Pelts

Barthel Beham
Portrait of Herzog Wilhelm IV von Bayern
1533
oil on panel
Alte Pinakothek, Munich

Lorenzo Lotto
Portrait of Febo da Brescia
ca. 1543-44
oil on canvas
Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan

Louis-Marie Autissier
Portrait of a Young Woman
1819
watercolor on vellum (cabinet miniature)
Museum Mayer van den Bergh, Antwerp

Franz Xaver Winterhalter
Portrait of Empress Eugénie
1864
oil on canvas
Château de Compiègne

Bernard van Orley
Portrait of a Young Man
ca. 1510-20
oil on panel
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Ferdinand Bol
Man with Furs
ca. 1646-48
oil on canvas
Leiden Collection, New York

Adolph Menzel
Study of Fur Wrap tossed onto Sofa
ca. 1840-50
oil on paper
Neue Pinakothek, Munich

Wenceslaus Hollar
Muff
1647
etching
Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig

Wenceslaus Hollar
Muff
1647
etching
Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig

Jean-Étienne Liotard
Portrait of Maria Theresa, Empress of Austria
ca. 1743-45
pastel on vellum
Museum Mayer van den Bergh, Antwerp

attributed to Jean Ranc after Hyacinthe Rigaud
Portrait of Louis XIV
ca. 1701
oil on canvas
Musée Fabre, Montpellier

Pierre Goudreaux
Portrait of Charles III Philip, Elector Palatine
1724
oil on canvas
Alte Pinakothek, Munich

George Bellows
Portrait of sculptor Robert Aitken
1921
lithograph
Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas

Koloman Moser
Three Women on Street Corner
1903
woodcut
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Giorgione (Giorgio Barbarelli)
Portrait of a Young Man
(formerly identified as Buonamico Buffalmacco)
ca. 1510
oil on panel
Alte Pinakothek, Munich

Wenceslaus Hollar after Giorgione
Portrait of Buonamico Buffalmacco
1650
etching
Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig

In the very beginning of summer the Peloponnesians and their confederates, with two-thirds of their force as before, invaded Attica under the conduct of Archidamus the son of Zeuxidamas, king of Lacedaemon, and after they had encamped themselves, wasted the country about them.  They had not been many days in Attica when the plague first began amongst the Athenians, said also to have seized formerly on diverse other parts, as about Lemnos and elsewhere; but so great a plague and mortality of men was never remembered to have happened in any place before.  For at first neither were the physicians able to cure it through ignorance of what it was but died fastest themselves, as being the men that most approached the sick, nor any other art of man availed whatsoever.  All supplications to the gods and enquiries of oracles and whatsoever other means they used of that kind proved all unprofitable; insomuch as subdued with the greatness of the evil, they gave them all over. 

It began, by report, first in that part of Ethiopia that lieth upon Egypt, and thence fell down into Egypt and Africa and into the greatest part of the territories of the king.  It invaded Athens on a sudden and touched first upon those that dwelt in Piraeus, insomuch as they reported that the Peloponnesians had cast poison into their wells (for springs there were not any in that place).  But afterwards it came up into the high city, and then they died a great deal faster.  Now let every man, physician or other, concerning the ground of this sickness, whence it sprung, and what causes he thinks able to produce so great an alteration, speak according to his own knowledge.  For my own part, I will deliver but the manner of it and lay open only such things as one may take his mark by to discover the same if it come again, having been both sick of it myself and seen others sick of the same.

– from The Peloponnesian War as written by Thucydides (5th century BC) and translated by Thomas Hobbes (1628) and edited by David Grene (1959)

Wearing Fur

Barthel Beham
Portrait of Herzog Wilhelm IV von Bayern
ca. 1534
pastel on paper
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Parmigianino (Francesco Mazzola)
Portrait of a Dignitary
ca. 1537-40
oil on panel
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Pietro Marescalchi
Portrait of a Gentleman
ca. 1540-50
oil on canvas
Art Institute of Chicago

Hans Holbein the Younger
Portrait of a Young Merchant
1541
oil on panel
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Lavinia Fontana
Portrait of a Man in his Study
ca. 1577-78
oil on canvas
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux

Bernardo Strozzi
Portrait of Doge Francesco Erizzo
ca. 1631
oil on canvas
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Johann Ulrich Mayr
David with the Head of Goliath
ca. 1655
oil on canvas
Deutsche Barockgalerie, Augsburg

Anonymous French Artist
Portrait of Madame Peyrot de Lugagnac
ca. 1750
oil on canvas
Musée Carnavalet, Paris

Luigi Crespi
Portrait of a Woman
ca. 1760-70
oil on canvas
Harvard Art Museums

Philipp Veit
Portrait of Marie du Fay, Baroness Bernus
1838
oil on canvas
Städel Museum, Frankfurt

Isacco Gioacchino Levi
Cain contemplating his Crime
ca. 1851
oil on canvas
Galleria Nazionale di Parma

John Singer Sargent
Woman with Furs
ca. 1880-85
oil on canvas (sketch)
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts

Ivan Kramskoy
Portrait of a Woman
(in use commercially as representation of Anna Karenina)
1883
oil on canvas
State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Elsa, called The Viennese
1897
lithograph
Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen

Anders Zorn
Portrait of Maja von Heijne
1900
oil on canvas
Alte Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Richard Roland Holst
Marsyas (Mythological Comedy)
1910
lithograph (poster)
Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

"Cursed may I bee," cri'd he, "if ever I take comfort, having such cause of mourning: but because you are, or seeme to be afflicted, I will not refuse to satisfie your demand, but tell you the saddest storie that ever was rehearsed by dying man to living woman, and such a one, as I feare will fasten too much sadnesse in you; yet should I denie it, I were too blame, being so well knowne to these senselesse places; as were they sensible of sorrow, they would condole, or else amased at such crueltie, stand dumbe as they doe, to find that man should be so inhumane.  Then faire Shepherdesse, heare my selfe say my name is Perissus, Nephew I am to the King of Sicilie, a place fruitfull and plentifull of all things; onely niggardly of good nature to a great man in that Country, whom I am sure you have heard me blame in my complaints.  Heire I am as yet to this King mine Uncle; and truly may I say so, for a more unfortunate Prince never lived, so as I inherit his crosses, howsoever I shall his estate.  There was in this Country (as the only blessing it enjoyed) a Lady, or rather a Goddesse for incomparable beautie, and matchles vertues, called Limena, daughter to a Duke; but, Princesse of all hearts: this starre comming to the Court to honour it with such light, it was in that my blessed destinie to see her, and be made her servant, or better to say, a slave to her perfections; thus long was I happie, but now begins the tragedie: for warres falling out betweene the people and the Gentlemen, the King was by the people (imagining he tooke the other part) brought into some danger, and so great an one, as rudenes joynd with ill nature could bring him into, being at last besieged in a strong hold of his, all of us his servants, and gentle subjects, striving for his good and safetie; in this time nothing appearing but danger, and but wise force to preserve mens lives and estates unto them, every one taking the best meanes to attaine unto their good desires."

– from The Countesse of Mountgomeries Urania, by the right honourable the Lady Mary Wroath, daughter to the right noble Robert, Earle of Leicester, and neece to the ever famous and renowned Sʳ Phillips Sidney knight, and to ye most excellant Lady Mary Countess of Pembroke, late deceased (London: John Marriott and John Grismand, 1621)

Variations

Anonymous French Maklers
Bodice
ca. 1790
block-printed cotton lined with linen
Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia

Anonymous Indian Makers
Shawl
ca. 1800-1850
wool embroidered with silk
Art Institute of Chicago

Anonymous English Makers
Cap
ca. 1575-1625
linen embroidered with silk
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Anonymous English Makers
Cape
(refashioned paisley shawl imported from India)
ca. 1860-70
wool with silk lining
Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto

Anonymous Indian Makers
Shawl
ca. 1825-50
wool embroidered with silk
Art Institute of Chicago

Mikhail Larionov for Ballets-Russes
Stage Costume for Buffoon's Wife
ca. 1921
silk and cotton
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Léon Bakst for Ballets-Russes
Stage Costume for Nymph
ca. 1912
silk chiffon
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Caroline Reboux
Hat
ca. 1927
wool felt
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Cristóbal Balenciaga
Hat
1962
silk satin, ribbon and ostrich feathers
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Elsa Schiaparelli
Hat
1948
wool felt, feathers and mink
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Anonymous Japanese Makers
Kimono
ca. 1920
tie-dyed silk
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Anonymous Japanese Makers
Kimono
ca. 1930
stencil-printed silk
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Anonymous Japanese Makers
Ainu Robe
19th century
cotton, with appliqué and embroidery
Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto

John Tunnard for Ascher (London)
Scarf
1947
printed silk twill
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Anonymous Chinese Makerse
Court Robe
(component piece, uncut)
19th century
embroidered silk
Asian Art Museum, San Francisco

Rachel MacHenry (Toronto)
Man's Vest
ca. 1988-92
wool knit
Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto

The Rock

Insignia

of the earth's

terrible recesses, spirit

of darkness, of 

the criminal mind, I feel

certain there is within you

something human, to be

approached in speech. How else

did you approach Eve

with your addictive 

information? I have paid

bitterly for her

lapse, therefore

attend to me. Tell me

how you live in hell,

what is required in hell, 

for I would send

my beloved there. Not

of course forever:

I may want him

back sometime, not

permanently harmed but

severely chastened,

as he has not been, here

on the surface. What

shall I give him for

protection, what

shield that will not

wholly screen him? You must be

his guide and master: help him

shed his skin

as you do, though in this case

we want him

older underneath, maybe

a little mousy. I feel confident

you understand these

subtleties – you seem

so interested, you do not

slide back under your rock! Oh

I am sure we are somehow related

even if you are not

human; perhaps I have

the soul of a reptile after all.

– Louise Glück (1996)

Refocillations

Anonymous American Makers
Garter Belt
ca. 1900
embroidered silk satin, lace, elastic and metal
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Anonymous French Makers
Tippet and Muff
ca. 1935
dyed monkey-fur lined with silk
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Iceberg (Milan)
Pullover Sweater
ca. 1995
wool-angora and rayon, with wool appliqués
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Anonymous American Makers
Cloak
ca. 1775-90
wool
Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia

Anonymous English Makers
Evening Gown
ca. 1795-1800
cotton muslin with gilt embroidery
Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto

Anonymous English Makers
Evening Gown
ca. 1817
wool and silk gauze, embroidered
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Anonymous English Makers
Afternoon Ensemble
(mantle and skirt)
ca. 1880-90
 silk
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

Anonymous English Makers
Bustle-Crinoline
ca. 1870-75
wool twill with metal hoops in channels
Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto

Anonymous Japanese Makers
Summer Kimono
ca. 1900-1915
resist-dyed silk
Art Institute of Chicago

Hubert de Givenchy
Cocktail Coat
ca. 1962
silk satin
Phoenix Art Museum, Arizona

Anonymous Australian Makers
Bodice
ca. 1905
cotton and silk
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Anonymous English Makers
Bodice
16th century
linen embroidered with silk
Art Institute of Chicago

Anonymous French Makers
Fabric Panel
ca. 1780-90
block-printed and hand-painted cotton
Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto

Jean Patou
Evening Gown
ca. 1923
silk
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

Anonymous American Makers
Summer Day Dress
ca. 1868-72
roller-printed cotton
Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto

 

Russell & Allen (London)
Evening Cape
ca. 1887
silk faille
Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto

Telemachus' Dilemma

I can never decide

what to write on

my parents' tomb. I know

what he wants: he wants

beloved, which is

certainly to the point, particularly

if we count all

the women. But

that leaves my mother

out in the cold. She tells me

this doesn't matter to her

in the least; she prefers

to be represented by

her own achievement. It seems

tactless to remind them

that one does not

honor the dead by perpetuating

their vanities, their 

projections of themselves.

My own taste dictates

accuracy without

garrulousness; they are

my parents, consequently

I see them together,

sometimes inclining to

husband and wife, other times 

to opposing forces. 

– Louise Glück (1996)