Dutch Masters
Perhaps there is something to the whole Amish thing of having your picture taken stealing your soul...and maybe the eyes are the windows to the soul...and maybe there was something weird going on and those windows needed to be closed.
I recently saw an exhibit of The Dutch Masters at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam where first of all I learned why they are called that (pictures in books and the minor works I have seen in the US had me thinking it was cigar box art). I was so completely blown away by the scale and detail of the works. At one point I actually thought I saw one of the people in the painting laugh. So maybe that’s where the Amish (Pennsylvania Dutch) get their fear from….Maybe the Dutch Masters were stealing their souls and putting them into their paintings.