Looking Through the Eyes of Love

A Post-Valentine Entry

“You can have all the means of communication in the world at your disposal, but nothing, absolutely nothing, can replace looking someone in the eye – Paulo Coelho”

Staying true to this adage, the Birmingham Museum of Art has unveiled its newest art show entitled “Look of Love: Eye Miniatures from the Skier Collection” from February 7 through June 10, 2012. The art show presents the famous counterpart of mood rings in the 18^th and 19^th century – the lover’s eyes. According to experts, less than 1000 lover’s eyes, excluding forgeries and recent creations, exist today and the largest collection of it belongs to David and Nan Skier. The couple started collecting lover’s eyes miniatures twenty years ago when, during an antique show in Boston, they crossed path on their first lover’s eye – a ring with a young man’s eye hand-painted on a blue enamel encrusted with diamonds and pearls. It was such an enthralling experience, according to David Skier.

 “I spend my whole life giving people vision – operating on people who are blind and giving them vision – and this just enthralled us. The image was so powerful, but so elegant and small.” (Vanity Fair, 2012)

They even set to find out the identity of the eye’s owner. Based on their research, the ring belonged to the Director of East India Company and the eye to his son.

Deeply captivated by this peculiar relic, the couple’s collection grew from one piece of lover’s eyes to 95 pieces, and is currently in view for the public at Birmingham Museum of Art. Their collection of lover’s eyes varied from rings, brooches, pendants, and lockets – common accessories in the 18^th and 19^th century.

The Birth of Lover’s Eye

According to Dr. Graham Boettcher, an American Art curator at the Birmingham Art of Museum, this peculiar form of art began in the 18^th century when the Prince of Wales, who later became George IV, met the twice-widowed Catholic commoner (that’s a triple violation on royal marriage laws) named Maria Fitzherbert. The Prince of Wales tried to win her affection by staging a half-hearted suicide attempt to get her to marry him. He succeeded and they got married but, on the next day, Maria Fitzherbert fled. She came to realize how wrong the marriage was. This did not dampen the prince’s spirit. Instead, he commissioned Richard Cosway, a celebrated Miniaturist, to paint his eye set in a locket, and sent it, together with a letter, to Maria. 

“P.S. I send you a parcel, and I send you at the same time an eye. If you have not totally forgotten the whole countenance, I think the likeness will strike you. – Prince of Wales’ letter to Maria”

Shortly after their clandestine affair was discovered, these eye miniatures became an instant hit to lovers, especially to secret lovers. The story did not end there, especially for something that made Queen Victoria to commission some eye miniatures for her and friends; and Charles Dicken’s mentioned it in his novel, Dombey and Sons. Dickens described Miss Tox, a poor old spinster, as wearing “round her neck the barrenest of lockets, representing a fishy old eye.”  The English origin of eye miniature had been challenged. Some evidence, including Lady Elearnor Butler’s Diary, appeared to have suggested that the eye miniature was a French idea. The lady wrote in her diary about a young man who arrived from France and brought with him “an Eye, don in Paris and set in a ring – a true French idea”. Nevertheless, it was the controversial affair between the Prince of Wales and Maria Fitzherbert that popularized the eye miniature in the 18^th and 19^th century.

During those times, they called these pieces as “eye miniatures” but changed to “Lover’s Eye” after the New York-based jeweler Edith Weber called it “Lover’s Eye”, a more fitting name to a piece with a romantic past. 

The Lover’s Eye as Fad

What makes it a fad? Besides the romantic link, the eye has mystery attached to it. Everything surrounded with mystery is appealing, right? The eye miniatures’ mystery lies on the fact that no one will recognize the eye except the bearer of the eye miniature. Would you remember someone’s eye if he/she is not important to you? Of course not, have you considered remembering the eye or the face of the people you pass by outside? No, again. Because remembering someone’s eye is very personal.

The eye can reveal many things about the beholder of the eye, as the famous saying goes. “Eye is the window of the soul”. For example, in movies, when the beloved tries to protect his lover by leaving him, the beloved will tell the lover that the beloved has fallen out of love. But the lover will ask the beloved to say those words while looking at the lover’s eyes. And the beloved will surrender to tears. The lover will know the beloved still has feelings for the lover.  Because “it is the window of the soul”, it “has one language everywhere” as George Herbert pointed out. People may come from different places and continents, but it does not stop someone from understanding the eyes of love, happy, sad, fear and worried. Ever heard someone said, “There’s some sparks in your eyes”. You knew from then, what that someone meant. That person is able to know your feelings by looking through the eyes of love.  

 “Look of Love: Eye Miniatures from the Skier Collection” will be on view at the Birmingham Museum of Art in Birmingham, Ala., from Feb. 7 through June 10, 2012.

 References

http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2012/02/lovers-eyes-birmingham-museum-of-art-exhibit#slide=5

http://www.salon.com/2012/01/21/the_secret_history_of_lovers_eyes/

http://www.georgianjewelry.com/items/show/6020-georgian-lover-s-eye-portrait-miniature-of-redhead

http://candicehern.com/collections/01/eyes.htmhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/3313436/The-look-of-love-straight-in-the-eyes.html