Sunday, January 25, 2026

Ovals (Artistic)

Carl Philipp Schallhas
Self Portrait
ca. 1785
watercolor and gouache on paper
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna


Angelica Kauffmann
Portrait Study of a Woman
ca. 1770-80
drawing
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Franz Joseph Winter
Princess Maria Anna of Bavaria as a Nun
ca. 1730
oil on copper
Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich

Jan Frans Douven
Miniature Self Portrait
ca. 1700
oil on copper
Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich

Charles Boit
Elector Johann Wilhelm of the Palatinate
1700
enamel on copper
Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich

Nicholas Dixon
Sir Willoughby Aston, Sheriff of Cheshire
ca. 1690
oil on vellum
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto

Paul Mignard
Princess Maria Anna Victoria of Bavaria
ca. 1680
watercolor and gouache on vellum
Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich

Paul Mignard
Elector Max Emanuel of Bavaria
ca. 1680
watercolor and gouache on vellum
Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich

Paul Mignard
Portrait of Princess Beatrix of Bavaria
ca. 1673-74
oil on canvas
Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich

Robert Nanteuil
Portrait of Cardinal Antonio Barberini
1663
engraving
Loeb Art Center, Vassar College,
Poughkeepsie, New York

Wallerant Vaillant
Portrait of a Woman
ca. 1660
mezzotint
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane

Cornelis van Delen
Algernon Percy, 10th Earl of Northumberland
(supporter of Parliament in the English Civil War)
ca. 1650
engraving
Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich

Samuel Cooper
Miniature Portrait of a Young Woman
ca. 1650
watercolor on vellum
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto

Pierre Mignard
Portrait of a Young Woman
ca. 1650
oil on canvas
National Museum, Warsaw

Dominicus Custos
Portrait of Venetian printer Jeronimo Scotto
1592
engraving
Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig

Stoldo di Gino Lorenzi
Profile Portrait of a Woman
ca. 1570
marble relief
Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence

Pisanello
Alfonso V of Aragon, King of Naples and Sicily
ca. 1449
bronze plaquette
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

from Lament for Adonis

In sleep before me Venus seem'd to stand,
Holding young Cupid in her whiter hand,
His eyes cast on the ground; lov'd Swain I bring
My son (saith she) to learn of thee to sing;
Then disappear'd; I my old pastoral layes
Began, instructing Cupid in their wayes,
How Pan the Pipe, Minerva found the Flute,
Phœbus the Harp, and Mercury the Lute:
He minds not what I sing, but sings agen
His Mothers acts, the loves of Gods and Men:
What I taught Cupid then, I now forget;
But what he then taught me, remember yet.

– Bion (late 2nd century BC), translated by Thomas Stanley (1651)