An Extreme Beauty...

  An extreme beauty which reminds a portrait

        Hey guys... here comes Helen of Troy....
                                                        someone shouted....
          I looked, I wondered, it was her, undoubted.....

          So was nicknamed the gorgeous Ruth,
          the girl that I loved in my youth.

          When she entered the room - where the party was -
          all at once the atmosphere changed and
                                                    certainly she was the cause

          Boys were silent and their eyes were throwing flames ...
          Girls nearly abandoned, like the dance song 
                                                                          by Henry James....
               She approached me in a provocative manner.
          Her face seemed to me like a banner
          on which was written "I reign over you."
          Soon she realized that my love for her flew,
          flew a long time ago, and she had no clue ..

               It has been many years
          I have never forgot her insincere tears,
          the broken vows, her false kisses...

               Even so, someone reminisces...
       

   Madame Georges van Muyden, 1917 
by Amedeo Modigliani

     Knowing myself knowing me,
          I made sure and I threw away 
                                                      the key

          I tossed it overboard one night 
                while sailing in the Black Sea,
                                                                 

          hoping, that my heart's door, 
                            forever closed will be.

          
          
   Forty years later, I met her by chance, but,

   The wings of the once beautiful butterfly were cut.

          
    Forty years after.... she was one helpless old granny,
    and yet reminded me Madame Georges van Muyden 
                                                           of Amedeo Modigliani.

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* Extract from "The Broken Mooring Line", an experiential
poetic work // page c15 // e-mail: pmataragas@yahoo.com //
Texts and Narration: Odysseus Heavilayias - ROTTERDAM //
Language adjustments and text adaptation: Kellene G Safis - CHICAGO//
Digital adaptation and text editing: Cathy Rapakoulia Mataraga - PIRAEUS

source

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Madame Georges van Muyden

This is quite possibly one of a small number of portraits Modigliani painted as a commission, since his models generally belonged to his circle of fellow bohemians. These circumstances account for the more composed, elegant, and self-possessed nature of the sitter.

Amedeo Clemente Modigliani (July 12, 1884 – January 24, 1920) was an Italian painter and sculptor who worked mainly in France. He is known for portraits and nudes in a modern style characterized by elongation of faces and figures. His production is known for its nudes, which were not received well during his lifetime, but later found acceptance. Modigliani spent his youth in Italy, where he studied the art of antiquity and the Renaissance, until he moved to Paris in 1906. There he came into contact with prominent artists such as Pablo Picasso and Constantin Brâncuşi.

Modigliani's oeuvre includes mainly paintings and drawings. From 1909 to 1914, however, he devoted himself mainly to sculpture. The main subject is portraits and full figures of humans, both in the images and in the sculptures. During his life, Amedeo Modigliani had little success, but after his death he achieved greater popularity and his works of art achieved high prices.
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 Utopia