Daily Newsletter The thorny relationship between art and personhood, Hans Holbein painted the human like no one else, the National Gallery of Art receives $116M, and horses, horses, horses. April 23, 2026 — 4 min read Gen Z has recently reclaimed the word “aura” — Walter Benjamin’s term for the strange presence exerted by a work of art — to refer to some intangible “it” factor some people possess. Fitting, given that our featured piece today takes on the question of whether works of art can have personhood. Lisa Siraganian draws on everything from the 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court decision that deemed corporations people to Pierre Huyghe's uncanny human "statues." Speaking of artworks with personhood, Ed Simon takes on the Renaissance painter Hans Holbein the Younger, who painted the human like no one before and since.…