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| Friedrich Wilhelm Völcker Self Portrait 1820 oil on canvas Alte Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin |
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| Eduard Daege Self Portrait 1826 oil on canvas Alte Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin |
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| Oskar Kokoschka Self Portrait 1917 oil on canvas Von der Heydt Museum, Wuppertal |
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| Anonymous Italian Artist Portrait of Carlo Maratti ca. 1675-1700 drawing (after Marratti's self portrait) Hamburger Kunsthalle |
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| Balthasar Beschey Self Portrait 1763 oil on panel Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp |
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| Alexis Grimou Self Portrait as Bacchus 1728 oil on canvas Musée Magnin, Dijon |
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| Anders Zorn Self Portrait 1904 etching Museum Folkwang, Essen |
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| Joshua Reynolds Self Portrait 1773 oil on canvas Sinebrychoff Art Museum, Helsinki |
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| Jules Breton Self Portrait 1895 oil on canvas Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp |
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| Petr Brandl Self Portrait ca. 1697 oil on canvas Národní Galerie, Prague |
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| Lovis Corinth Self Portrait 1913 oil on canvas Von der Heydt Museum, Wuppertal |
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| Ferdinand Hodler Self Portrait 1891 oil on panel Musée d'Art et d'Histoire de Genève |
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| Ludger tom Ring the Younger Self Portrait 1547 oil on panel Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig |
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| Anton Räderscheidt Self Portrait 1950 oil on canvas Museum Ludwig, Cologne |
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| Jean-Étienne Liotard Self Portrait ca. 1770 pastel and gouache on canvas Musée d'Art et d'Histoire de Genève |
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| Adolph Menzel Self Portrait 1876 drawing Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin |
A Brief History of Light
And the light shineth in darkness:
and the darkness comprehended it not.
The dazzle of ocean was their first infatuation,
its starry net, and the fish that mirrored it.
They knew enough to know it was not theirs.
Over the hill a dozen furnaces glowed,
the gold gleamed that was smelted in secret,
They knew enough to know it was not theirs.
Over the hill a dozen furnaces glowed,
the gold gleamed that was smelted in secret,
and the trapped white light shone bitterly
at the heart of the hardest stone on earth.
But they knew enough to know it was not theirs.
Then their hoards of light grew minor,
But they knew enough to know it was not theirs.
Then their hoards of light grew minor,
since none could view the sun straightly,
and jealousy burned their lives to the core.
So they made a god of it, shedding glory,
and jealousy burned their lives to the core.
So they made a god of it, shedding glory,
shedding his light on all their arguments.
Did they know enough to know it was not theirs?
The god in his wisdom preceded them westwards,
and the forests, in whose pillared interiors
Did they know enough to know it was not theirs?
The god in his wisdom preceded them westwards,
and the forests, in whose pillared interiors
black shapes dwelled, were banished for good.
They promised an end to the primitive darkness:
They promised an end to the primitive darkness:
soon there was nothing that was not known.
They thought: Our light is made, not merely reflected –
They thought: Our light is made, not merely reflected –
even the forked lightning we have braided!
And they banished the god from the light of their minds.
But they mistook the light for their knowledge of the light,
But they mistook the light for their knowledge of the light,
till light, and only light, was everywhere.
And they vanished in this, their last illumination,
Knowing barely enough to know it was not theirs.
– Caitríona O'Reilly, The Nowhere Birds (2001)