The Prestige of Portrait People Preserved In Paintings.

Pickled like gherkins in vinegar Crystallised forever in sugar Set and translucently Jellied ... Hung like smoked, salted meat Pigments crushed from earth brushes from fine animal hair Is it because they freeze the sitter's image which survived as the best image of the sitter for millineums? Linseed oil Egg tempera hand mixed by devoted apprentices Were paintings used for communication to the viewer Eyes moving behind the paintings.. before humans could read or write? To capture the likeness prior the invention of photography?