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| Oskar Kokoschka Lecture by Oskar Kokoschka - Association for Literature and Music 1912 lithograph (poster) Leopold Museum, Vienna |
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| Anonymous Dutch Artist Head for Physiognomic Study 1786 etching (book illustration) Graphische Sammlung, Zentralbibliothek Zürich |
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| Isaac Israëls Self Portrait ca. 1917 oil on canvas Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands |
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| Max Liebermann Portrait of surgeon Ferdinand Sauerbruch 1932 oil on canvas Hamburger Kunsthalle |
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| Isaac Oliver Miniature Portrait of a Man at age 57 1588 watercolor on vellum Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge |
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| Pier Francesco Mola Diogenes ca. 1650 oil on canvas Musée Fesch, Ajaccio, Corsica |
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| Lucebert (Lubertus Jacobus Swaanswijk) Person 1966 acrylic on canvas Dordrechts Museum, Netherlands |
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| Egon Tschirch Portrait of artist Adolf Jöhnssen 1927 oil on canvas Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg |
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| Jacopo Tintoretto Antique Head of Julius Caesar ca. 1570-80 drawing Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam |
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| Oskar Schlemmer H.K. 1926 watercolor on paper Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin |
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| Emil Orlik The Japanese Master Kano Tomonobu 1901 color woodblock print Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin |
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| Jan de Bisschop Bust of Scipio Africanus ca. 1660-70 etching Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich |
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| attributed to Jan Lievens Portrait of a Man ca. 1630 oil on panel Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel |
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| Melchior Lorck Cossack Artilleryman 1582 woodcut Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich |
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| Pietro Sarto Verlaine 1962 lithograph Cabinet d'Arts Graphiques des Musées d'Art et d'Histoire Genève |
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| Erich Salomon Portrait of art collector Eduard von der Heydt ca. 1930 gelatin silver print Von der Heydt Museum, Wuppertal |
Vasari's account is so interesting because it shows his awareness of the link between the imagination of the artist and that of his public. Only works that are created in a state of heightened imagination, he said in effect, will appeal to the imagination. In the context of Renaissance theories and prejudices, insistence on inspiration and imagination goes hand in hand with emphasis on art as the high intellectual activity and the rejection of mere menial skill. Careful finish betrays the artisan who has to observe the standards of his guild. The true artist, like the true gentleman, will work with ease. This is Castiglione's famous doctrine of sprezzatura, the nonchalance which marks the perfect courtier and the perfect artist. "One single unlabored line, a single brushstroke, drawn with ease so that it seems that the hand moved without any effort or skill and reached its end all by itself, just as the painter intended it, reveals the excellence of the artist."
It is clear that an entirely new idea of art is taking shape here. It is an art in which the painter's skill in suggesting must be matched by the public's skill in taking hints. The literal-minded Philistine is excluded from this closed space. He does not understand the magic of sprezzatura because he has not learned to use his own imagination to project. He lacks the appropriate mental set to recognize in the loose brushstrokes of a "careless work" the images intended by the artist; least of all is he able to appreciate the secret skill and cunning which hide behind this lack of finish.
– E.H. Gombrich, Art and Illusion: a Study in the Psychology of Pictorial Representation (Princeton University Press, 1960)