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| Matteo Rosselli Half-length Figure of an Archer before 1650 drawing Harvard Art Museums |
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| attributed to Giovanni Battista Paggi Pilgrim-Saint and Nun led by Two Angels before 1627 drawing Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| follower of Carlo Maratti Studies for Christ taken from the Cross ca. 1650-1700 drawing Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| follower of Carlo Maratti Youth pulling off sock ca. 1650-1700 drawing Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
Daphnis
When Daphnis comes adown the purple steep
From out the rolling mists that wrap the dawn,
Leaving aloft his crag-encradled sheep,
Leaving the snares that vex the dappled fawn,
He gives the signal for the flight of sleep,
And hurls a windy blast from hunter's horn
At rose-hung lattices, whence maidens peep
To glimpse the young glad herald of the morn.
Then haply one will rise and bid him take
A brimming draught of new-drawn milk a-foam;
But fleet his feet and fain; he will not break
His patient fast at any place but home,
Where his fond mother waits him with a cake
And lucent honey dripping from the comb.
– Edward Cracroft Lefroy (1855-1891) after Theocritus
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| attributed to Benedetto Luti Académie before 1690 drawing Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Anonymous Italian artist Two Caryatid Groups from the Cloister of San Michele in Bosco, Bologna ca. 1690-95 drawing Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Anonymous Italian artist Three studies of Women's Hands ca. 1620 drawing Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Anonymous Italian artist Standing Figure 17th century drawing Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
Battus
O sun-browned shepherd, whose untutored grace
Awoke the singer of that southern isle,
What time he lingered in his father's place,
And bore not yet his music to the Nile:
How soon we make in life a tranquil space
Whenas, our foolish cares forgot the while,
We read the legend of thy classic face,
And catch the lustre of thy lyric smile.
Sing to us still in songs of tourney-type,
As if the jealous Milton loitered near,
Or let thy fingers twinkle o'er the pipe,
And breathe a mellow cadence sweet and clear,
Till all thy browsing lambs forego the ripe
Arbutus buds, and circle round to hear.
– Edward Cracroft Lefroy (1855-1891) after Theocritus
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| attributed to Guercino Joseph and Potiphar's Wife before 1666 drawing (formerly owned by Vivant-Denon) Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| attributed to Guercino Monster outside a Cave before 1666 drawing Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Pietro da Cortona Design for a Lunette, possibly Castor and Pollux ca. 1642-44 drawing Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| attributed to Simone Cantarini Study for a Caryatid before 1648 drawing Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
Hylas
What pool is this by galingale surrounded,
With parsley and tall iris overgrown?
It is the pool whose wayward nymphs confounded
The quest of Heracles to glut their own
Desire of love. Its depths hath no man sounded
Save the young Mysian argonaut alone,
When round his drooping neck he felt, astounded,
The cruel grasp that sank him like stone.
Through all the land the Hero wandered, crying
"Hylas!" and "Hylas!" till the close of day,
And thrice there came a feeble voice replying
From watery caverns where the prisoner lay;
Yet to his ear it seemed but as the sighing
Of zephyrs through the forest far away.
– Edward Cracroft Lefroy (1855-1891) after Theocritus
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| Claude Lorrain The Coast of Naxos with Bacchus and Ariadne 1658 drawing British Museum |
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| Giovanni Baglione Seated Figure Crying Out ca. 1600 drawing Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
Poems are from Edward Cracroft Lefroy: His Life and Poems, including a reprint of Echoes from Theocritus / by Edward Austin Gill, with a critical estimate of the sonnets by the late John Addington Symonds (London: John Lane, The Bodley Head, 1897)