-Timken-Museum-of-Art-San-Diego.jpg) |
| Luca di Tommè Crucifixion with scenes from the Life of Christ ca. 1355 tempera on panel (altarpiece) Timken Museum of Art, San Diego |
 |
| Hieronymus Hopfer Ornamental Panel with Pinecone Emblem of Augsburg before 1563 etching British Museum |
 |
| Christoph Jamnitzer Fantastic Figures with Dragon, from Neues Groteskenbuch 1610 etching Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig |
 |
| Grégoire Huret Federico Borromeo, Cardinal-Archbishop of Milan ca. 1630 engraving Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
 |
| Sébastien Le Clerc the Elder Tailpiece for Funeral Oration honoring General Turenne ca. 1675 etching and engraving Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney |
-Plate-1840-porcelain-Clark-Art-Institute-Williamstown-Massachusetts.jpg) |
| Lippert & Haas Manufactory (Bohemia) Plate 1840 porcelain Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts |
-Floriated-Ornaments-1849-hand-colored-lithograph-Cooper-Hewitt-Smithsonian-Design-Museum.jpg) |
| Augustus Pugin Floriated Ornaments 1849 hand-colored lithograph Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
 |
| Robert Jackson Love 1875 splatterwork over stencils National Gallery of Australia, Canberra |
 |
| Louise Newton The White Garden, Hidcote Manor, Gloucestershire 1929 lantern slide Archives of American Gardens, Washington DC |
 |
| Peter Krasnow K-5 1944 1944 oil on board Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC |
 |
| Roy Kenzie Kiyooka Untitled 1963-64 acrylic on canvas Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, British Columbia |
-Smithsonian-American-Art-Museum-Washington-DC.jpg) |
| Victor Moscoso The Electric Flag Avalon Ballroom, Sutter & Van Ness, San Francisco 1968 lithograph (poster) Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC |
 |
| Yvonne Jacquette Telephone Pole #6 1971 oil on canvas Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC |
 |
| Suzanne Opton Boys with Boxing Gloves, Hardwick, Vermont 1974 gelatin silver print Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC |
 |
| R.B. Kitaj Two London Painters: Frank Auerbach and Sandra Fisher 1979 pastel and charcoal on paper Los Angeles County Museum of Art |
 |
| Valerie Jaudon Untitled 1981 drawing (charcoal and chalk on paper) Whitney Museum of American Art, New York |
 |
| Gabriel Orozco Two Couples 1990-91 C-print Guggenheim Museum, New York |
The Monkey
Never mind why – the gods behave with whimsy – but once,
Jove decided to hold a cute-baby contest,
and invited all the world's creatures to enter their kiddies,
every beast of the earth, and fish of the sea,
and bird of the air. And they came (oh, of couse they came!)
fussing and cooing, their youngsters gussied up
in ribbons and bows. The fish had scales that gleamed like jewels,
and the little birds with their iridescent plumage
looked like a cunning jeweler's simulacra of birds.
The mothers paraded their darlings before the god
in a grand procession, and Jupiter nodded, beamed, and preened,
congratulating them all and of course himself . . .
And then, at the critical moment, just before the awards,
a mama monkey appeared, pushed herself forward,
and put her wizened wee one down on the floor before him,
a kind of hairy prune with arms and legs,
and a face that could stop a thousand clocks. And the god laughed!
And everyone else laughed, and the baby monkey
blinked its pop-eyes, and smiled, and everted its lower lip,
and everyone roared the louder, until the mother
called them all to order: 'Let the god decide
however he will, and give the prizes out . . .
What does it matter? This is my child, my darling, my love,
the dearest baby in all the universe.'
And again there was laughter, but quickly it gave way to silence
and awe before her blind passion's truth.
– Avianus (active AD 400), translated by David R. Slavitt (1993)