This paper discusses Scandinavian gold foil figures from the early part of the Scandinavian Late Iron Age (AD 550-1050) as well as miniature portrait pendants of the eighteenth century. The paper examines the possibility of comparing the two categories of objects, and what may be gained by contrasting historic and prehistoric images. The comparison is made through using Mitchell’s concept meta-picture as a theoretical tool. It is highlighted that the relationality between image and beholder is decisive for how respective objects were comprehended and treated. However, despite the fact that the two analyzed materials were part of different scopic regimes and regimes of practice, they share vitalistic and/or animistic characteristics.