Art history in the form of a poem
History and Theory of Art
by David Markson
Jacopo Pontormo, Deposition from the Cross. All images from Wikimedia Commons.
Pontormo there, for anatomic truth,
Was said to house cadavers ‘neath his roof,
Cosimo, known as Bronzino, The Deposition
And Cosimo, disdaining meals, would stew
Four dozen eggs at once, while cooking glue.
Uccello, The Battle of San Romano, center panel
Of doltish mold, Uccello could not sleep
For trying cruel perspective till he’d weep.
Albrecht Durer, Melencolia
Your Dürer, reading Luther, cracked, and raved —
Michelangelo’s David
Though unlike Michelangelo, he bathed.
Fra Filippo Lippi, Annunciation
Fra Lippi spoiled, but later wed, a nun,
Raphael, Deposition
And Raphael, for bawds, left walls undone;
Hugo van der Goes, Small Deposition
Yet Van der Goes could only work when calm,
So friars shrewdly lifted voice in psalm.
Vincent Van Gogh, Irises
Van Gogh, who shot himself, was long since vague,
Titian, Noli me tangere
While Titian died at ninety-nine, of plague.
El Greco, The Burial of the Count of Orgaz
El Greco thrived in dark, when all was stilled,
Caravaggio, The Calling of St. Matthew
And Caravaggio once killed.
Each work of art is disciplined by laws,
Nor will they bend to idiosyncratic flaws;
Leonardo da Vinci, Design for a Flying Machine
As Leonardo doubtless would agree —
Who bought caged birds, and set them free.
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