Back to Poems from the Hoot

Figure in Front of a Mantel

Poetry inspired by works of art has a long history. At the March Hoot, Jane Vacante read this lovely and imaginative poem:

FIGURE IN FRONT OF A MANTEL

a painting by Balthus

She needs no clothing.

Her house winds round her

like a varicolored snake

the rooms bound in a fixed

embrace dating from her birth.

She is alone and must have the glass

to look to. See her bound

to the rug as if ground's gravity

steals her from the free pass

through the mirror. That cavity

shines in the serpent's depths.

Soon she'll shed the cocoon

of amorphous weight.

The house too will molt

and she'll be the sinuous one.

Hair no more an unrolled bolt

coiled on a casual shoulder.

She'll turn, possessor

of a face and fate.

-- Jane Vacante

Rather than simply describing the painting, Jane also meditates on it and lets herself inhabit the young woman's body and mind, as she describes her present situation and foretells a moment of transformation and personal evolution.

Balthus is a mysterious and often disturbing artist. The original of this painting, entitled "Nude in Front of a Mantel," is in The Metropolitan Museum of Art and is reproduced in many books. Take a look and compare your reaction to that of Jane's.

-- Harvey Shepard

hshepard@gmail.com

"Figure in Front of a Mantel" copyright 2007 by Jane Vacante. Jane writes, "The What Is Home project was a tonic that helped restore my poetic identity. This Balthus painting reminds me of a slightly haunted apartment in a Victorian era Philadelphia brownstone where I once lived."