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| Gaspare Diziani Mars in Clouds with Putti before 1767 drawing Musée du Louvre |
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| Charles Le Brun Mars and Bellona ca. 1650-60 drawing (study for vault fresco, L'hôtel Lambert, Paris) Musée du Louvre |
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| Hans von Aachen after Bartholomeus Spranger Mercury and Ceres before 1615 drawing Musée du Louvre |
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| Simon Vouet Study for Mercury ca. 1640 drawing Musée du Louvre |
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| Charles Le Brun Mercury in Clouds ca. 1679-84 drawing (study for vault decoration, Château de Versailles) Musée du Louvre |
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| Nicolò dell'Abate Jupiter seated on Clouds ca. 1560-70 drawing Musée du Louvre |
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| Giovanni Lanfranco Jupiter appearing to a Hunter before 1647 drawing Musée du Louvre |
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| Bartolomeo Passarotti Jupiter seated on Clouds ca. 1580 drawing Musée du Louvre |
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| Carlo Bianconi Jupiter abducting Ganymede 1778 drawing Musée du Louvre |
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| Andrea Appiani the Elder Aurora in her Chariot ca. 1800 drawing Philadelphia Museum of Art |
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| Andrea Appiani the Elder Aurora in her Chariot ca. 1800 drawing Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Paolo Farinati Boreas abducting Orithyia before 1606 drawing Musée du Louvre |
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| Charles Le Brun Flying Divinity ca. 1650-60 drawing (study for vault fresco, L'hôtel Lambert, Paris) Musée du Louvre |
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| Charles Le Brun Figure of Saturn ca. 1650 drawing (study for tapestry) Musée du Louvre |
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| attributed to Carlo Cignani Flying Cupid ca. 1680 drawing Musée du Louvre |
"When we attempt to render visible in its proper dignity a famous painting by Apelles or Timanthes that Pliny or other authors describe in detail, who among us will not produce a piece of work that is insipid or alien to the grandeur of the ancients? Each, indulging his own genius, makes a new wine instead of the bittersweet Opimian of the ancients and injures those great shades whom I honor with profound veneration. I adore their very footprints, as it were, rather than that I claim to come near them, even in my imagination."
– Peter Paul Rubens, Letter to Franciscus Junius (1637), translated from Latin