Pairs - I

Hans Memling
Portrait of a Donor
ca. 1480
oil on panel
(altarpiece fragment)
Brukenthal National Museum, Sibiu, Romania

Hans Memling
Portrait of a Donor
ca. 1480
oil on panel
(altarpiece fragment)
Brukenthal National Museum, Sibiu, Romania

Palma il Vecchio
Portrait of a Young Woman
ca. 1510
oil on panel
Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest

Palma il Vecchio
Portrait of a Young Man
ca. 1510
oil on panel
Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest

Hans Wertinger
Portrait of Jacoba de Baden,
consort of Wilhelm IV, Duke of Bavaria
1526
oil on panel
Brukenthal National Museum, Sibiu, Romania

Hans Wertinger
Portrait of Wilhelm IV, Duke of Bavaria
1526
oil on panel
Brukenthal National Museum, Sibiu, Romania

Conrad Faber von Creuznach
Portrait of Anna von Holzhausen, née Ratzeburg
1535
oil on panel
Städel Museum, Frankfurt

Conrad Faber von Creuznach
Portrait of Gilbrecht von Holzhausen
1535
oil on panel
Städel Museum, Frankfurt

Nicholaes Eliasz Pickenoy
Portrait of a Lady
1635
oil on canvas
Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen

Nicholaes Eliasz Pickenoy
Portrait of a Gentleman
1635
oil on canvas
Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen

Jan Victors
Portrait of a Woman
1650
oil on canvas
Milwaukee Art Museum

Jan Victors
Portrait of a Man
1650
oil on canvas
Milwaukee Art Museum

Balthasar Denner
Three Children of poet Barthold Hinrich Brockes
ca. 1720-25
oil on canvas
Hamburger Kunsthalle

Balthasar Denner
Three Children of poet Barthold Hinrich Brockes
ca. 1729
oil on canvas
Hamburger Kunsthalle

Johann Georg Ziesenis
Portrait of Herzogin Maria Charlotte Amalie
von Sachsen, Gotha und Altenburg
1768
oil on paper, mounted on canvas
Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Johann Georg Zieseni
Portrait of Herzog Ernst II Ludwig
von Sachsen, Gotha und Altenburg
1768
oil on paper, mounted on canvas
Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

from Duets

Underneath, her voice is
a whalebone-and-cambric

arrangement, a set of stiff stays

or pegs, well-hammered-in.

She is a house with firm foundations.
Her fabric pulls apart

in the upper floors only,

where something can be heard

fluttering with calculated frailty . . .

– Caitríona O'Reilly, The Sea Cabinet (2006)