Peace! Peace!
To be rocked by the Infinite!
As if it didn’t matter
which way was home;
as if he didn’t know
he loved the earth so much
he wanted to stay forever.
This is Rose Valland, one of the heroes of Nazi-Occupied France. An employee of the Louvre, she kept records of the art stolen by Nazi officers—what was taken, from where, and by whom. She was instrumental in the postwar return of countless stolen pieces, and one of the most decorated women in French history.
Rhyton (Drinking Vessel) in the Shape of a Donkey Head
c. 460 BC
Greek, Attica
This drinking cup could not have been set down without its contents spilling. It is fashioned after the head of a bridled donkey with a white muzzle, teeth, and ears. Like the naked satyr chasing a fleeing maenad on the vessel’s neck, the donkey belongs to the retinue of the wine god Dionysos. Douris, one of the great Athenian vase painters of first half of the fifth century B.C., decorated this amusing cup.
