The Waterhouse “Pandora”
Victorians considered rude Lefebvre’s women in the nude
and would not place the works on show of Cabanel or Bouguereau.
However, our enlightened age does not espouse such prudish rage,
determining as quite the norm, portrayal of the female form.
By contrast Waterhouse depicts, in line with fashion’s moral stricts,
Pandora peering in the chest with no indecent show of breast,
portraying her inquiring mood most aptly in chaste solitude.
This, of Pandora loosing locks, would grace the noblest chocolate box.
Because he seldom ‘went too far’ his paintings were most popular
but, as my eye is the beholder, I wish he’d been a little bolder.
Instead of what he’s dressed her in, I’d sooner see the model’s skin
and so, I think would everyone, as long as it with taste is done.
The paintings which these poems inspire are ones that I at length admire
and I’ve observed that highest prices are paid for those which look the nicest.
Hugh Wyles, August 29th.2008.
Oil on canvas (1896) by John William Waterhouse (1849-1917).
Author notes
John William Waterhouse (1849-1917) born in Rome of English artist-parents who took him back to England at an early age, was an English pre-Raphaelite painter most famous for his paintings of female characters from mythology and literature.
This is the link to my more serious poem on the Lefebvre "Pandora" painting:
http://allpoetry.com/poem/4552889
In a list
- Sonnets & Sonnaiku • next in list
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Please tell me what you think
Comments
1 - 5 of 5
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Your take on the painting, seems to me, to be (shall we say?) pure poetry. How excellent to offer thus the art while showing us your poet’s heart.
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Dear Hugh,
I too love your poem and the painting of Pandora.
You have created some beautiful poems, do keep writing them.
Love, hugs and kisses.
Jen
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Dear Hugh,
Ohh this is a wonderful to read. Another poem on Pandora. It is a shame the Victorians were so prudish, but then, I love the painting Waterhouse has done, it's very beautiful and adds some innocence to the painting.
Pleas keep writing the poems from famous painters.
Enjoyed reading both versions very much my dear friend.
Love Bea
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A nice mixture of skill and light humor. And of course the painting is nice, I like how she peers cautiously, curiously into the box.
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Words, discreet as the sheer drape
used by Waterhouse, hold the reader's attention
as the storyteller unveils historic facts,
bringing them to the present in our realization.
Another most interesting, creative, poetic telling.
Aesthetic
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