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| Henri Toutin Miniature posthumous portrait of Venetia Stanley, Lady Digby 1637 enamel on gold in enameled frame by Gilles Légaré Walters Art Museum, Baltimore |
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| Master of the Furies Tormented Figure ca. 1640-50 ivory statuette Walters Art Museum, Baltimore |
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| David Heidenreich Hercules (study for sculpture) 1614 drawing Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Cherubino Alberti Design for an Ecclesiastical Vessel before 1615 drawing Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
The Lily in a Crystal
You have beheld a smiling rose
When virgins' hands have drawn
O'er it a cobweb-lawn;
And here, you see, this lily shows,
Tombed in a crystal stone,
More fair in this transparent case
Than when it grew alone
And had but single grace.
You see how cream but naked is,
Nor dances in the eye
Without a strawberry;
Or some fine tincture, like to this,
Which draws the sight thereto
More by that wantoning with it
Than when the paler hue
No mixture did admit.
You see how amber through the streams
More gently strokes the sight,
With some concealed delight,
Than when he darts his radiant beams
Into the boundless air:
Where either too much light his worth
Doth all at once impair,
Or set it little forth.
Put purple grapes or cherries in-
To glass, and they will send
More beauty to commend
Them, from that clean and subtile skin,
Than if they naked stood,
And had no other pride at all
But their own flesh and blood,
And tinctures natural.
Thus lily, rose, grape, cherry, cream,
And strawberries do stir
More love, when they transfer
A weak, a soft, a broken beam,
Than if they should discover
At full their proper excellence,
Without some scene cast over,
To juggle with the sense.
Thus let this crystalled lily be
A rule, how far to teach,
Your nakedness must reach;
And that, no further than we see
Those glaring colours laid
By art's wise hand, but to this end
They should obey a shade,
Lest they too far extend.
So though you're white as swan, or snow,
And have the power to move
A world of men to love:
Yet, when your lawns and silks shall flow,
And that white cloud divide
Into a doubtful twi-light, then,
Then will your hidden pride
Raise greater fires in men.
– Robert Herrick (1648)
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| attributed to Jacques Bellange Samson slaying a Philistine before 1616 drawing British Museum |
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| Peter Paul Rubens St Catherine of Alexandria ca. 1620 etching, engraving Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Georg Petel after Peter Paul Rubens The Three Graces ca. 1621 gilt-bronze statuette Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Anonymous Spanish sculptor St Jerome ca. 1600 gilt-bronze statuette Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
Redemption
Having been tenant long to a rich lord,
Not thriving, I resolvèd to be bold,
And make a suit unto him, to afford
A new small-rented lease, and cancel the old.
In heaven at his manor I him sought:
They told me there that he was lately gone
About some land, which he had dearly bought
Long since on earth, to take possession.
I straight returned, and knowing his great birth
Sought him accordingly in great resorts:
In cities, theatres, gardens, parks, and courts.
At length I heard a ragged noise and mirth
Of thieves and murderers: there I him espied,
Who straight, 'Your suit is granted', said, and died.
– George Herbert (1633)
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| Lucas Kilian Hercules slaying Cacus (rear view of statue group) before 1637 engraving Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Paulus Pontius after Anthony van Dyck Portrait of artist Hendrik van Balen 1658 engraving Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Lucas Kilian Portrait of a Man 1616 engraving Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Nicolas Le Sueur Fall of Phaeton before 1664 etching and chiaroscuro woodcut Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Bernard Picart Hermaphrodite 1693 engraving Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
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| Francis van Bossuit Judith with the Head of Holofernes ca. 1680 ivory relief Walters Art Museum, Baltimore |