Friday, January 23, 2026

Ovals (Artistic)

Geertgen tot Sint Jans
Glorification of the Virgin
ca. 1490-95
oil on panel
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam


Antonio Salamanca
Eurydice
ca. 1540-50
etching and engraving
Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich

Léon Davent after Francesco Primaticcio
Fishing on a Lake
ca. 1540-55
etching and engraving
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden

Étienne Delaune
Fishing with a Spear
1569
engraving
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden

Joseph Heintz the Elder
Satyrs and Nymphs
ca. 1599
charcoal and gouache on paper
(study for painting)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Domenico Falcini
St Anthony Abbot
ca. 1607
engraving
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel

Michelangelo Cerquozzi
Carnival Procession with Wagon
(Bamboccianti)
ca. 1640-50
oil on canvas
Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, Texas

Michel Corneille the Elder-
Cleopatra and the Asp
ca. 1650-60
oil on canvas
Portland Art Museum, Oregon

Salomon Gessner
Head of Marcus Valerius Martialis
ca. 1760
etching
Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich

Johann Christian Neuber
Snuffbox
ca. 1770-75
porcelain plaque and hardstone mosaic mounted in gold with enamel flowers
Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich

attributed to Antonio Molleno
St Rita of Cascia
ca. 1830
gouache on panel
Denver Art Museum

Meade Brothers Studio (New York)
Wedding Cake
1853
daguerreotype
National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC

Anonymous Photographer
Man and Child before a House
ca. 1855
hand-colored daguerreotype
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Alex Hesler
Falls of Minnehaha, Minnesota
ca. 1855
salted paper print
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Robert Delaunay
Fenêtres ouvertes simultanément, 1ère partie, 3ème motif
1912
oil on canvas
Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice

Lucienne Day for Heal & Son, Ltd.
Rose Diamond
1969
printed linen glass towel
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Ilya Bolotowsky
Scarlet Vertical Ellipse
1980
screenprint
Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia

Translated from the Greek of Moschus

When winds that move not its calm surface sweep
The azure sea, I love the land no more;
The smiles of the serene and tranquil deep
Tempt my unquiet mind. – But when the roar
Of ocean's grey abyss resounds, and foam
Gathers upon the sea, and vast waves burst,
I turn from the drear aspect to the home
Of earth and its deep woods, where interspersed,
When winds blow loud, pines make sweet melody.
Whose house is some lone bark, whose toil the sea,
Whose prey the wandering fish, an evil lot
Has chosen. – But I my languid limbs will fling
Beneath the plane, where the brook's murmuring
Moves the calm spirit, but disturbs it not.

– Moschus (mid-2nd century BC), translated by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1816)