Rossiter: If paintings really could speak to us

The Harry Potter saga flashes to mind when I pass the who's who lineup across a good many of the halls and corridors at the University of Georgia.

In the children's series, fictional faces and bodies are framed in ornate canvasses Harry and pals pass by, and sometimes walk through, as they move to different parts of their own school, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Of course in J.K. Rowling's fantasy, the painted subjects are not frozen in time. The portrait figures are ghostly sods who witness most of what takes place before them. They aren't afraid to gossip about it, either.

Imagine if that was the case at UGA, where more than a hundred portraits hang in various buildings scattered throughout campus.

No doubt the women and (mostly) men - some of whom were painted more than 200 years ago - could fill volumes on what they've seen and heard over decades. If only they could think and talk like Rowling's crew.

As it happens, the backgrounds to the artworks are sometimes more colorful than the subjects painted themselves. I did a bit of research on some of these antique paintings nearly two years ago.

The journey started with a binder at the Hargrett Rare Books and Manuscript Library. The notebook contained a partial inventory of the portraits housed at UGA. Pages dedicated to each work furnished all kinds of information, such as name, artist, condition and dates of the person's life and, occasionally, the provenance of the painting.

Arriving to UGA any number of ways, the paintings have been commissioned by students for faculty and staff, willed to UGA by families, and even produced as a result of student projects.

In a rare case, William Few's portrait was found accidentally and purchased through a school-prompted fundraiser. One of Georgia's U.S. Constitution signers, his likeness was painted between 1789-1791 and found in the 1930s in a Washington, D.C., antique store. Alumni and friends of UGA bought the artwork and donated it to the school. When last I saw him, Few was stationed on a conference room wall at the UGA Law School.

One of my favorite backstor

Rate This Article: - Excellent Good Average Poor Terrible

Comment on "Rossiter: If paintings really could speak to us"

Your Name

Your Comments

Verification Code: YV4TIM
Enter Code:

Buy This Domain Name