Zoe Dawson - Visual Art
[6]
Excerpt
from Angelo Poliziano's Stanze di messer Angelo Politiano cominciate per la
giostra del magnifico Giuliano di Pietro de' Medici. (1475-8)
XCIX
99
In
the
stormy
Aegean,
the
genital
member
is
seen
to
be
received
in
the
lap
of
Tethys,
to
drift
across
the
waves,
wrapped
in
white
foam,
be-‐
neath
the
various
turnings
of
the
planets;
and
within,
both
with
lovely
and
happy
gestures,
a
young
woman
with
nonhuman
countenance,
is
carried
on
a
conch
shell,
wafted
to
shore
by
playful
zephyrs;
and
it
seems
that
heaven
re-‐
joices
in
her
birth.
C
100
You
would
call
the
foam
real,
the
sea
real,
real
the
conch
shell
and
real
the
blowing
wind;
you
would
see
the
lightning
in
the
goddess's
eyes,
the
sky
and
the
elements
laughing
about
her;
the
Hours
treading
the
beach
in
white
garments,
the
breeze
curling
their
loosened
and
flowing
hair;
their
faces
not
one,
not
different,
as
befits
sisters.
CI
101
You
could
swear
that
the
goddess
had
emerged
from
the
waves,
pressing
her
hair
with
her
right
hand,
covering
with
the
other
her
sweet
mound
of
flesh;
and
where
the
strand
was
imprinted
by
her
sacred
and
divine
step,
it
had
clothed
itself
in
flowers
and
grass;
then
with
happy,
more
than
mortal
features,
she
was
received
in
the
b 24
osom
of
the
three
nymphs
and
cloaked
in
a
starry
gar-‐
ment.
102