Big Read 2011 | Swope Art Museum

…and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all.

click to enlarge Federico Castillon Masque of the Red Death, 1968 1975.39.16 And now was acknowledged the presence of the Red Death. He had come like a thief in the […]

…the dagger dropped gleaming upon the sable carpet…

click to enlarge Federico Castillon Masque of the Red Death, 1968 1975.39.15 It was then, however that the Prince Prospero, maddening with rage and the shame of his own momentary […]

…the vast assembly shrank from the centres of the rooms…

click to enlarge Federico Castillon Masque of the Red Death, 1968 1975.39.14 It was in the blue room where stood the prince, with a group of pale courtiers by his […]

-stop him and strip him, I say…

click to enlarge Federico Castillon Masque of the Red Death, 1968 1975.39.13 When the eyes of Prince Prospero fell upon this spectral image (which with a slow and solemn movement, […]

The figure was tall and gaunt…

click to enlarge Federico Castillon Masque of the Red Death, 1968 1975.39.12 In an assembly of phantasms such as I have painted, it may well be supposed that no ordinary […]

…there were twelve strokes to be sounded…

click to enlarge Federico Castillon Masque of the Red Death, 1968 1975.39.11 But now there were twelve strokes to be sounded by the bell of the clock; and thus it […]

…a muffled peal more solemnly emphatic…

click to enlarge Federico Castillon Masque of the Red Death, 1968 1975.39.10 But to the chamber which lies most westwardly of the seven, there are now none of the maskers […]

…there stalked a multitude of dreams.

click to enlarge Federico Castillon Masque of the Red Death, 1968 1975.39.09 There was much of the beautiful, much of the wanton, much of the bizarre, something of the terrible, […]

…it was a gay and magnificent revel.

click to enlarge Federico Castillon Masque of the Red Death, 1968 1975.39.08 But, in spite of these things, it was a gay and magnificent revel. The tastes of the duke […]

…the giddiest grew pale…

click to enlarge Federico Castillon Masque of the Red Death, 1968 1975.39.07 It was in this apartment, also, that there stood against the western wall, a gigantic clock of ebony. […]