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| Anton Tomschik Study of Apricots and Pears 1857 gouache on paper Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna |
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| Jan Toorop Portrait of Rachel Isabella Steyn Fraser 1905 drawing Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands |
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| Francesco Trevisani St Sebastian ca. 1720 oil on canvas Staatsgalerie im Schloss Johannisburg, Aschaffenburg |
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| Paul Troger Study for Mouth of Hell in Pendentive ca. 1735-45 drawing Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna |
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| Vasily Tropinin Venus and Cupid ca. 1840-45 oil on canvas State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow |
-Hercules-rescuing-Alcestis-from-Hades-before-1649-drawing-Graphische-Sammlung-Albertina-Vienna.jpg) |
| Alessandro Turchi (l'Orbetto) Hercules rescuing Alcestis from Hades before 1649 drawing Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna |
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| Edgard Tytgat Corner of the Studio 1932 oil on canvas Musée d'Ixelles, Brussels |
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| workshop of Adriaen van der Werff Diana at Rest 1722 oil on panel Clemens-Sels Museum, Neuss, Germany |
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| Anthony van Dyck Portrait of Queen Henrietta Maria (sent as gift to Cardinal Francesco Barberini in Rome) 1638 oil on canvas Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Giorgio Vasari The Taking of Christ ca. 1560-70 drawing Rhode Island School of Design, Providence |
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| Giuseppe Vasi View of the Città Leonina, Rome 1765 engraving Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna |
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| Karen Rebekka Vasstrand Untitled 1987 oil on canvas KORO (Public Art Norway), Oslo |
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| Gabriel-Constant Vaucher Head of the Farnese Hercules ca. 1785 drawing Cabinet d'Arts Graphiques des Musées d'Art et d'Histoire, Genève |
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| Philipp Veith Scene near Potschappel in the Plauensche Grund 1798 watercolor on paper Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden |
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| Agostino Velasco St Anthony Abbot ca. 1725 engraving Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel |
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| Geer van Velde Femme à la Fenêtre, Bord du Mer 1944 oil on canvas Museum de Fundatie, Zwolle, Netherlands |
After 1127, then, Suger had St. Bernard no longer at his heels; but he had him very much in his mind, and this is one of the several reasons why he became that great exception to the role, the patron who turned littérateur. There can be no doubt that the memorials reprinted in this volume are in part pointedly apologetic and that this apology is largely directed against Cîteaux and Clairvaux. Time and again Suger interrupts his enthusiastic descriptions of gleaming gold and precious jewels to counter the attacks of an imaginary opponent who is in fact not imaginary at all but identical with the man who had written: "But we who, for the sake of Christ, have deemed as dung whatever shines with beauty, enchants the ear, delights through fragrance, flatters the taste, pleases the touch – whose devotions, I ask, do we intend to incite by means of these very things?"
Where St. Bernard, in the words of "pagan Persius," indignantly exclaims: "What has gold to do in the sanctuary?" Suger requests that all the gorgeous vestments and altar vessels acquired under his administration be laid out in the church on his anniversary ("for we are convinced that it is useful and becoming not to hide but to proclaim Divine benefactions"). He deeply regrets that his Great Cross, one of the most sumptuous objects ever contrived by man, still lacks its full complement of gems and pearls: and he is keenly disappointed that he was forced to encase the new tomb of the Holy Martyrs with mere copper-gilt instead of with solid gold ("for we, most miserable men, should deem it worth our effort to cover the most sacred ashes of those whose venerable spirits – radiant as the sun – attend upon Almighty God with the most precious materials we possibly can.")
– Erwin Panofsky, from Abbot Suger on the Abbey Church of St. Denis and its Art Treasures (1946)