Beheaders

Domenico Beccafumi
Judith with the Head of Holofernes
1506-1507
oil on panel
Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena

Sebald Beham
The Story of David
1534
painted wooden tabletop
Musée du Louvre

Hendrick ter Brugghen
David with the Head of Goliath
1623
oil on canvas
North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh

Daniele da Volterra (Daniele Ricciarelli)
David vanquishing Goliath
ca. 1555-56
oil on slate
(collection of Louis XIV)
Musée du Louvre

Tommaso Donini (il Caravaggino)
David with the Head of Goliath
ca. 1620-30
oil on canvas
Palazzo Barberini, Rome

Fede Galizia
Judith with the Head of Holofernes
1601
oil on canvas
Galleria Borghese, Rome

Orazio Gentileschi
Judith with the Head of Holofernes
ca. 1620
oil on canvas
Pinacoteca Vaticana, Rome

Lucas Kilian
King David kneeling before Bowl of Incense
before 1637
drawing (print study)
British Museum

Giulia Lama
Judith and Holofernes
ca. 1725-30
oil on canvas
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

Jan Massys
Judith with the Head of Holofernes
ca. 1540-50
oil on canvas
Palazzo Barberini, Rome

Palma il Vecchio
Judith with the Head of Holofernes
ca. 1525-28
oil on canvas
Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence 

Marco Palmezzano
Judith with the Head of Holofernes
1525
oil on panel
Musées d'Art et d'Histoire, Genève

Domenico Piola
David with the Head of Goliath in Pendentive
ca. 1675
drawing
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Camillo Procaccini
Triumph of David
ca. 1592-95
drawing (study for painting)
British Museum

Nicolas Régnier
Judith and Holofernes
ca. 1650-60
oil on canvas
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

Peter Paul Rubens
Judith with the Head of Holofernes
ca. 1630
oil on canvas
Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence

Andrea Schiavone (Andrea Meldolla)
Judith with Sword
ca. 1548-50
drawing
British Museum

Equal with colleagues in a ring

I sit on each calm evening,

        Enchanted as the flowers

The opening light draws out of hiding

From leaves with all its dove-like pleading

        Its logic and its powers.

That later we, though parted then

May still recall these evenings when

        Fear gave his watch no look;

The lion griefs loped from the shade

And on our knees their muzzles laid,

        And Death put down his book.

– W.H. Auden (1933)

Aggressors

Antoine Pesne
Samson and Delilah
ca. 1720
oil on canvas
Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Maarten van Heemskerck
Samson and Delilah
1549
drawing (print study)
Hamburger Kunsthalle

Giampietrino (Giovanni Pietro Rizzoli)
Salome with the Head of John the Baptist
ca. 1510-30
oil on panel
National Gallery, London

William Dobson
Salome receiving the Head of John the Baptist
ca. 1640
oil on canvas
Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool

Ella Ferris Pell
Salome
1890
oil on canvas
Timken Museum of Art, San Diego

Ernst Roeber
Herodias
1884
oil on canvas
Von der Heydt Museum, Wuppertal

Hans Schwarz
Judith with the Head of Holofernes
ca. 1520
pearwood relief
Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich 

Georg Pencz
Judith and Holofernes
ca. 1541
engraving
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

Conrat Meit
Judith with the Head of Holofernes
ca. 1525-28
alabaster (partly painted)
Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich

Matteo di Giovanni
Judith with the Head of Holofernes
ca. 1490-95
oil on panel
Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, Bloomington

Hendrik Goltzius
Judith with the Head of Holofernes
ca. 1590
drawing
Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California

Girolamo Ferroni after Carlo Maratti
Judith with the Head of Holofernes
1705
etching
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

Shirin Neshat
All Demons Flee
1995
gelatin silver print
Guggenheim Museum, New York

attributed to Sigismondo Coccapani
Jael and Sisera
ca. 1640
oil on canvas
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Brest

Corrado Giaquinto
Medea
ca. 1752-54
oil on canvas
Pinacoteca Civica Fortunato Duranti, Montefortino

Alfred J. Frueh
Judith Anderson as Medea
ca. 1947
ink and watercolor on paper
National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC

Peter Paul Rubens
Head of Medusa after an Antique Gem
before 1640
drawing
Morgan Library, New York

Caproni Brothers (Boston)
The Rondanini Medusa
19th century
plaster cast
Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, Texas

from The Ezra Pound Look-Alike

It's always the same man

Who looks like Ezra Pound

Stretched out on the sidewalk

In front of Victoria's Secret.

No one knows what to make of this catastrophe.

What's it like to be Pound's look-alike?

Every day he pulls New York City

Over himself like a blanket and sleeps.

The sidewalk is a stairway to paradise

Down Broadway to the open road.

The possibilities ahead turn around and beckon.

A woman is marvelously shaking the tambourine.

Each slab of cement has its own story.

Don't step on the sidewalk cracks or do.

Everything is magical.

Things are about to happen.

The pitter-patter of a police helicopter overhead

Looking for you

In the streets below

Says it is beautiful but also it is true.

So when America is over,

What is there after?

There's more America, comerado!

There's always more.

– Frederick Seidel (2018)

Arrested Motion

Maarten van Heemskerck
Battle Scene
1575
drawing
Hamburger Kunsthalle

Dirck Hals
Mounted Soldiers fleeing Avenging Angel
ca. 1650
drawing
Art Institute of Chicago

Johann Georg de Hamilton
The Kladruber stallion Cerberus performing a Cabriole
1721
oil on canvas
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Noël Hallé
Hippomenes and Atalanta
1762-65
oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre

Constantin Guys
Departure of French Officials from he Vatican
ca. 1865
drawing
British Museum

Jean Metzinger
At the Velodrome
1912
oil and collage on canvas
Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice

Franz Marc
Lion Hunt, after Delacroix
1914
color woodblock print
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane

Walter Gramatté
The Fall into Infinity
(illustration to The Rebel by Manfred Georg)
1918
drypoint
Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich

Gertrude Hermes
Explosion
1928
wood-engraving
Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Kingston, Ontario

Joseph Hirsch
Hercules killing the Hydra
ca. 1937
oil on canvas
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Jacques Lipchitz
Theseus
1942
etching
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis

William H. Johnson
Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
ca. 1944
oil on board
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Arthur Leipzig
Dodgeball, New York
1950
gelatin silver print
Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Mario Giacomelli
No Hands To Caress My Face
ca. 1961-63
gelatin silver print
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane

Juan Genovés
Five Minutes
(from the series, Silencio Silencio)
1971
etching
Art Institute of Chicago

Joel Meyerowitz
New York City
1974
dye diffusion transfer print
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

June Harwood
A-2 (Emergence Series)
1976
acrylic on canvas
Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Casabianca

Love's the boy stood on the burning deck

trying to recite "The boy stood on

the burning deck." Love's the son

        stood stammering elocution

        while the poor ship in flames went down.

Love's the obstinate boy, the ship,

even the swimming sailors, who

would like a schoolroom platform, too,

        or an excuse to stay

        on deck. And love's the burning boy. 

– Elizabeth Bishop (1946)