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© Aimee Stewart, Foxfires - please see my CC Terms of Use before considering using this image for any personal or commercial use [link]
(Please do not repost this on Photobucket or Flickr!)

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A tribute to one of my favorite artists, Michael Parkes, and to the poet Baudelaire, who spoke of the sky-throned sphinx....

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La Beauté
Je suis belle, ô mortels! comme un rêve de pierre,
Et mon sein, où chacun s'est meurtri tour à tour,
Est fait pour inspirer au poète un amour
Eternel et muet ainsi que la matière.
Je trône dans l'azur comme un sphinx incompris;
J'unis un coeur de neige à la blancheur des cygnes;
Je hais le mouvement qui déplace les lignes,
Et jamais je ne pleure et jamais je ne ris.
Les poètes, devant mes grandes attitudes,
Que j'ai l'air d'emprunter aux plus fiers monuments,
Consumeront leurs jours en d'austères études;
Car j'ai, pour fasciner ces dociles amants,
De purs miroirs qui font toutes choses plus belles:
Mes yeux, mes larges yeux aux clartés éternelles!
— Charles Baudelaire


(Translation by Roy Campbell, 1952)
Beauty

I'm fair, O mortals, as a dream of stone;
My breasts whereon, in turn, your wrecks you shatter,
Were made to wake in poets' hearts alone
A love as indestructible as matter.
A sky-throned sphinx, unknown yet, I combine
The cygnet's whiteness with a heart of snow.
I loathe all movement that displaces line,
And neither tears nor laughter do I know.
Poets before my postures, which I seem
To learn from masterpieces, love to dream
And there in austere thought consume their days.
I have, these docile lovers to subject,
Mirrors that glorify all they reflect —
These eyes, great eyes, eternal in their blaze!

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The Model Extraordinaire: *Aegean-Prince
Clouds and archtectural details: ~nathies-stock

All else: Wikemedia Commons

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Submitted on
January 31, 2012
Image Size
475 KB
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667×1051
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1,814
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:iconcelestial-melody:
Absolutely wonderful! This should be on posters and in schools and libraries; it's inspiring.
Reply
:iconfoxfires:
Thank you so very much! That is a lovely thing to hear!
Reply
:iconbluenephelim:
~BlueNephelim Feb 6, 2012  Hobbyist Traditional Artist
Lovely work - I like the stony, cracked texture, and the background sky is perfect...
Reply
:iconrazzle-dazzle1606:
So close to being the first! Sigh... beautiful picture!
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