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| Jean-Louis Forain Foyer of the Opéra ca. 1880 watercolor Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| William Blake The Body of Abel found by Adam and Eve ca. 1826 tempera on panel Tate Gallery |
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| Eugène Delacroix Lion Hunt 1858 oil on canvas Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
"The message from the visible world must be coded by the artist. We have seen how the code was adapted to the kind of signals that art was expected to transmit. It is time to turn to the decoding end, the way we learn to read . . . the 'cryptogram' on the canvas. The most searching discussion of this aspect occurs in the work of an ancient writer who probed much more deeply into the nature of mimesis than Plato or Aristotle. It comes from that curious and moving document of declining paganism, the life of Apollonius of Tyana by Philostratus. Apollonius was a Pythagorean sage who lived at the time of Christ and travelled through the world preaching wisdom and working miracles. His biographer tells us how on these travels he reached India, where he and his faithful disciple admired some metal reliefs in the Greek style which had been made at the time of Alexander the Great. As they were waiting to be called to the King, the philosopher cross-examined his companion Damis in the best Socratic manner: 'Tell me, Damis is there such a thing as painting?' 'Of course,' says Damis. 'And what does this art consist of?' 'Well,' says Damis, 'in the mixing of colours.' 'And why do they do that?' 'For the sake of imitation, to get a likeness of a dog or a horse or a man, a ship, or anything else under the sun.' 'Then,' Apollonius asks again, 'painting is imitation, mimesis?' 'Well, what else?' answers the stooge. 'If it did not do that it would just be a ridiculous playing about with colours.' 'Yes,' says his mentor, 'but what about the things we see in the sky when the clouds are drifting, the centaurs and stag antelopes and wolves and horses? Are they also works of imitation? Is God a painter who uses his leisure hours to amuse himself in that way?' No, the two agree, these cloud shapes have no meaning in themselves, they arise by pure chance; it is we who by nature are prone to imitation and articulate these clouds. 'But does this not mean,' probes Apollonius, 'that the art of imitation is twofold? One aspect of it is the use of hands and mind in producing imitations, another aspect the producing of likenesses with the mind alone?' The mind of the beholder also has its share in the imitation. Even a picture in monochrome, or a bronze relief, strikes us as a resemblance – we see it as form and expression. 'Even if we drew one of these Indians with white chalk,' Apollonius concludes, 'he would seem black, for there would be his flat nose and stiff curly locks and prominent jaw . . . to make the picture black for all who can use their eyes. And for this reason I should say that those who look at works of painting and drawing must have the imitative faculty and that no one could understand the painted horse or bull unless he knew what such creatures are like.'
– E.H. Gombrich, from Art and Illusion: a Study of the Psychology of Pictorial Representation, originally delivered as the A.W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts, 1956
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| John Singer Sargent Rehearsal of the Pasdeloup Orchestra at the Cirque d'Hiver ca. 1879-80 oil on canvas Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| George Richmond Christ and the Woman of Samaria 1828 tempera on panel Tate Gallery |
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| Jean-Léon Gérôme Moorish Bath 1870 oil on canvas Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Édouard Manet Sketch for Execution of the Emperor Maximilian 1867 oil on canvas Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Henry Siddons Mowbray Le Destin ca. 1896 oil on canvas Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| William Morris Hunt The Fortune Teller 1852 oil on canvas Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Henry F Darby Portrait of the Reverend John Atwood and his Family 1845 oil on canvas Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Edgar Degas Dancers Resting ca. 1881-85 pastel Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot Venus clipping Cupid's Wings ca. 1870-73 oil on canvas Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Robert Henri Café Bleu, St Cloud ca. 1895-99 oil on panel Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Jean-François Millet Sewing Lesson 1874 oil on canvas Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Alfred Stevens In Memoriam ca. 1861 oil on panel Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |