Thomas Gainsborough, Portrait of the Artist’s Daughters with a Cat, c. 1759, oil on canvas.  National Gallery, London

Workshop of Joachim Fries, Automaton with Diana on a Stag, ca. 1620-35, gilded silver.  The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore

Step 1: Gather friends for a party.

Step 2: Remove the stag’s head.

Step 3: Pour wine into the sculpture.

Step 4: Wind up the sculpture (using keyhole in the base).

Step 5: Send the automaton wheeling across the table until it stops in front of a guest.

Step 6: That lucky guest drinks the contents.

Step 7: Repeat steps 1-6 until everyone is sufficiently drunk.

Dying Seneca, Roman, 2nd century AD, black marble and alabaster.  Musée du Louvre, Paris

Magical Figurine, Egyptian, 3rd-4th century AD, terracotta.  Musée du Louvre, Paris

In Roman-occupied Egypt, this figure was used to produce magic.  By placing the object in a tomb, the spell would allow a young man to indicate with needles the places on the female body that he wanted to pleasure… A voodoo doll for sex?  Maybe.

Saint Philip of Jesus, 17th century, gilded and polychromed wood.  Musée du Louvre, Paris

Pinturicchio, The Resurrection, 1494, fresco.  Borgia Apartments, The Vatican.

Despite Vasari’s derisive comments about some of Pinturicchio’s painting techinques, I still enjoy his visual language, especially the frescoes in the Borgia Apartments in the Vatican.  Read more on NPR about the once-hidden Amerindians in The Resurrection fresco.