{"product_id":"the-lens-of-desire-eye-miniatures-ca-1790-1810","title":"The Lens of Desire - Eye Miniatures - ca. 1790–1810","description":"\u003cp data-start=\"1037\" data-end=\"1162\"\u003eMiniatures are a subgenre of portraiture, and within miniatures lies another, more enigmatic form: paintings of a single eye.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"1164\" data-end=\"1589\"\u003eDubbed “lover’s eyes” by one astute antique dealer, most eye miniatures were painted in watercolor on ivory between the late 18th and early 19th centuries. They were set in rings, lockets, brooches, and similar objects, and exchanged as gifts between lovers. Luminous, exquisite, and fragile, lover’s eyes did not mean, as it might seem, “I have my eye on you,” but rather “You have my heart, and this is my eye to prove it.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"1591\" data-end=\"2082\"\u003eBy 1770, miniature portraits were ubiquitous and easy to commission. The most plausible explanation for the success of this phenomenon lies in the erotic imagination of clients. A disembodied eye is recognizable only to an intimate partner, making it an unusually private symbol, the exchange of which was appropriate for couples whose arrangements were necessarily secret, and perhaps even for couples whose arrangements were not secret, but who enjoyed the erotic thrill of coded language.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"2084\" data-end=\"2439\"\u003eThe trend began when the future King George IV fell in love with Maria Fitzherbert, a woman unsuited to his station (a widow, a Catholic, and of humble origins). He secretly sent her a painting of his eye as a marriage proposal. The proposal was well received, and after a long and tumultuous relationship, he was later buried with a miniature of her eye.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp data-start=\"2441\" data-end=\"3090\"\u003eThe best way to understand lover’s eyes, it seems, is through another contemporary miniature, which depicts not an eye, but a tiny painting of two breasts. \u003cem data-start=\"2597\" data-end=\"2614\"\u003eBeauty Revealed\u003c\/em\u003e is the anomaly that unravels the pattern. The self-portrait was given by one of the most famous miniaturists of her time, Sarah Goodridge, to her lover, the politician Daniel Webster. It is an intoxicating gift of flesh, wrapped like the baby Jesus, at once delicate and kitsch, with the slightest imperfection (the mole, the asymmetry) serving a more perfected beauty. Here I am. Don’t forget. Take me. Goodridge must have decided that an eye was far too modest and cryptic.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Il Biacco","offers":[{"title":"Black wood \/ 8″×10″ (20x25 cm)","offer_id":52193595490597,"sku":"2071825_4651","price":36.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"Black wood \/ 11″×14″ (28x35 cm)","offer_id":52193595523365,"sku":"2071825_14292","price":53.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"Black wood \/ 12″×16″ (30x40 cm)","offer_id":52193595556133,"sku":"2071825_1350","price":56.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"Black wood \/ 18″×24″ (45x60 cm)","offer_id":52193595588901,"sku":"2071825_3","price":80.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"Natural wood \/ 8″×10″ (20x25 cm)","offer_id":52193595621669,"sku":"2071825_15021","price":36.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"Natural wood \/ 11″×14″ (28x35 cm)","offer_id":52193595654437,"sku":"2071825_15023","price":53.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"Natural wood \/ 12″×16″ (30x40 cm)","offer_id":52193595687205,"sku":"2071825_15025","price":56.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true},{"title":"Natural wood \/ 18″×24″ (45x60 cm)","offer_id":52193595719973,"sku":"2071825_15031","price":80.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0974\/1972\/3045\/files\/enhanced-matte-paper-framed-poster-_in_-black-18x24-front-69d41cbfe3309.png?v=1775508726","url":"https:\/\/ilbiacco-studio.com\/products\/the-lens-of-desire-eye-miniatures-ca-1790-1810","provider":"IL BIACCO","version":"1.0","type":"link"}