Deep Fake II

I. Raphael as Apelles  

And is peering through the figures of Pythagoras, Socrates, Diogenes, Plato (who the light seems to fill the central nave for), Aristotle (one hand flat out in front of him), Heraclitus (with massive river-rock knees). There are slithers of gold darting like whitebait along the edges of robes; around Euclid’s neck. Raphael’s eyes are fixed, ready to meet those who spot him amongst his adopted peers.  

const features = {  
eyelids: {  
in_a_state_of: `nonchalance`  
},  
nose: {  
would_usually_be:  
`sniffing at the linseed  
on his paintbrushes`  
the_curl_of_his_top_lip: {},  
the thickness of his neck: {  
once:  
`strained towards the walls  
of the Apostolic Palace`,  
now_reaches_out_from: [  
`the Greek frets` ,  
`the gilding in ultramarine and gold`,
`the succession of arches with their honeycomb reliefs`,  
`the pockets of bright sky`  

]  

}  

};  

II. Caravaggio as Goliath  

And David is holding his severed head, fist clenched around soft hair; a stretched arm flexing to lift its weight.  

const features = {  
mouth: {  
shape: `a slack hole`,  
bottom_lip: `swollen and wet`  
}  
tongue: {  
position: [  
‘just visible’,  
‘sat like a shucked oyster’ 
],  
would_usually:  
‘spend months wiggling in the  
altercations he made with local Romans`  
here_has_been: `stilled`,  
from: “a rock to the head” 
},  
the_final_expression_of_pain: {  
made_visible_through: [  
`the lines on his forehead`,  
`the way his eyebrows draw together`  
]  
},  
right_eye: {  
position: `rolled under the lid`  
},  
left_eye: {  
position: [  
`reaching towards a light`,  
`as though spotting something in the distance`  
]  
}  

}  

III. Michelangelo as the Flayed Skin of Saint Bartholomew  

And he is a dull mass amongst the beaming backs and thighs; the stomach muscles bubbled l  ike sea foam; the blushing fullness of clouds.  

const features = {  
eye_sockets: {  
appearance: `heavy`  
},  
mouth: {  
appearance: `a door off its hinges`  
},  
the_forehead_skin: {  
positioning:  
`folded over the lumpy bridge of his nose` ,  
to_form: `a scowl`  
}  
};  

A hand clutches at the middle of his back so that the upper body flops forward and his head is suspended. He is crawling. His fingers dangle in front of him, ballooned with emptiness.  

const features = {  
fingers: {  
resigned_from: [  
`holding brushes`, 
`from troweling air-slacked lime`  
]  
},  
the_twinges_in_his_neck_and_back_accumulated-from-years_of_tilting_up_at_the_sistine_chapel  _ceiling: {  
here_are: `gone`,  
instead_he_is: [  
`the artefact of pain`,  
`the evidence` ,  
`clung onto like a child’s blankie`  
]  
}  

},