.☘︎ ݁˖𓅪𓅨𓅪.☘︎ ݁˖

[velvetmasonry]

Shaffron (Horse's Head Defense), France, c. 1600

[paintingispoetry]

Domenichino, Virgin and Unicorn (Giulia Farnese), ca. 1602

[velvetmasonry]

Setophaga pinus, Pine warbler

via

[velvetmasonry]

Two Men Contemplating the Moon by Caspar David Friedrich (c. 1825-30)

Gently, let us steep our love In the silence deep, as thus, Branches arching high above Twine their shadows over us. Let us blend our souls as one, Hearts’ and senses’ ecstasies, Evergreen, in unison With the pines’ vague lethargies. Dim your eyes and, heart at rest, Freed from all futile endeavor, Arms crossed on your slumbering breast, Banish vain desire forever. Let us yield then, you and I, To the waftings, calm and sweet, As their breeze-blown lullaby Sways the gold grass at your feet. And, when night begins to fall From the black oaks, darkening, In the nightingale’s soft call Our despair will, solemn, sing.

── Paul Verlaine, "In Muted Tone"

[velvetmasonry]

Game of Hounds and Jackals, Middle Kingdom, c. 1814-1805 B.C.

[velvetmasonry]

Romeo and Juliet by Benjamin West (1778)

[velvetmasonry]

Common Plum // Sour Cherry

Illustrated by Maria Sibylla Merian (c. 1713-1717)

[velvetmasonry]

"The Parting of Lancelot and Guinevere" by Julia Margaret Cameron (1874)

[velvetmasonry]

"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T. S. Eliot illustrated by Julian Peters

via

[7pleiades7]

Nymph in the Bath (Badende Nymphe) (c. 1855) by Carl Spitzweg, oil on canvas, approximately 54 cm x 40 cm (21.2 in x 15.7 in), Private Collection

[velvetmasonry]

Scolopax minor, American woodcock

via

[velvetmasonry]

Coin Cabinet, France, c. 1809-19

Likely commissioned by Napoleon Bonaparte

[velvetmasonry]

Peasant Women by Philipp Malyavin (1905)

[velvetmasonry]

Lampit (mat), Indonesia, late 19th-early 20th century

[velvetmasonry]

Illustrations from Augsburger Wunderzeichenbuch (Augsburg Book of Miracles)

Heinrich Vogtherr the Younger, c. 1550

[velvetmasonry]

Cymon and Iphigenia by Frederic Leighton (1884)

[velvetmasonry]

Spring Rain by Gustaf Fjæstad (1929)

Once more it is April with the first light sifting through the young leaves heavy with dew making the colors remember who they are the new pink of the cinnamon tree the gilded lichens of the bamboo the shadowed bronze of the kamani and the blue day opening as the sunlight descends through it all like the return of a spirit touching without touch and unable to believe it is here and here again and awake reaching out in silence into the cool breath of the garden just risen from darkness and days of rain it is only a moment the birds fly through it calling to each other and are gone with their few notes and the flash of their flight that had vanished before we ever knew it we watch without touching any of it and we can tell ourselves only that this is April this is the morning this never happened before and we both remember it

── W. S. Merwin, "Before a Departure in Spring"