Maryann Corbett
The Forgery: A Quiz
1) The painting he brought you
(a) was a standard religious motif, the Scourging at the Pillar
(b) bore, in its concocted provenance, the name of a lost Caravaggio
(c) disturbed you with the memory of your Catholic-school childhood, in which
you found yourself aroused by images of the stripped Savior, the cloth loose at his hips
2) You knew the work was genuine because
(a) the signature had all the authentic features, and chemical analysis dated the
canvas to the correct period
(b) the seller spoke softly, had white hair, and wore a roman collar, and the
paleness of his eyes unnerved you
(c) in that chiaroscuro was a darkness you deeply knew, and a light you were
unsure of
3) You lost your faith in it when
(a) minute traces of titanium, impossible for the date, turned up in more sensitive
assays, and the artist cursed a mislabeled tube of lead white
(b) you heard in dreams the Allegri Miserere, the little glass voices of the
sopranos broken with pain
4) The painting still hangs in your hallway because
(a) you are ashamed to remember what it cost you
(b) its truth is as fathomless as memory
(c) you stepped, years ago, into its frame and can never return
Maryann Corbett is the author of three full-length collections of poetry, most recently Mid Evil, winner of the Richard Wilbur Award for 2014. Her poems have appeared in 32 Poems, Barrow Street, Literary Imagination, Measure, Poetry East, Rattle, River Styx, Southwest Review, Subtropics, and many other journals, as well as an assortment of anthologies. Poems have also been featured on Poetry Daily, Verse Daily, American Life in Poetry, and The Writer’s Almanac. She is a past co-winner of the Willis Barnstone Translation Award, a past finalist for the Able Muse Book Prize, and a recent finalist for the Howard Nemerov Sonnet Award. Visit her website at maryanncorbett.com
Return to November 2016 Edition
1) The painting he brought you
(a) was a standard religious motif, the Scourging at the Pillar
(b) bore, in its concocted provenance, the name of a lost Caravaggio
(c) disturbed you with the memory of your Catholic-school childhood, in which
you found yourself aroused by images of the stripped Savior, the cloth loose at his hips
2) You knew the work was genuine because
(a) the signature had all the authentic features, and chemical analysis dated the
canvas to the correct period
(b) the seller spoke softly, had white hair, and wore a roman collar, and the
paleness of his eyes unnerved you
(c) in that chiaroscuro was a darkness you deeply knew, and a light you were
unsure of
3) You lost your faith in it when
(a) minute traces of titanium, impossible for the date, turned up in more sensitive
assays, and the artist cursed a mislabeled tube of lead white
(b) you heard in dreams the Allegri Miserere, the little glass voices of the
sopranos broken with pain
4) The painting still hangs in your hallway because
(a) you are ashamed to remember what it cost you
(b) its truth is as fathomless as memory
(c) you stepped, years ago, into its frame and can never return
Maryann Corbett is the author of three full-length collections of poetry, most recently Mid Evil, winner of the Richard Wilbur Award for 2014. Her poems have appeared in 32 Poems, Barrow Street, Literary Imagination, Measure, Poetry East, Rattle, River Styx, Southwest Review, Subtropics, and many other journals, as well as an assortment of anthologies. Poems have also been featured on Poetry Daily, Verse Daily, American Life in Poetry, and The Writer’s Almanac. She is a past co-winner of the Willis Barnstone Translation Award, a past finalist for the Able Muse Book Prize, and a recent finalist for the Howard Nemerov Sonnet Award. Visit her website at maryanncorbett.com
Return to November 2016 Edition