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| Anonymous Italian Artist Venus and Cupid ca. 1580 oil on canvas Galleria Borghese, Rome |
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| Anonymous Italian Artist after Domenico Beccafumi Figures in a Landscape ca. 1550-1600 drawing Hamburger Kunsthalle |
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| Maarten van Heemskerck Decorative Panel with Samson ca. 1550-60 oil on panel (grisaille) Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Cornelis van Haarlem Baptism of Christ ca. 1588 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
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| Johann Ladenspelder Adam before 1561 engraving Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich |
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| Jan Sadeler the Elder after Theodor Bernard Noon (from series, Times of Day) 1582 engraving Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel |
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| Domenico Tintoretto Susanna ca. 1580-90 oil on canvas National Gallery of Art, Washington DC |
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| Bartholomeus Spranger Apollo ca. 1590 drawing Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna |
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| Francesco Salviati Apollo slaying Python ca. 1543-48 drawing Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna |
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| Cherubino Alberti after Polidoro da Caravaggio Saturn 1590 engraving Hamburger Kunsthalle |
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| Anonymous Fontainebleau School Artist Diane Chasseresse (portrait of Diane de Poitiers) ca. 1550 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
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| Hans Brosamer Hercules and Antaeus 1540 engraving Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich |
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| Antoine Lafréry Antique Statue of Hermaphrodite in the Farnese Collection, Rome 1552 engraving (book illustration) Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel |
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| Adamo Scultori Woman combing her Hair before 1585 engraving Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich |
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| Giovanni Jacopo Caraglio after Perino del Vaga Cupid and Psyche ca. 1540 engraving Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna |
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| attributed to Simone Peterzano Venus and Cupid ca. 1560-70 oil on canvas Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen |
Queen of Persia: And Xerxes himself, they say, alone and forlorn, with only a few men –
Ghost of Darius: How did he finish up, and where? Is there any chance of his being safe?
Queen: – has arrived, to his relief, at the bridge that joins the two lands together.
Ghost: And has come safe back to our continent? Is that really true?
Queen: Yes, that is the prevalent and definite report; there is no dispute about it.
Ghost: Ah, how swiftly the oracles have come true! Zeus has launched the fulfillment of the prophecies against my son. I used to think confidently, "I suppose the gods will fulfil them in some distant future;" but when a man is in a hurry himself, the god will lend him a hand. Now, it seems there has been discovered a fountain of sorrow for all who are dear to me – and it is my son, by his youthful rashness, who has achieved this without knowing what he was doing. He thought he could stop the flow of the Hellespont, the divine stream of the Bosporus, by putting chains on it, as if it were a slave; he altered the nature of its passage, put hammered fetters upon it, and created a great pathway for a great army. He thought, ill-counselled as he was, that he, a mortal, could lord it over all the gods and over Poseidon. Surely this was a mental disease that had my son in its grip! I am afraid that the great wealth I gained by my labours may be overturned and become the booty of the first comer.
– Aeschylus, from Persians (472 BC), translated by Alan H. Sommerstein (2008)