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| Italian painter Clementina Sobiesky ca. 1725 Prado |
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| Italian painter Portrait of a man in a fur-trimmed coat ca. 1540 Metropolitan Museum of Art |
The couple above are manifestly happy together, everything about their appearance (from gestures to costumes to quietly beaming faces) suggests fellow feeling and compatibility of taste and temperament. That is why their juxtaposed portraits – even though painted two centuries apart – defy those centuries and even defy the geographical separation of a major ocean to greet the viewer as the embodiment in pigment of conjoined spirits on Valentine's Day.
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| attributed to Joan Carlile Dorothy, Lady Browne and Sir Thomas Browne 1640s National Portrait Gallery (U.K.) |
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| Piero del Pollaiuolo Apollo & Daphne 1470s National Gallery, London |
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| Anonymous silhouette artist The Ladies of Llangollen ca. 1810-23 National Portrait Gallery (U.K.) |
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| Henry Treffry Dunn Dante Gabriel Rosssetti and Theodore Watts-Dunton 1882 National Portrait Gallery (U.K.) |
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| Lorenzo Lotto Micer Marsilio Cassotti & Faustina Cassotti 1523 Prado |
The miniatures below of married couple Peter and Anne Oliver were arranged at an early date to occupy front and back of the same frame. This visual equivalent of the conjugal connection belonged to Horace Walpole in the 18th century and was displayed among thousands of other such curiosities at Strawberry Hill, as indicated by gilt lettering on the surround.
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| Peter Oliver Miniature self-portrait ca. 1625-30- National Portrait Gallery (U.K.) |
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| Peter Oliver Miniature portrait of Anne Oliver ca. 1625-30 National Portrait Gallery (U.K.) |
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| Baldassare Peruzzi Woman & two men ca. 1510 drawing British Museum |
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| Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec The Sofa 1894-95 Metropolitan Museum of Art |
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| Jean François de Troy The Alarm 1723 Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| Andrea Schiavone Marriage of Cupid & Psyche ca. 1550 Metropolitan Museum of Art |
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| Lumière Brothers Still Life of flowers & leaves 1907 autochrome Getty |