Tête avec Texte


Above you can see the Peacock on a Platter, or Robert de Montesquiou posing as the severed head of John the Baptist and flanked by relevant lines of his own poetry. But there’s a better version of the poetry, as you can see by comparing the photo with this:

J’aime le jade,
Couleur des yeux
D’Hérodiade

Et l’améthyste,
Couleur du sang
De Jean-Baptiste. — from “Robert de Montesquiou: The Magnificent Dandy” (1962) by Cornelia Otis Skinner


I love jade,
Color of the eyes
Of Herodias

And amethyst,
Color of the blood
Of John the Baptist.


Elsewhere Other-Accessible…

Portrait of a Peacock — Cornelia Otis Skinner’s excellent essay on Montesquiou
Le Paon dans les Pyrénées — review of Julian Barnes’ not-so-good book partly about Montesquiou

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