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Michael Hafftka
Portrait of art curator John Caldwell
1993
oil on canvas
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh

Timothy Greenfield-Sanders
Cindy Sherman
1988
Polaroid
Museum of Modern Art, New York

Herbert James Gunn
Portrait Study of Margaret, Duchess of Argyll
ca. 1953
oil on canvas
Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh

Walker Evans
Berenice Abbott (photographer)
ca. 1929-30
gelatin silver print
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Robert Henri
Catharine
1913
oil on canvas
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Michele Gordigiani
Contessina Enrica Cenami at age fifteen
1890
oil on copper
Palazzo Mansi, Lucca

Jean-Augustin Franquelin
Self Portrait
1820
oil on canvas
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts

John Hoppner
Portrait of Jane Emma Orde
ca. 1806
oil on canvas
Milwaukee Art Museum, Wisconsin

François Gérard
Count Louis-Joseph Marie Plessis de Grénédan
1801
oil on canvas
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts

Antoine-Jean Gros
Madame Pasteur, née Madeleine Alexandre
ca. 1795-1800
oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre

Anton Graff
Portrait of comte Christophe Urbanowski
1791
oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre

Jean-Antoine Julien
Self Portrait at age 39
1777
oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre

Alexis Grimou
Portrait of a Man in Polish Garb
1726
oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre

Bernhard Francke
August Ferdinand von Braunschweig-Bevern
ca. 1700
oil on canvas
private collection

Adriaen Hanneman
Portrait of a Nobleman
ca. 1655
oil on canvas
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri

Anonymous Italian Painter working in Rome
Portrait of Giuseppe Cesari, Cavaliere d'Arpino
ca. 1590
oil on canvas
Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence

Giovanni Ambrogio Figino
Portrait of painter Cesare Cavalcabò
ca. 1590
oil on canvas
Palazzo Barberini, Rome

from Statement

    One is saved from drowning by a submerged stake.  One healed by drinking from a holy well.  One is honoured by a countess with a gift of grapes.  One is hailed as the master by monthly reviews.  One is known in his club as 'the Skipper'.  One discovers in middle age his talent for painting.  One is a hero, covered with medals, is greeted by bands.  One wins a battle through a change in the weather.  One has a unique collection of indigenous insects. 

– W.H. Auden, The Orators (1931)

Aspirants

Andy Warhol
Gilbert and George
1975
screenprints on canvases
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh

Monogrammist FVB (Netherlandish printmaker)
St George and the Dragon
ca. 1480-90
engraving
British Museum

Marten de Vos the Elder
St Paul bitten by a Viper on the island of Malta
ca. 1568-70
oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre

Anonymous Italian Sculptor
Funerary Plaque with Arms of the Doria
ca. 1485
marble relief
Musée du Louvre

Andy Warhol
Jackie Curtis
1974
Polaroid
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Monogrammist AG (German printmaker)
St George and the Dragon
ca. 1450-1500
engraving
British Museum

Anonymous French Sculptor
Serpent
ca. 1585-1600
glazed earthenware
Musée du Louvre

Anonymous Italian Sculptor
Escutcheon with Chigi coat-of-arms
ca. 1600-1650
marble
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri

Andy Warhol
Leontyne Price
1972
Polaroid
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Monogrammist M (Netherlandish printmaker)
St George and the Dragon
ca. 1500-1525
hand-colored engraving
British Museum

workshop of Paul de Vos
Animals preparing to enter Noah's Ark
ca. 1650
oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre

Anonymous Italian Sculptor
Equestrian Portrait of Roberto Malatesta
ca. 1482-84
marble relief
(appropriated by Scipione Borghese from the Vatican
and then by Napoleon from Villa Borghese in Rome)
Musée du Louvre

Andy Warhol
Man Ray
1974
screenprints on canvases
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh

Monogrammist HL (German printmaker)
St George and the Dragon
before 1533
engraving
British Museum

workshop of Paul de Vos
Earthly Paradise
ca. 1650
oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre

Anonymous Italian Sculptor
Dragon supporting Coat-of-Arms
ca. 1700
marble relief with pietra dura
Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts

Andy Warhol
Camouflage
1986
screenprints on canvases
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh

Epitaph on Charles I

Great, good and just, could I but rate

My grief to thy too-rigid fate!

I'd weep the world in such a strain

As it would once deluge again:

But since thy loud-tongued blood demands supplies

More from Briareus' hands than Argus' eyes,

I'll tune thy elegies to trumpet sounds,

And write thy epitaph in blood and wounds.

– James Graham, Marquis of Montrose (1612-1650)

Visage

Walker Evans
Caroline Blackwood
ca. 1954
gelatin silver print
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

William Eggleston
Memphis
ca. 1971-74
dye transfer print
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Etruscan Culture
Ram's Head
525-480 BC
amber
Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Anonymous Italian Printmaker
Label for Relic
(fragment of the Holy House of Loreto)
ca. 1820
etching
Ashmolean-Museum-Oxford

Walker Evans
Caroline Blackwood
ca. 1958
gelatin silver print
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

William Eggleston
Memphis
ca. 1971-74
dye transfer print
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Etruscan Culture
Deity holding Hares
600-550 BC
amber
Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Anonymous Italian Printmaker
Label for Relic
(fragment of the Holy House of Loreto)
ca. 1820
etching
Ashmolean-Museum-Oxford

Walker Evans
Caroline Blackwood
ca. 1973-74
gelatin silver print
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

William Eggleston
Untitled
1974
dye transfer print
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Etruscan Culture
Standing Female Figure (Kore)
600-500 BC
amber
Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Anonymous Roman Printmaker after Lorenzo Vaccari
Street Vendors of Rome
1585
engraving (broadside)
British Museum

Walker Evans
Caroline Blackwood
ca. 1973-74
gelatin silver print
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

William Eggleston
Untitled
ca. 1971-73
dye imbibition print
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Etruscan Culture
Lion Head
550-500 BC
amber
Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Anonymous Italian Printmaker
Antique sculpture called Marforio in Landscape
ca. 1775
etching and engraving
Ashmolean-Museum-Oxford

Walker Evans
Caroline Blackwood
ca. 1973-74
Polaroid
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

The earth is disintegrating because its fuel is burning out.  Fuel will continue to give heat for a while, but not very much, and therefore God wants love before the earth loses all heat.  People do not think about stars and therefore do not understand the world.  I often think about stars, and therefore I know who I am.  I do not like astronomy, because astronomy does not give us a conception of God.  Astronomy wants to teach us the geography of stars.  I do not like geography.  I know geography because I have studied it.  I realize that the earth is one state.  The earth is the head of God.  God is fire in the head.  I am alive as long as I have a fire in my head.  My pulse is an earthquake.  I am an earthquake.  I know that if there are no earthquakes, the earth will be extinguished, and with the earth extinguished, the whole life of man will be extinguished too, because man will not have a constant supply of food. 

– from The Diary of Vaslav Nijinsky, written in Russian in 1919, translated by Kyril FitzLyon and edited by Joan Acocella (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1999)