Pyre

Anonymous Spanish Makers
Reliquary Bust of St Ferdinand
ca. 1500 (head) and ca. 1850-1900 (bust)
partly-gilt silver and gems
Musée du Louvre

Yasuhiro Ishimoto
Untitled
ca. 1949-50
gelatin silver print
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Domenico Ghirlandaio
Risen Chris appearing to the Virgin
ca. 1490
tempera and gold on panel
Musée du Louvre

Jasper Johns
Pyre
2003
encaustic on canvas, with wood
Museum of Modern Art, New York

Anonymous English Makers
Etui Nécessaire
ca. 1760-70
case with agate panels set in gold
and containing gold implements
Musée du Louvre

Yasuhiro Ishimoto
Child with Mask, Chicago
1960
gelatin silver print
Museum of Modern Art, New York

Domenico Ghirlandaio
St Christopher
ca. 1472-75
detached fresco
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Jasper Johns
Pyre 2
2003
oil on canvas, with wood
Museum of Modern Art, New York

Anonymous German Makers
Lidded Mug with Snail and Seashells
17th century
ivory
Musée du Louvre

Yasuhiro Ishimoto
Untitled
ca. 1949-50
gelatin silver print
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Domenico Ghirlandaio
St James the Greater flanked by St Stephen and St Peter
1493
tempera and oil on panel
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

Jasper Johns
Land's End
1963
oi -on canvas
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Anonymous French Maker
Biberon (infant feeding bottle)
16th century
blown glass
Musée du Louvre

Yasuhiro Ishimoto
Untitled
ca. 1949-50
gelatin silver print
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Domenico Ghirlandaio
Three Heroes of Antiquity - Julius Caesar, Mucius Scaevola and Marcus Furius Camillus
ca. 1482-84
fresco
Sala dei Gigli, Palazzo Vecchio, Florence

Jasper Johns
Zero through Nine
1970
lead relief
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Anonymous Japanese Maker
Vase in form of a Carp
before 1880
porcelain
Musée du Louvre

from In Time of War

Always far from the centre of our names,

The little workshop of love: yes, but how wrong

We were about the old manors and the long

Abandoned Folly and the children's games.

Only the acquisitive expects a quaint

Unsaleable product, something to please

An artistic girl; it's the selfish who sees

In every impractical beggar a saint.

We can't believe that we ourselves designed it,

A minor item of our daring plan

That caused no trouble; we took no notice of it.

Disaster comes, and we're amazed to find it

The single product that since work began

Through all the cycle showed a steady profit.

– W.H. Auden (1938)

Bijouterie (Genève)

Henri Vever
Belt Buckle
1897
gold (partly enameled)
Musées d'Art et d'Histoire, Genève

Gilbert Albert
Bracelet
ca. 1970
gold, turquoises, pearls
Musées d'Art et d'Histoire, Genève

Roman Empire
Theatrical Scene from Menander
140-80 BC
chalcedony cameo
Musées d'Art et d'Histoire, Genève

Etruscan Culture
Athena Promachos
550-525 BC
sardonyx scarab recut as intaglio
Musées d'Art et d'Histoire, Genève

Anonymous Swiss Jeweler
Bracelet
(concealing painted miniature)
ca. 1830
enameled gold, opals, rubies, emeralds, pearls
Musées d'Art et d'Histoire, Genève

Jean-François Bautte
Brooch
ca. 1825
enameled gold, turquoises, rose topazes
Musées d'Art et d'Histoire, Genève

Jean-François Bautte
Ear Pendants
ca. 1825
enameled gold, turquoises, rose topazes
Musées d'Art et d'Histoire, Genève

Anonymous French Jeweler
Pocket Watch
ca. 1825
gold, paved with graduated pearls
Musées d'Art et d'Histoire, Genève

Suzanne Belperron
Ear Clips
1967
gold, sapphires, emeralds and glass
(made in Paris using vintage gems)
Musées d'Art et d'Histoire, Genève

Louis Pautex-Meilland
Peach Brooch
ca. 1880-1900
enamel on copper
Musées d'Art et d'Histoire, Genève

Anonymous Swiss Jeweler
Brooch
ca. 1846
enameled gold, diamonds, ruby
Musées d'Art et d'Histoire, Genève

Anonymous Swiss Jeweler
Bracelet
ca. 1846
enameled gold, diamonds, ruby
Musées d'Art et d'Histoire, Genève

Marcel Constant Bastard
Finger-Ring as Bee with Watch
ca. 1930
enameled gold, diamonds, sapphires
Musées d'Art et d'Histoire, Genève

René Lalique
Pendant - Allegory of Autumn
ca. 1898-1900
enameled gold
Musées d'Art et d'Histoire, Genève

Marie-Mathilde Bedot
Necklace
ca. 1900
shell cameo and turquoises set in silver
Musées d'Art et d'Histoire, Genève

Henri Vever
Paper-Folder - Moth
1900
gold, silver, bronze
Musées d'Art et d'Histoir, -Genève

After the herald had said this, the Athenians sent a herald of their own to the Boeotians, denying that either they had done any wrong to the holy place already or would willingly do any hurt to it hereafter; for neither did they at first enter into it to such intent, but to requite the greater injuries which had been done unto them; as for the law which the Grecians have, it is no other but that they which have the dominion of any territory, great or small, have ever the temples also, and besides the accustomed rites, may superinduce what other they can: for also the Boeotians, and most men else, all that having driven out another nation possess their territory, did at first invade the temples of others and make them their own; that therefore, if they could win from them more of their land, they would keep it, and for the part they were now in, they were in it with a good will and would not out of it, as being their own; that for the water, they meddled with it upon necessity; which was not to be ascribed to insolence, but to this, that fighting against the Boeotians that had invaded their territory first, they were forced to use it; for whatsoever is forced by war or danger hath in reason a kind of pardon even with the god himself; for the altars, in cases of involuntary offences, are a refuge, and they are said to violate laws that are evil without constraint, not they that are a little bold upon occasion of distress; that the Boeotians themselves, who require restitution of the holy places for a redemption of the dead, are more irreligious by far than they, who, rather than let their temples go, are content to go without that which were fit for them to receive; and they bade him say plainly that they would not depart out of the Boeotian territory, for that they were not now in it, but in a territory which they had made their own, by the sword; and nevertheless, required truce, according to the ordinance of the country, for the fetching away of the dead.

To this the Boeotians answered that if the dead were in Boeotia, they should quit the ground and take with them whatsoever was theirs; but if the dead were in their own territory, the Athenians themselves knew best what to do.

– from The Peloponnesian War as written by Thucydides (5th century BC) and translated by Thomas Hobbes (1628) and edited by David Grene (1959)

Duets

Arthur Tress
Ocean Beach, San Francisco
1964
gelatin silver print
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (Achenbach Foundation)

Giovanni da San Giovanni (Giovanni Mannozzi)
Hercules and Omphale
ca. 1634-35
fresco on terracotta
Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence

Eliot Hodgkin
Leaves
1970
tempera on board
Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh

Anonymous American Photographer
Friends holding Hands
ca. 1910
gelatin silver print
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Antoine-François Gérard
La France et la Charte
1827
stone relief on window surround
Musée du Louvre

Gilbert and George
Light-Headed
1991
hand-colored photomontage
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh

attributed to Anton Woensam
St Thomas and St Bartholomew
1518
woodcut
British Museum

Gerhard Richter
Two Candles
1982
oil on linen
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Anonymous American Photographer
Portrait of Sisters
ca, 1855
hand-colored daguerreotype
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
(Achenbach Foundation)

Mike Disfarmer
Untitled
ca. 1940
gelatin silver print
Museum of Modern Art, New York

Betty Woodman
The Portuguese in Japan
2000
glazed earthenware
Museum of Modern Art, New York

Robert Frank
Mick Jagger
1972
gelatin silver print
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

William Lake Price
The Miniature
ca. 1855
albumen print
Princeton University Art Museum

Clarence H. White
Jane and Mary Elizabeth Wilson
1919
platinum print
Museum of Modern Art, New York

Pierre Massé
Square-sided Candlesticks
ca. 1664-65
silver
Musée du Louvre

Judith Joy Ross
Eurana Park - Weatherly, Pennsylvania
1982
gelatin silver print
Museum of Modern Art, New York

Yasuhiro Ishimoto
Untitled
ca. 1949-50
gelatin silver print
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Having abdicated with comparative ease

And dismissed the greater part of your friends;

Escaped in a submarine

With a false beard, hoping the ports were watched.

How shall we greet your arrival;

For it isn't snowing

And no one will take you for a spy.

Of course we shall mention

Your annual camp for the Tutbury glass workers,

Your bird-photography phase, and the Dream at the Hook,

Even the winter in Prague though not very fully:

Your public refusal of a compass

Is fixed for to-morrow.

– W.H. Auden (1930)