Sunday, November 23, 2025

Ornamental

Albrecht Dürer
Portrait of a Man
1507
drawing
British Museum


Albertino Piazza
Assumption of the Virgin
ca. 1515
oil on panel
Denver Art Museum

Jean de Gourmont the Elder
Arcaded Courtyard with Putto
ca. 1520-30
engraving (perspective study)
British Museum

Jean de Gourmont the Elder
Pillared Gallery with Putto
ca. 1520-30
engraving (perspective study)
British Museum

Juan van der Hamen
Bodegón of Sweets
1621
oil on canvas
Museo de Bellas Artes de Granada

William Michael Harnett
Job Lot Cheap
1878
oil on canvas
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, North Carolina

Thomas Eakins
Samuel Murray as Life Model
ca. 1890-92
platinum print
Hirshhorn Museum, Washington DC

John Frederick Peto
Women in Tree
ca. 1895
modern print from glass negative
Archives of American Art, Washington DC

Kenyon Cox
The Blessing of Sleep
(advertising for Paine's Celery Compound)
1899
lithograph (proof poster)
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Marianne Fürst
Young Woman with Wreath
ca. 1910
linocut
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Fidus (Hugo Höppener)
Prayer of Light
1913
lithograph
Städtische Kunstsammlung, Darmstadt

Mabel Dwight
Old Aquarium
ca. 1926
lithograph
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Perle Fine
Sub-Marine
1948
watercolor and graphite on paper
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Ernest Philpot
Cloudshadows
1956
oil on board
Heide Museum of Modern Art, Bulleen, Australia

Audrey Flack
Tower of Pisa
1971
oil on canvas
Smithsonian American Art Museum,
Washington DC

Elizabeth Peyton
Live to Ride (E.P.)
2003
oil on board
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Kate Lucey Whitney
Warren House / Tunnard Garden - Newport, Rhode Island
2012
digital photograph
Archives of American Gardens, Washington DC

Noblest bodies are but gilded clay:
                Put away
    But the precious shining rind,
The inmost rottenness remains behind.
    Kings, on earth though gods they be,
    Yet in death are vile as we;
    He, a thousands' king before,
    Now is vassal unto more.
    Vermin now insulting lie,
    And dig for diamonds in each eye;
    Whilst the sceptre-bearing hand
    Cannot their inroads withstand.
    Here doth one in odours wade
    By the regal unction made,
    While another dares to gnaw
    On that tongue, his people's law.
Fools! ah, fools are we, who so contrive,
                And do strive,
    In each gaudy ornament
Who shall his corpse in the best dish present. 

– Samuel Harding (1640)