 |
| Ancient Egypt Reserve Head from Burial Chamber ca. 2600-2500 BC limestone Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
 |
| Ancient Greece (Rhodes) Tetradrachma with image of Helios ca. 404-385 BC silver Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
 |
| Ancient Rome Head of a Matron ca. 40 BC marble Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
 |
| attributed to Jörg Muskat Eleanor of Portugal, Holy Roman Empress ca. 1500-1510 bronze Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
 |
| Anonymous Sculptor working in Padua Portrait of Marc Antonio della Torre ca. 1500-1520 bronze- Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
 |
| attributed to Antonio Lombardo Portrait of a Young Woman ca. 1505 bronze Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
 |
| Anonymous Sculptor working in the Netherlands Emperor Charles V ca. 1530-35 alabaster Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
 |
| attributed to Agostino Zoppo Bust of a Scholar of Padua ca. 1550-60 bronze Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
 |
| Anonymous sculptor working in Venice Bust of Dying Gaul (after an antique marble) ca. 1580 bronze Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
 |
| François Duquesnoy Bust of St Susanna ca. 1630-35 bronze Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
from Among School Children
Both nuns and mothers worship images,
But those the candles light are not as those
That animate a mother's reveries,
But keep a marble or a bronze repose.
And yet they too break hearts – O presences
That passion, piety or affection knows,
And that all heavenly glory symbolise –
O born self-mockers of man's enterprise . . .
– William Butler Yeats (1926)
 |
| Gianlorenzo Bernini Bust of Pope Alexander VII Chigi ca. 1657 bronze Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
 |
| Matthäus Donner Bust of Empress Maria Theresa 1750 bronze Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
 |
| Franz Xaver Messerschmidt Portrait of Gerard van Swieten ca. 1770-72 marble Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
 |
| Antonio Canova Bust of Emperor Franz I 1805 marble Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |