Almanac Poetry: Pisanello’s ‘The Virgin and Child with the Saints George and Anthony Abbot’

 

‘The Virgin and Child with the Saints George and Anthony Abbot’, by Pisanello, oil on panel, c. 1445. National Gallery, London. [Source:Wikimedia Commons.]

 

 

Pisanello’s ‘The Virgin and Child with the Saints George and Anthony Abbot’

 

 

Saint George is an oddity
in his big straw hat
– it looks like a sombrero.
The abbot is scowling at him
through a long grey beard.
Obviously, he does not approve
of the slayer’s choice in millinery.
Meanwhile, above them,
encircled by flaming blue and gold,
the Virgin and Child
look dark and Middle-Eastern

 

in a completely different realm.

 

 

(Acknowledgements: first published in Vernacular, 2002; then in my first poetry collection, Vigorous Vernacular, 2008 – reprinted by Ginninderra Press, 2018.)

 

 

Read more from Kevin Densley HERE

Kevin Densley’s latest poetry collection, Sacredly Profane, is available HERE

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About

Kevin Densley is a graduate of both Deakin University and The University of Melbourne. He has taught writing and literature in numerous Victorian universities and TAFES. He is a poet and writer-in-general. His fifth book-length poetry collection, Please Feed the Macaws ... I'm Feeling Too Indolent, was published in late 2023 by Ginninderra Press. He is also the co-author of ten play collections for young people, as well as a multi Green Room Award nominated play, Last Chance Gas, published by Currency Press. Other writing includes screenplays for educational films.

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