Der Alte Stil

The Darkening Late Works of Artists

By: Charles Giuliano - Dec 12, 2015

Der Alte Stil

Juvenalia
Work of young artists
Raw talent
Fresh, bright romantic
Exploring love
Celebrating the sensual
Romeo and Juliet
Perhaps tragic
Not richly profound
Most rock ‘n’ roll
Whipping crowds
Into orgiastic frenzies
Sanguine youth
Raging hormones
Faces exploding
Early Titian
Painter of color and light
Singing deep blues
Saturated reds
Early Rembrandt portraits
Proud, rich, successful
Living well
In the Jewish quarter
Depicting Saskia and Titus
Familial and jubilant
Young Michelangelo
Tall and magnificent
His David facing Goliath
Slim youth armed
With slingshot
Slaying the brute giant
Or coy and swishy
In the Donatello
Nude with an absurd
Easter bonnet
Artists become
Old and darker
Light glazed over
Yellowed by cataracts
Lens grown opaque
Beaten down
Bashed and buffeted
Perhaps even morose
Der Atle Stil
Heart wrenching
Late Rembrandt portraits
Somber and broke
Sued for Saskia’s estate
Mourning his son Titus
Poignant and powerful
Michelangelo’s early Pieta
In the Vatican
So refined and exquisite
Beautiful young Mary
Embracing her
Crucified son
Compared to the late
Tormented fragmented
Gut wrenching
Rondanini Pieta
Beethoven was deaf
When he composed his
Majestic Ninth
How late works
Stoop to conquer
With subdued rage
Defiant old age