St. Francis supported by an angel, Orazio Gentileschi, c. 1600

Oil on canvas

The saint’s body swoons, as if he’s just kelt over from the intensity of all of it. A small angel, with the face of a boy but a strength that must be many times what’s expected, holds all of the falling saints weight, his wings touched with red and his young cheeks flushed. In comparison, the saint looks nearly dead, his face the same gray color as his robe; his three-dimensional halo floating softly above his tilted head.

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Lilith, Kiki Smith, 1994

The figure of a young girl crouches above you on the wall like Spiderman. Her bronze body is splotchy and rough, especially in her hair that’s pulled back into a kind of ponytail. It’s interesting enough until you walk around her and stare her straight in the face– or eyeballs actually. Very realistic-looking glass eyeballs in a light brown color stare right back at you. It’s unnerving really.

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Portrait of Fernande Oliver, Pablo Picasso, 1905-6

Her face is etched out in flowing lines that all follow the same path. Her hair is dark and given curls and volume in a lighter shade beneath this river of lines. Her eyes squint and look out, and she’s positioned in a three-quarter pose but her body’s only minimally sketched, bringing all the emphasis on this mostly empty canvas to the lined shadows cast by her face.

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