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| Battistello Caracciolo Saints Cosmas & Damian 1620s oil on canvas Prado, Madrid |
" . . . whatever these absurdities may be, I have had no intention of concealing them, any more than I would a bald and graying portrait of myself, in which the painter had drawn not a perfect face, but mine. For likewise these are my humors and opinions; I offer them as what I believe, not what is to be believed. I aim here only at revealing myself, who will perhaps be different tomorrow, if I learn something new which changes me. I have no authority to be believed, nor do I want it, feeling myself too ill-instructed to instruct others."
– Michel de Montaigne, translated by D.M. Frame (from the Complete Essays in three volumes, Stanford University Press, 1965)
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| Jacopo Confortini Two seated figures ca. 1617-31 drawing Ashmolean Museum, Oxford |
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| Agostino Ciampelli Kneeling woman 17th century drawing Ashmolean Museum, Oxford |
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| Giuseppe Cesari Martyrdom of St Margaret ca. 1608-11 oil on panel National Gallery of Art (U.S.) |
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| Salvator Rosa Three figures around a globe 17th century drawing Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Salvator Rosa Kneeling man 17th century drawing Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge |
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| Salvator Rosa Youth pulling off a shirt 17th century drawing Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge |
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| Salvator Rosa Youth pulling off a shirt 17th century drawing Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge |
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| Francesco Albani Judgment of Paris 1650s oil on canvas Prado, Madrid |
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| Andrea di Leone Figure study 1640s drawing Philadelphia Museum of Art |
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| Sebastiano Folli Seated figure 17th century drawing Ashmolean Museum, Oxford |
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| Giacomo Cavedone Study of a left arm and hand 17th century drawing Ashmolean Museum, Oxford |
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| Cavaliere d'Arpino Study of a left hand early 17th century drawing Prado, Madrid |
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| Michelangelo Cerquozzi Children picking fruit ca. 1640-45 Prado, Madrid |
" . . . as fields of production and work become increasingly immaterial, demand has risen for workers with uniquely individual abilities – indeed, with carefully cultivated idiosyncracies, stylish quirks and personal (physical) attractiveness. The self is no longer a place of retreat but a productive force, obliged to operate on deregulated markets, deploying as many unique selling points as possible. The result is an encroachment of the working day into traditional leisure activities: going to parties, concerts, exhibitions and the cinema or engaging in the never-ending (in)voluntary rounds of networking become mere opportunities for honing this constructed self further. These processes of individualization and compulsory Bohemianization gradually take hold of the entire individual, affecting ever more areas of his or her life. Those subject to them must maintain a good mood in order to appear creative and original – survival depends on it."
"The paradigm of economic man in the modern era was the rigorous, analytical scientist. The paradigm of postmodern economic man is the playful, creative, risk-taking, entrepreneurial artist . . ."
– from Education (2011) edited by Felicity Allen, published by Whitechapel Gallery in the series Documents of Contemporary Art