Solids

Agostino Zoppo after Jacopo Sansovino
Door Knocker as Triton
ca. 1550
bronze
Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich

Matteo de' Pasti
Portrait of Isotta degli Asti
(3rd wife of Sigismondo Malatesta)
1446
bronze medallion
Musées d'Art et d'Histoire, Genève

Auguste Rodin
First Maquette for The Burghers of Calais
1884
bronze
North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh

workshop of Riccio (Andrea Briosco)
Portrait of Riccio
ca. 1532
bronze medallion
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Giovanni Francesco Susini
The Farnese Bull
ca. 1630
bronze
(after an antique group in Naples)
Liechtenstein Museum, Vienna

Francesco Laurana
Jean d'Anjou, Duke of Calabria and Lorraine
1464
bronze medallion
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Andrew Rogers
Unfurling
2006
bronze
Heide Museum of Modern Art, Bulleen, Australia

Friedrich Hagenauer
Giovanni Alessandro Balbiani, Count of Chiavenna
(mercenary leader of German troops against French and Italians) 
1529
bronze medallion
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Benvenuto Cellini
Portrait of banker and arts patron Bindo Altoviti
1549
bronze
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston

Pietro Paolo Galeotti
Cassandra Marinoni
ca. 1552
bronze medallion
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Jacques Bousseau
Warrior bending Bow
1715
bronze
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Niccolò Fiorentino (Niccolò di Forzore Spinelli)
Lodovica Tornabuoni
ca. 1485-86
bronze medallion
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Viktor Hammer
Mourning Woman
1966
bronze
Wiesbauer Family Grave, Hietzing Cemetery, Vienna

Giovanni Battista Cambi (il Bombarda)
Portrait of Leonora, wife of the artist
ca. 1565-75
bronze medallion
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Isaac Witkin
Firebird
1983
bronze
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Francesco da Sangallo
Elena Marsuppini, wife of the artist
1551
bronze medallion
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Gaston Lachaise
Standing Figure
ca. 1927
bronze
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Oh who is that young sinner with the handcuffs on his wrists?

And what has he been after that they groan and shake their fists?

And wherefore is he wearing such a conscience-stricken air?

Oh they're taking him to prison for the colour of his hair.

'Tis a shame to human nature, such a head of hair as his;

In the good old time 'twas hanging for the colour that it is;

Though hanging isn't bad enough and flaying would be fair

For the nameless and abominable colour of his hair.

Oh a deal of pain he's taken and a pretty price he's paid

To hide his poll or dye it of a mentionable shade;

But they've pulled the beggar's hat off for the world to see and stare,

And they're taking him to justice for the colour of his hair.

Now 'tis oakum for his fingers and the treadmill for his feet,

And the quarry-gang on Portland in the cold and in the heat,

And between his spells of labour in the time he has to spare

He can curse the God that made him for the colour of his hair.

– A.E. Housman (1936)

Vaulted

Hans Thoma
Marine Miracle
1881
oil on canvas
Museum der bildenden Künste, Leipzig

Mauro Antonio Tesi
Sketch of Vaulted Interior
before 1766
drawing
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun
Portrait of Countess Vassilievna Skavronskaya
1796
oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre

Lambert Doomer
Boppard on the Rhine
1663
drawing
British Museum

Sanzo Wada
South Wind
1907
oil on canvas
National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo

Mauro Antonio Tesi
Altar Design
before 1766
drawing
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun
Portrait of Madame du Barry
1781
oil on panel
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Lambert Doomer
Cleves viewed from the South
1663
drawing
British Museum

Giorgio Vasari
The Miraculous Draught of Fishes
ca. 1551
oil on canvas
(installed in Vasari's family chapel)
Chiesa di Santa Maria delle Grazie, Arezzo

Mauro Antonio Tesi
Design for Sepulchral Monument
before 1766
drawing
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun
Portrait of painter Joseph Vernet
1778
oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre

Lambert Doomer
Figures under Trellis
ca. 1663
drawing
British Museum

Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida
Return from Fishing
1904
oil on canvas
Museo Frugone, Genoa

Mauro Antonio Tesi
Design for Sepulchral Monument
before 1766
drawing
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun
Portrait of Madame Molé-Reymond
de la Comédie-italienne
1786
oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre

Lambert Doomer
Ferry Boat
ca. 1663
drawing
British Museum

Paul Thek
Untitled (Raft Stars Moon)
ca. 1984
acrylic on canvas
Hirshhorn Museum, Washington DC

from The Rape of the Lock

      Poets themselves must fall, like those they sung;

Deaf the praised ear, and mute the tuneful tongue.

Even he, whose soul now melts in mournful lays,

Shall shortly want the generous tears he pays;

Then from his closing eyes thy form shall part,

And the last pang shall tear thee from his heart;

Life's idle business at one gasp be o'er,

The Muse forgot, and thou beloved no more

– Alexander Pope (1714)

Pacified

Ruth Orkin
Belgium
ca. 1960
gelatin silver print
Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton, New Brunswick

Georgia O'Keeffe
Poppies
1950
oil on canvas
Milwaukee Art Museum, Wisconsin

François Anguier
Figure funéraire de Jacques de Souvré, chevalier de l'ordre de Malte et grand prieur de France
before 1667
terracotta modello for marble tomb fixture
Musée du Louvre

Anonymous French Artist
Nymph and Satyr
ca. 1820
drawing on envelope with notes for sculpture
Buffalo AKG Art Museum, New York

Diane Arbus
Woman at a Counter Smoking, N.Y.C.
1963
gelatin silver print
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Georgia O'Keeffe
Spring
ca. 1922
oil on canvas
Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York

François Anguier
Figure of Fortitude
(tomb of Henri Ier d'Orléans, duc de Longueville)
ca. 1661-63
marble
Musée du Louvre

Anonymous French Artist
Ecce Homo
16th century
drawing
British Museum

Paul Graham
Cafe Assistants, Compass Cafe, Closterworth, Lincolnshire
1982
C-print
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Georgia O'Keeffe
The Cliff Chimneys
1938
oil on canvas
Milwaukee Art Museum, Wisconsin

François Anguier
Head of Janus
ca. 1661-63
marble relief (tomb element)
Musée du Louvre

Anonymous French Artist
St Anne with the Virgin in a Bower (St Joachim at right)
15th century
drawing
British Museum

Bruce Davidson
Two Bar-Tenders at a Museum Opening
1969
gelatin silver print
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Georgia O'Keeffe
Black Spot no. 3
1919
oil on canvas
Buffalo AKG Art Museum, New York

Michel Anguier
Hercules assisting Atlas to support the Earth
1668
terracotta modello
Musée du Louvre

Anonymous French Artist
Jupiter and Semele
ca. 1660
drawing
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

David Wojnarowicz
Arthur Rimbaud in New York (Diner)
1978
gelatin silver print
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Can I my reason to my faith compel,

And shall my sight and touch and taste rebel?

Superior faculties are set aside;

Shall their subservient organs be my guide?

Then let the moon usurp the rule of day,

And winking tapers show the sun his way;

For what my senses can themselves perceive

I need no revelation to believe.

– John Dryden, from Confessio Fidei (1682)