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Eye Miniatures (ca. 1790–1810)
Small paintings of eyes that were gifted between lovers in England.
One scholar suggests that it was artists’ boredom that led to the fad for isolated eyes, but the more compelling explanation is their clients’ erotic whimsy. The fad for eye miniatures in England began when the future King George IV fell in love with Maria Fitzherbert, a woman unsuitable to his rank (widowed, Catholic, a commoner). It’s a heady gift of flesh, swathed like the baby Jesus, both delicate and campy, the tiniest of flaws (the mole, the asymmetry) in service of beauty made more perfect.
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