Substantial

Anonymous French Makers
The Holy Thorn Reliquary, with Arms of Jean, duc de Berry
ca. 1400
gold, enamel, rubies, pearls, sapphires
British Museum

Anonymous French Makers
Casket (likely used as Reliquary)
ca. 1400
ivory, silver, brass
British Museum

Anonymous Venetian Makers
Standing Cup with Cover
ca. 1450-1500
glass, partly gilded and enameled
British Museum

Anonymous Spanish Makers
Coffer
15th century
iron
British Museum

 Friedrich Hagenauer
Portrait of Ursula Ligsalz
1527
pearwood relief
Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich

 Friedrich Hagenauer
Portrait of Margaret von Firmian
1529
lead medallion
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Nicholas Hilliard
Portrait of James I
(The Lyte Jewel)
ca. 1610-11
watercolor on vellum
in enameled-gold locket set with diamonds
British Museum

Anonymous German Makers
Tankard
ca. 1640-60
amber panels mounted in silver gilt
and carved with personifications of the Vices
(originally owned by Christina, Queen of Sweden)
British Museum

Anonymous German Makers
Perfume Flask
1688
boxwood
British Museum

Anonymous French Makers
Graphometer with Dolphins
(surveying instrument)
18th century
gilt-brass
British Museum

Anonymous French Maker
Quadrille Pool
ca. 1780-1800
painted wood components joined with cords
(bowl to hold game counters)
Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Anonymous German and French Makers
Casket
ca. 1600 - amber plaques carved in Germany
ca. 1850 - pastiche assembled in France with faux-antique mounts
British Museum

Harriet Goodhue Hosmer
Will o' the Wisp
ca. 1860
marble
Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia

Josef Hoffmann
Tea Set
1923
silver and ivory
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Barbara Hepworth
Pendour
1947-48
partly painted wood
Hirshhorn Museum, Washington DC

Koren der Harootian
Eagles of Ararat
1956
marble
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Jenny Holzer
Turn Soft and Lovely Anytime You Have a Chance
2011
limestone table with inscribed text
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

                                                                                            22 June 1969

Dear Francis,

    You must be fearing I had left the earth, and its binding forces hardly increase.  May I ask one question?  Has this double world the same significance as it would have here, or anything approaching it?  Just Yes or No, and we will pass on.  

    The book is the strongest you have done, and quality seems to break in everywhere, or perhaps rather to break out.  You have great gifts, and the present misfortunes will not alter its inevitable end.  You may come to say you are glad it all happened.  It is better to be drunk with loss and to beat the ground, than to let the deeper things gradually escape.

    Do come and see me when you can.

                    Yours always with love, 

                                           Ivy     

– quoted in Secrets of a Woman's Heart: the Later Life of Ivy Compton-Burnett, by Hilary Spurling (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1984)

Narrative Tendencies (1655-1735)

Giovanni Francesco Romanelli
Moses at the Well defending the Daughters of Jethro
ca. 1655-57
oil on canvas
Musée Magnin, Dijon

Francesco Allegrini
Scene from Roman History
ca. 1660
drawing
Morgan Library, New York

Michele Desubleo (Michele Fiammingo)
Odysseus and Nausicaä
ca. 1660
oil on canvas
Museo di Capodimonte, Naples

Thomas Blanchet
St Philip in Ecstasy after Baptizing the Eunuch
1663
drawing
Kupferstichkabinett, Kunstmuseum Basel

Pieter de Hooch
Interior with Young Couple and Music-Makers
ca. 1665
oil on canvas
Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen

Claude Lorrain
The Meeting of Aeneas with Pallas, son of Evander
1671
drawing
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Caspar Netscher
Sarah leading Hagar to Abraham
1673
oil on canvas
Leiden Collection, New York

Anonymous German Artist
The Judgment of Paris
ca. 1680
amber
Bode Museum, Berlin

Godfried Schalcken
Parable of the Lost Piece of Silver
ca. 1680-85
oil on canvas
Leiden Collection, New York

Sebastiano Ricci
Antiochus examined by his Physician
in the presence of Seleucus and Stratonice
(episode from Herodotus)
ca. 1680-95
oil on canvas
Galleria Nazionale di Parma

Paolo de' Matteis
Olindo and Sophronia rescued by Clorinda
(scene from Gerusalemme Liberata of Tasso)
ca. 1690-95
oil on canvas
Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia

Johann Michael Rottmayr
Diana and Endymion
ca. 1690-95
oil on canvas
Art Institute of Chicago

Antonio Balestra
Juno placing the Eyes of Argus
into the Peacock's Tail
ca. 1714
oil on canvas
Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia

Nicola Grassi
Job mocked by his Wife
ca. 1720
oil on canvas
Staatsgalerie Stuttgart

Alessandro Magnasco
Monastery Scene (Despoliation)
ca. 1725
oil on panel
Brukenthal National Museum, Sibiu, Romania

Filippo Falciatore
An Assault by Pirates
ca. 1735-40
oil on canvas
Staatsgalerie Stuttgart

Then tooke they Ship againe for Morea, but passing along the Aegean Sea, they entred many Islands, seeking and finding adventures, but in one, being (though little) yet plentifull as a greater, delicately compassed with Snow white Rocks, yet mixt with small fine trees, whose greenenesse gave them hope to see, but pleasure gave them heart to goe into it; when they found it within such a place, as a Lover would have chosen to have passed his time in, and this did urge the foure Knights all amorous, and yet in severall kindes to expresse their passions severall waies.

Amphilanthus left the other three, taking the direct way to the heart of the Land, as ever ayming at that place, having the best, and most power continually over that part.  Steriamus tooke on the right hand; Ollorandus to the left, but Dolorindus who never knew a difference of fortune (still having lived in a constant state of her displeasure) went away betweene them all, his thoughts (as ever in action) better being able to utter forth his passions being alone, which in this kinde he did: when he came into a dainty fine wood of straight high Oakes, and young Beeches, mingled with a fewe Ashes, and Chestnut trees; in the mid'st of the Wood was a Mount cast up by nature, and more delicate then Art could have fram'd it, though the cunningest had undertaken it, in the mid'st of it was a round Table of stone, and round about it Seats made of the same Stone, which was blacke Marble, some Letters, or rather characters he found, ingraven in the upper part of these seates, and on many of the Trees, which curiously incompassed it; and many Ciphers, although but one for meaning, though in number many; Lovers had done these as he thought; lovers made him remember he was one, and that oft he had carv'd his Mistresses name upon Bay trees, to shew her conquest, which shee had requited, cutting his name in Willowes, to demonstrate his fate.  This afflicted him . . . 

– from The Countesse of Mountgomeries Urania, by the right honourable the Lady Mary Wroath, daughter to the right noble Robert, Earle of Leicester, and neece to the ever famous and renowned Sʳ Phillips Sidney knight, and to ye most excellant Lady Mary Countess of Pembroke, late deceased (London: John Marriott and John Grismand, 1621)

Cunning and Curious Objects

Carl Christian Fjerdingstad
Clasp with Fish
ca. 1911-14
silver, moonstones
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Carl Christian Fjerdingstad
Vase
ca. 1920-30
pewter
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Anonymous Dutch Silversmith
Fork, Knife, Spoon
ca. 1725-75
silver, amber
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Anonymous Dutch Manufacturer
Hat Pins
ca. 1890-1910
steel, imitation pearls
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Ancient Syria
Earring
AD 400-500
gold, carnelians, amethyst, pearls
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Ancient Syria
Earring
AD 500-700
gold, emerald, amethyst, pearls
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Byzantine Empire
Earring
AD 500-700
gold, turquoises, amethyst
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Anonymous German Artisans
Pendant with Cupid
ca. 1700
pearls, rubies, topaz set in enamelled gold
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Anonymous German Artisans
Earrings
ca. 1840-50
pearls and diamonds set in partly enamelled gold
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Anonymous Dutch Artisans
Brooch
19th century
pearls and rubies set in partly enamelled gold
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Anonymous French Artisans
Brooch
ca. 1880-1910
diamonds, pearls, turquoise set in platinum
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Anonymous Dutch Artisans
Ring
ca. 1890-1910
diamonds and rubies set in platinum, on gold ring
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Anonymous Dutch Artisans
Engagement Ring
ca. 1825-50
ivory plaque, lock of hair, crystal cover on gold ring
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

attributed to Lourens van Hassel
Reticule
1778
glass beads over net, with gold fittings
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Anonymous Dutch Artisans
Picture Frame
ca. 1880-1900
amber leaves set in base metal
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Anonymous Dutch Artisans
Picture Frame
ca. 1895-98
jade beads set in base metal
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Narcissist Advice Column

Pepper blacks the pan so never shake it near me.

Wait for the flagrant animation in my bedroom, in my bed base.

In mountaineering situations sleep swaddled, wake ecstatic

my frantic menus in your mind.

I taste of them all. Refuse to refuse me.

Waste your time on my errands.

Squeeze your lime on my lemons.

Turn up wearing the whole bird not just the feathers.

– Hinemoana Baker (2016)

Equestrian Portraiture in Europe (15th-17th centuries)

Antonio del Pollaiuolo
Study for Equestrian Monument to Francesco Sforza
ca. 1480-85
drawing
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Isaia da Pisa
Nero and Poppaea on Horseback
(after an ancient coin)
ca. 1458-60
marble relief
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Andrea del Verrocchio
Equestrian Statue of Bartolomeo Colleone
1481-95
bronze
Campo di Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Venice

Titian
Emperor Charles V at the Battle of Mühlberg
1548
oil on canvas
Museo del Prado, Madrid

Antonio Tempesta
Statue of King Henri II by Daniele da Volterra
(erected in Palazzo Rucellai, Rome)
ca. 1600-1608
etching
Royal Collection, Great Britain

Peter Paul Rubens
Equestrian Portrait of the Duke of Lerma
1603
oil on canvas
Museo del Prado, Madrid

Anthony van Dyck
Equestrian Portrait of Anton Giulio Brignole-Sala
1627
oil on canvas
Musei di Strada Nuova, Genoa

Deceiving World

Deceiving world, that with alluring toys
     Hast made my life the subject of thy scorn,
And scornest now to lend thy fading joys
     To length my life, whom friends have left forlorn,
     How well are they that die ere they be born,
          And never see thy sleights, which few men shun
          Till unawares they helpless are undone.

Oft have I sung of Love and of his fire,
     But now I find that poet was advised
Which made full feasts increasers of desire,
     And proves weak love was with the poor despised,
     For when the life with food is not sufficed,
          What thought of love, what motion of delight,
          What pleasance can proceed from such a wight?

Witness my want, the murderer of my wit.
     My ravished sense, of wonted fury reft,
Wants such conceit, as should in poems fit
     Set down the sorrow wherein I am left.
     But therefore have high heav'ns their gifts bereft,
          Because so long they lent them me to use,
          And I so long their bounty did abuse.

O, that a year were granted me to live,
     And for that year my former was restored,
What rules of life, what counsel would I give!
     How should my sin with sorrow be deplored!
     But I must die of every man abhorred.
          Time loosely spent will not again be won,
          My time is loosely spent, and I undone.

– Robert Greene (1592)

Gaspar de Crayer
Equestrian Portrait of King Philip IV
ca. 1628-32
oil on panel
Museo del Prado, Madrid

Diego Velázquez
Equestrian Portrait of Gaspar de Guzmán
ca. 1636
oil on canvas
Museo-del-Prado-Madrid

Jacques Callot
Study for Equestrian Portrait of Louis de Lorraine
before 1635
drawing
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Sébastien Bourdon
Equestrian Portrait of Queen Christina of Sweden
1653-54
oil on canvas
Museo del Prado, Madrid

Charles Le Brun
Pierre Séguier, Chancelier de France, riding in State
ca. 1655-61
oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre

Anonymous Artist
Hunting Portrait of Henrietta Adelaide of Savoy and her husband Ferdinand Maria, Elector of Bavaria
ca. 1660
oil on canvas
La Venaria Reale, Turin

Pierre Mignard
King Louis XIV crowned by Victory
1673
oil on canvas
Château de Versailles

Christoph Maucher
Alexander the Great in Battle
(fragment from the Throne of Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I)
1677
carved amber relief
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna