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| Anonymous British Artist Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I ca. 1590 oil on panel Magdalen College, University of Oxford |
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| Anonymous British Artist Portrait of Alathea Talbot, Countess of Arundel and Surrey (consort of the great art collector Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel) 1619 oil on canvas Ingestre Hall, Staffordshire |
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| Anonymous British Artist Portrait of Sir Philibert Vernatti ca. 1626 oil on panel Usher Gallery, Lincoln |
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| Anonymous British Artist Portrait of Captain Smart 1639 oil on canvas Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
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| Anonymous British Artist Portrait of a Lady ca. 1680-85 oil on canvas National Trust, Beningbrough Hall, Yorkshire |
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| Anonymous British Artist Portrait of the goldsmith Paul Crespin ca. 1720 oil on canvas, mounted on panel Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
Instructions to an Artisan
Into the rood wood, where the grain's current splits
around the stones of its knots, carve eyelashes and eyelids.
Dye the knots, too –indigo, ink-black, vermilion
irises. These will be his eyes, always open, willing
themselves not to close when dust rises or sweat falls,
eyes witnessing, dimly, the eclipse that shawls
the shuddering hill, Jerusalem's naked shoulder.
The body itself? From a wick that still whiffs of smolder,
wax, because wax sloughs a smooth skein on the fingers just
below sensation's threshold. Prop the cross
upright and let the tear-hot wax trickle, slow, clot, taper
into a torso, thighs, calves, feet. Of Gideon Bible paper,
thinner than skin, cut him his scrap of cloth; embed
iron shaving in his forehead,
and, as the wax cools, scrape the rust off an old fuel can
to salt the whole wound that is the man.
Cry, if you feel like crying, and if no one else is there.
Then set it on the counter with your other wares.
– Amit Majmudar (2008)
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| Anonymous British Artist Portrait of Deborah Worsley of Platt ca. 1765-70 oil on canvas Manchester Art Gallery |
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| Anonymous British Artist Portrait of James Bisset 1793 oil on canvas Leamington Spa Art Gallery and Museum, Warwickshire |
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| Anonymous British Artist Portrait of a Lady ca. 1800-1820 oil on canvas National Trust, Attingham Park, Shropshire |
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| Anonymous British Artist Portrait of George Frederick Cooke as Gloucester in Shakespeare's Richard III ca. 1805 oil on canvas Theatre Royal, Bath |
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| Anonymous British Artist Portrait of a Lady as a Nymph ca. 1810 oil on canvas Gainsborough Old Hall, Lincolnshire |
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| Anonymous British Artist Portrait of Caroline Sarah Chamberlain ca. 1830 oil on canvas Lawrence House Museum, Launceston, Cornwall |
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| Anonymous British Artist Portrait of Dr. Amos Middleton 1844 oil on canvas Leamington Spa Art Gallery and Museum, Warwickshire |
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| Anonymous British Artist Portrait of Mildred, Lady Malet née Lambert Swiney ca. 1880 oil on canvas Dillington House, Ilminster, Somerset |
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| Anonymous British Artist Self Portrait ca. 1930 oil on canvas Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne |