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| Annibale Carracci Head of a man in profile ca. 1588-95 oil on canvas Royal Collection, Windsor |
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| Annibale Carracci Portrait of bearded man before 1605 drawing Royal Collection, Windsor |
"Every image of the past that is not recognized by the present as one of its own concerns threatens to disappear irretrievably."
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| Ciro Ferri Portrait of unknown man before 1689 drawing British Museum |
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| Anonymous miniature painter Henry Duke of Gloucester, 4th son of Charles I ca. 1650 watercolor on vellum Royal Collection, Windsor |
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| Giambologna Self-portrait ca. 1600 painted plaster Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
"Whoever has emerged victorious participates to this day in the triumphal procession in which the present rulers step over those who are lying prostrate. According to traditional practice, the spoils are carried along in the procession. They are called cultural treasures, and a historical materialist views them with curious detachment. For without exception the cultural treasures he surveys have an origin which he cannot contemplate without horror. They owe their existence not only to the efforts of the great minds and talents who have created them, but also to the anonymous toil of their contemporaries. There is no document of civilization which is not at the same time a document of barbarism."
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| Ottavio Leoni Portrait of Giovanni Baglione 1620s engraving British Museum |
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| Bernardino Poccetti Portrait of Gengio Ferravecchio ca. 1563-1612 drawing British Museum |
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| Rembrandt Portrait of Cornelis Claesz. Anslo, clergyman 1641 etching Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Rembrandt Portrait of Haesje van Cleyburg 1634 oil on panel Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
"To articulate the past historically does not mean to recognize it "the way it really was" (Ranke). It means to seize hold of a memory as it flashes up at a moment of danger. Historical materialism wishes to retain that image of the past which unexpectedly appears to man singled out by history in a moment of danger. The danger affects both the content of the tradition and its receivers. The same threat hangs over both: that of becoming a tool of the ruling classes. In every era the attempt must be made anew to wrest tradition away from a conformism that is about to overpower it."
– quoted passages are by Walter Benjamin, from Theses on the Philosophy of History (1940) translated by Harry Zohn and published in English in Illuminations (1968) edited by Hannah Arendt
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| David Teniers Portrait of Bishop Antonius Triest and his brother Eugene, a Capuchin 1652 oil on canvas Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Samuel van Hoogstraten Portrait of Mattheus van den Broucke ca. 1670-78 canvas Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Francisco de Zurbarán Portrait of a Military Commander ca. 1640 oil on canvas Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| François Dieussart Portrait of Pieter Spiering ca. 1645-50 marble Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| François Dieussart Portrait of Johanna Doré ca. 1645-50 marble Rijksmusesum, Amsterdam |