unmeasured coast.

– from the Greek Anthology, translated by Alistair Elliot

Torso (Versions)

Roman Empire
Torso of an Emperor
AD 75-125
bronze
(statue fragment found in the sea)
Museo de Cádiz, Spain

Francesco Morandini (il Poppi)
Torso Study after the Antique
before 1597
drawing
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Ventura Salimbeni
Study of Torso and Drapery
before 1613
drawing
Kupferstichkabinett,
Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden

Johann Carl Loth
Christ crowned with Thorns
ca. 1675
oil on canvas
Sinebrychoff Art Museum, Helsinki

Daniel Seiter
St Sebastian tended by St Irene
ca. 1680
oil on canvas
Mount Holyoke College Art Museum,
South Hadley, Massachusetts

František Tkadlík
Torso of the Laocoön
ca. 1816
drawing
Národní Galerie, Prague

Man Ray
Violon d'Ingres
1924
gelatin silver print
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Gaston Lachaise
Torso
ca. 1930
bronze
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

René Magritte
Light of Coincidence
1933
oil on canvas
Dallas Museum of Art

Eikoh Hosoe
Man and Woman #3
1960
gelatin silver print
National Museum of Asian Art, Washington DC

Paul Wunderlich
Torso Bleu
1967
oil on linen
Hirshhorn Museum, Washington DC

Paul Wunderlich
Torso
ca. 1969
lithograph
Hirshhorn Museum, Washington DC

Paul Wunderlich
Untitled
before 1970
screenprint with added gouache
Hirshhorn Museum, Washington DC

Mark Cohen
Twisting
1976
gelatin silver print
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Larry Fink
Champs Gym, Philadelphia PA
1993
gelatin silver print
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Douglas Gordon
Tattoo (for Reflection)
1997
C-print
Guggenheim Museum, New York

Sam Contis
Hothouse
2015
inkjet print
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

from The Second Olympique Ode of Pindar

Whilst in the Lands of unexhausted Light

Ore which the God-like Suns unwearied sight 
        Nere winks in Clouds, or Sleeps in Night,
An endless Spring of Age the Good enjoy,
Where neither Want does pinch, nor Plenty cloy.
        There neither Earth nor Sea they plow,
                Nor ought to Labour ow
For Food, that whil'st it nour'ishes does decay,
And in the Lamp of Life consumes away.
Thrice had these men through mortal bodies past,
        Did thrice the tryal undergo,
Till all their little Dross was purg'ed at last,
        The Furnace had no more to do.
        Then in rich Saturns peaceful state
        Were they for sacred Treasures plac'ed,
The Muse-discovered World of Islands Fortunate.

– Pindar(518-446 BC), translated by Abraham Cowley (1656)

Headless Romans

Ancient Roman Culture
Emperor wearing Cuirasse
1st-2nd century AD
marble
Museu Nacional Arqueològic de Tarragona

Ancient Roman Culture
Muse
1st century AD
marble
Museo Nacionale de Arte Romano, Mérida

Ancient Roman Culture
Peplophore
1st century BC-1st century AD
marble
Musées d'Art et d'Histoire, Genève

Ancient Roman Culture
Venus
1st-2nd century AD
marble
Musées d'Art et d'Histoire, Genève

Ancient Roman Culture
Youth
2nd century AD
marble
North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh

Ancient Roman Culture
Diadumenos
AD 130-140
marble
Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel

Ancient Roman Culture
Dionysus
1st century AD
marble
Musées d'Art et d'Histoire, Genève

Ancient Roman Culture
Dionysus
1st century BC-1st century AD
marble
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston

Ancient Roman Culture
Dionysus
27 BC-AD 68
marble
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston

Ancient Roman Culture
Emperor as Jupiter
1st century AD
marble
North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh

Ancient Roman Culture
Eros stringing Bow
2nd century AD
marble
Musées d'Art et d'Histoire, Genève

Ancient Roman Culture
Man wearing Chlamys
1st-2nd century AD
marble
Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia

Ancient Roman Culture
Pan
1st century BC-1st century AD
marble
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Tennessee

Ancient Roman Culture
Venus
1st century AD
marble
Musées d'Art et d'Histoire, Genève

Ancient Roman Culture
Youth
1st-2nd century AD
marble
Musées d'Art et d'Histoire, Genève

Ancient Roman Culture
Youth
1st century AD
marble
Seattle Art Museum

Vespers

End of August. Heat
like a tent over

John's garden. And some things
have the nerve to be getting started,

clusters of tomatoes, stands
of late lilies – optimism

of the great stalks – imperial

gold and silver: but why

start anything

so close to the end?

Tomatoes that will never ripen, lilies

winter will kill, that won't 

come back in spring. Or

are you thinking

I spend too much time

looking ahead, like

an old woman wearing

sweaters in summer;

are you saying I can

flourish, having 

no hope

of enduring? Blaze of the red cheek, glory

of the open throat, white, 

spotted with crimson.

– Louise Glück (1992)