Recent Comments

1. 43 minutes ago on That is Priceless

   The odd hairstyle, and the pose which obscures the chest and crotch, make the gender ambiguous (perhaps a muscular woman) when seen on a small screen like a cell phone. In high resolution images you’d see the wisp of a mustache on the upper lip. Even that isn’t determinative, but this is one of a series: “The Four Ages of Man.” As the figure grows to Manhood and Old Age he has a full beard.

2. about 7 hours ago on That is Priceless

   /// Blunck’s fourth painting is titled “Old Age.”

   The man’s still in his cramped floating cage.

   On a sea, still and vast,

   with a broken-off mast,

   he sits mutely resigned. Where’s his rage?

   /// How long now since with purpose he sailed.

   Note, his female companion’s now veiled.

   First we’re born from the womb,

   too soon borne to the tomb.

   In his weak, ancient body he’s jailed.

3. about 8 hours ago on That is Priceless

   /// Yet the King did commission to buy

   those four paintings from this exiled guy.

   Google says these are facts:

   “Homosexual acts,”

   (which it seems that he didn’t deny).

   /// First is “Infancy.” “Youth,” here, comes next.

   Third is “Manhood,” then by “Old Age” vexed.

   In the fourth, the man’s sad,

   (and he’s finally clad).

   Need more proof Ditlev was oversexed?

4. about 10 hours ago on That is Priceless

   /// The translator said, “Pick up at seven,

   near the grassy point, manna from Heaven.”

   His girl knew all along

   that he’d heard the words wrong.

   He was sent to get Hannah from Devon.

5. about 11 hours ago on That is Priceless

   ?

6. about 22 hours ago on That is Priceless

   /// Young man looks up and reaches ahead,

   his expression not easily read.

   If “Youth” somehow could see

   what his “Old Age” will be,

   he’d stop sailing and turn back in dread.

7. about 24 hours ago on That is Priceless

   /// We see two boys, with Cupid wings, bare.

   One is dark, one is fair with blond hair.

   The third nude’s a young man,

   and Blunck’s four-painting plan

   is that he alone ages while there.

8. about 24 hours ago on That is Priceless

   /// Number two in a series of four,

   each has odd cryptic details galore.

   The same four figures float

   in a wee crowded boat

   which, in each scene, moves further from shore.

   /// A young woman helps steer from the stern.

   Who she is, why she’s here— we don’t learn.

   But in each scene she’s dressed,

   unlike all of the rest

   who are naked and male, we discern.

9. 1 day ago on That is Priceless

   /// Ditlev Blunck did “The Ages of Man”

   for the Danish King after a ban

   which expelled him. The truth

   is this painting, called “Youth,”

   showed he’s too much of young men a fan.

10. 1 day ago on That is Priceless

    /// In the Empire style Josephine’s dressed,

    with her waistline pushed up to mid-breast.

    A thin red ribbon girds

    Josie’s ribs and no words

    can explain how it flattened her chest.