Friday, November 14, 2025

Some Symmetry

James S. Baillie
The Life & Age of Woman
1848
hand-colored lithograph
National Museum of American History, Washington DC


James S. Baillie
The Life & Age of Man
1848
hand-colored lithograph
National Museum of American History, Washington DC

Félix Bonfils
Damascus Gate, Jerusalem
before 1876
albumen silver print
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa

Anonymous Photographer
James Wells Champney and Francis Davis Millet
bowing to the Camera

1876
tintype
Archives of American Art, Washington DC

Giacomo Brogi
On the Leads of the Duomo, Milan
before 1881
albumen silver print
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa

Anonymous Photographer
Orchard, Santa Ysabel Hot Springs, California
ca. 1890
hand-colored lantern slide
National Museum of American History, Washington DC

Anonymous Persian Printmaker
Camel Battle
ca. 1890
hand-colored woodcut
National Museum of Asian Art, Washington DC

Anonymous Photographer
Oldacres, Old Westbury, New York
ca. 1915
hand-colored lantern slide
Archives of American Gardens, Washington DC

Boucheron (Paris)
Brooch in Bow Shape
1925
jade, onyx, coral, lapis lazuli, diamonds and platinum
Cooper-Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum

Georges Barbier
Falbalas & Fanfreluches
1926
hand-colored engraving (almanac cover)
Cooper-Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum

Anonymous Photographer
Château Vaux-le-Vicomte
with Ladies of the American Garden Club entering

1936
hand-colored lantern slide
Archives of American Gardens, Washington DC

Ghitta Caiserman
Untitled (Children in Costume)
ca. 1960
oil on panel
Ottawa Art Gallery, Ontario

Robert Bordeau
Ontario, Canada
1980
gelatin silver print
Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Kingston, Ontario

Emery Blagdon
Untitled (Individual Element from the Healing Machine)
before 1986
oil on board
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Roger Brown
Los Angeles
1993
oil on canvas
(commissioned by Time magazine)
National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC

Frédéric Brenner
Billings, Montana
1994
gelatin silver print
Art Institute of Chicago

Wayne Barrar
Large Crib Room (Deep Mine), Mount Isa
2005
pigment print
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra

from Sejanus his Fall

Old Men not staid with Age, Virgins with shame, 
Late Wives with losse of Husbands, Mothers of Children,
Loosing all griefe in joy of his sad fall,
Runne quite transported with their cruelty:
These digging out his eyes, those with his braine,
Sprinkling themselves, their houses, and their friends:
Others are met, have ravish'd thence an arme,
And deale small pieces of the flesh for Favors:
These with a thigh; this hath cut off his hands;
And this his feete; he his heart; there wants
Nothing but roome for wrath, and place for hatred.
What cannot oft be done, is now o'erdone.
The whole, and All of what was great Sejanus,
And next to Caesar did possesse the world,
Now torne, and scatterd, as he needs no grave,
Each little dust covers a little part:
So lies he no where, and yet often buried.

– Claudian (AD 370-404), translated by Ben Jonson (1605)