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| Denys van Alsloot Landscape with Cephalus and Procris before 1626 oil on copper private collection |
"You've probably heard of Orithyia, whom Boreas loved
and abducted. Procris, my wife, was Orithyia's sister.
If you wished to compare the two for their beauty and disposition,
she was the one to abduct! Our love, no less than her father
Erechtheus brought us together. They called me happy, and rightly.
But heaven was jealous, or else I might be as happy today.
A month had passed since our wedding-day, and I was spreading
my nets for the antlered deer, when over the top of Hymettus,
the mountain always in flower, Aurora, the goddess of dawn,
caught sight of me there in the saffron light of the morning and forced me
away to the sky. Let me tell you the simple truth, without
offence to the goddess. For all the charm of her blushing face,
although she controls the frontiers of night and day, although
she quaffs her juices of nectar, Procris remained my adored one,
Procris was there in my heart and the name of Procris was always
upon my lips."
– from Book 7 of the Metamorphoses of Ovid, translated by David Raeburn (2004)
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| Frans Francken the Younger Jacob's Ladder before 1642 oil on copper Prado, Madrid |
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| Frans Francken the Younger Triumph of Neptune and Amphitrite before 1642 oil on copper Prado, Madrid |
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| Frans Francken the Younger Abraham and the Three Angels before 1642 oil on copper Prado, Madrid |
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| Frans Francken the Younger Tower of Babel before 1642 oil on copper Prado, Madrid |
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| Paul Bril Landscape with the Flight into Egypt before 1626 oil on copper Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Paul Bril Mercury and Herse ca. 1605 oil on copper Devonshire Collection at Chatsworth, Derbyshire |
"Mercury shortly was on the wing, with his wand in hand.
In the course of his flight over Athens, Minerva's favorite city,
he saw the Munychian fields and the groves of the learned Lyceum.
It chanced that day that some pure young maidens, ritually chosen,
were moving in solemn procession towards the temple of Pallas,
bearing upon their heads the flower-wreathed baskets containing
the knife and the grain and other holy things for the sacrifice.
The winged god spied them on their return, and directed his course
not straight towards them but round about in a gentle curve.
As a rapidly flying kite, on spying a sacrificed victim's
entrails, circles aloft in fear while the priests are clustering
round the altar; not venturing far away on his flapping
wings, he greedily hovers above the prey that he hopes for;
so Mercury followed a bending course in an easy movement,
circling round in the sky above the Acropolis hill.
As the morning star with his radiant gleam outshines the rest
of the stellar orbs and himself is outshone by the golden moon,
so all the rest of the virgins were put in the shade by Herse,
the pride of the festal procession as well as her own companions.
Her beauty dumbfounded Jupiter's son. As he hovered suspended
in air, he burned with the flames of desire, like a bullet of lead shot,
launched by a Balearic sling, which glows increasingly bright
on its path through the clouds, acquiring a heat which it lacked before.
Mercury now changed course and abandoned the sky for the earth."
– from Book 2 of the Metamorphoses of Ovid, translated by David Raeburn (2004)
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| Simon de Vos Magnanimity of Scipio Africanus 1641 oil on copper Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Simon de Vos Abigail bringing gifts to David 1641 oil on copper Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Simon de Vos Death of Decius Mus 1641 oil on copper Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Simon de Vos Marcus Curtius leaping into the chasm 1641 oil on copper Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Simon de Vos Allegory of the five senses 1640 oil on copper private collection |
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| Hendrik van Steenwyck the Younger Italian Palace 1623 oil on copper Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Hendrik van Balen and Jan Brueghel the Elder Judgment of Midas ca. 1605-08 oil on copper Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |