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| Christoph Unterberger Study for Ornamental Composition Ignudi and Grotesques with Allegory of Geometry 1776 oil on canvas Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Massachusetts |
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| Christoph Unterberger Study for Ornamental Composition Ignudi and Grotesques with Allegory of Painting 1776 oil on canvas Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Massachusetts |
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| Christoph Unterberger Study for Ornamental Composition Ignudi and Grotesques with Allegory of Poetry 1776 oil on canvas Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Massachusetts |
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| Christoph Unterberger Study for Ornamental Composition Ignudi and Grotesques with Allegory of Sculpture 1776 oil on canvas Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Massachusetts |
from An Hymn in Honour of Beauty
How vainly then do idle wits invent,
That beauty is nought else but mixture made
Of colours fair, and goodly temp'rament
Of pure complexions, that shall quickly fade
And pass away, like to a summer's shade;
Or that it is but comely composition
Of parts well measur'd, with meet disposition.
Hath white and red in it such wondrous power,
That it can pierce through th' eyes unto the heart,
And therein stir such rage and restless stour,
As nought but death can stint his dolour's smart?
Or can proportion of the outward part
Move such affection in the inward mind,
That it can rob both sense and reason blind?
Why do not then the blossoms of the field,
Which are array'd with much more orient hue,
And to the sense most dainty odours yield,
Work like impression in the looker's view?
Or why do not fair pictures like power shew,
In which oft-times we nature see of art
Excell'd, in perfect limning every part?
But ah, believe me, there is more than so,
That works such wonders in the minds of men;
I, that have often prov'd, too well it know,
And whoso list the like assays to ken,
Shall find by trial, and confess it then,
That beauty is not, as fond men misdeem,
An outward shew of things, that only seem.
– Edmund Spenser (1596)
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| attributed to Edward Penny The Seven Children of Sharington Davenport sketching in a Stage-Set of Roman Ruins ca. 1750 oil on canvas National Trust, Lacock Abbey, Wiltshire |
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| follower of Pierre Subleyras Académie ca. 1725-75 oil on canvas Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, County Durham |
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| follower of Pierre Subleyras Body of Hector dragged by Achilles around the Walls of Troy ca. 1725-50 oil on canvas New Art Gallery, Walsall, West Midlands |
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| Johann Heiss Minerva presiding over the Arts before 1704 oil on canvas private collection |
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| Rembrandt Minerva in her Study 1631 oil on panel Gemäldegalerie, Berlin |
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| Guido Cagnacci Penitent Magdalen 1637 oil on canvas Chiesa di Santa Maria Maddalena, Urbania |
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| Pieter Lastman St John the Baptist preaching 1627 oil on panel Art Institute of Chicago |
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| attributed to Jan Lievens Vanitas Still Life 1627 oil on panel Museum de Fundatie, Zwolle |
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| Giovanni Ambrogio Figino St Matthew writing, guided by an Angel before 1608 oil on canvas Chiesa di San Raffaele, Milan |
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| Lucas Cranach the Elder Hercules dressed as a Woman by Omphale 1537 oil on panel Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig |