Another interesting bit of trivia along the lines of the paintings..
Because no cameras, you needed an artist to paint you. He charged you to earn his living. So, to make as much as possible, artists needed to paint as many people as possible. In slow times, artists would routinely paint headless bodies. They could take these drafts with them. You pick out the body, and the artist would add your head to it. Saves time for everyone - you got your painting much faster, he gets to go make more money
Now really famous people could commision the artist to do the whole thing - so yoiu are painted in your favorite set of clothes. But the middle class - well there are a lot of nearly identical bodies out there!
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