Jean-Baptiste Peytavin, French
How Babies Were Delivered Before the Stork, 1808
Oil on canvas
Follow That Is Priceless on Social Media and GoComics (the Link button):
Click to Follow This Blog or Share This Masterpiece:
MASTERPIECE #1667
Info, or perhaps links that point to more info, about this artist can be found here and here (archived, if necessary; both the Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox browsers can automatically translate as needed), perhaps in addition to what’s in his French Wikipedia page (Google translated, if necessary).
/// Their route blocked by the river’s expanse,
he attached his girl child to his lance.
Metabus checked his stance,
then heaved, taking the chance
that to yonder far shore she’d advance.
/// The babe’s ties to that spear are precarious.
Chances that the kid dies— multifarious.
Yet Camilla’s all right
with this unlikely flight.
Far from struggling, she thinks it’s hilarious!
/// They are chased by armed men who would slaughter
both the man and his innocent daughter.
So, from three loops of string
he lets his baby swing?
(There’s no way she won’t fall in the water.)
/// Now, King Metabus may have been strong,
but this “hammock” he’s made is just wrong.
Though his view’s panoramic,
she’s not aerodynamic,
and the distance across is too long.
/// So to goddess Diana he prayed
that Camilla be safely conveyed
to the opposite side
of this stream, deep and wide.
The child lived, thus a bargain was made.
/// It was pledged that Camilla would serve
great Diana (and do it with verve).
If revenge you believe in,
her namesake would get even
taking Charles from Diana,,, the nerve!
/// Saving Camilla’s life was his goal,
but her traumatic trip took its toll.
During that fearful flight
the girl clutched the spear tight.
Now she dances each night on a pole.
/// The most superheroic of guys,
MetaMan streaked across Roman skies.
Underpants over tights
made him chafe during flights,
so he tucked his long cape ‘tween his thighs.
/// He wore no clothes, not even a sock;
when he flew, crowds looked skyward in shock.
As he streaked overhead
an observant man said,
“Hey! Look up in the sky… it’s a bird.”