Upon

Sebald Beham
Triton and Nereid
1523
engraving
Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig

Jacopo de' Barbari
Old Woman riding Triton
before 1516
engraving
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Albrecht Altdorfer
Arion and Nereid
ca. 1515-25
engraving
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Adam Elsheimer
Neptune and Triton
1600
drawing
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden

Elias Nessenthaler
Neptune borne by Tritons
ca. 1695
etching and engraving
Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig

Sebald Beham
Ornamental Panel with Genii riding Chimeras
1544
engraving
Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig

Lucas van Leyden
St Luke
ca. 1508
engraving
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

Heinrich Aldegrever
Putto with Vase and Goat
before 1561
engraving
Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig

Anonymous German Artist
Apollo as Sun
(series, Seven Planets)
ca. 1550-75
woodcut
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel

Albrecht Dürer
Allegorical Figure of Justice
ca. 1490
engraving
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

Giandomenico Tiepolo
Punchinello riding a Camel
ca. 1795-1800
drawing
Getty Museum, Los Angeles

attributed to Jan Luyken
Elephants in Procession of Turkish Sultan to Mosque
ca. 1690
drawing
Städel Museum, Frankfurt

Hans Baldung
Aristotle and Phyllis
1515
woodcut
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Georg Pencz
Aristotle and Phyllis
ca. 1545-46
engraving
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

Anonymous German Artist
Allegory of Temperance
ca. 1520-50
engraving
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

Garofalo (Benvenuto Tisi)
St Christopher
ca. 1530-40
oil on panel
Liechtenstein Museum, Vienna

Besides the present affliction, the reception of the country-people and of their substance into the city oppressed both them and much more the people themselves that so came in.  For having no houses but dwelling at that time of the year in stifling booths, the mortality was now without all form; and dying men lay tumbling one upon another in the streets, and men half-dead about every conduit through desire of water.  The temples also where they dwelt in tents were all full of the dead that died within them.  For oppressed with the violence of the calamity and not knowing what to do, men grew careless both of holy and profane things alike.  And the laws which they formerly used touching funerals were all now broken, every one burying where he could find room.  And many for want of things necessary, after so many deaths before, were forced to become impudent in the funerals of their friends.  For when one had made a funeral pile, another getting before him would throw on his dead and give it fire.  And when one was in burning, another would come and, having cast thereon him whom he carried, go his way again. 

And the great licentiousness, which also in other kinds was used in the city, began at first from this disease.  For that which a man before would dissemble and not acknowledge to be done for voluptuousness, he durst now do freely, seeing before his eyes such quick revolutions, as of the rich dying and men worth nothing inheriting their estates.  Insomuch as they justified a speedy fruition of their goods even for their pleasure, as men that thought they held their lives but by the day.  As for pains, no man was forward in any action of honour to take any because they thought it uncertain whether they should die or not before they achieved it.  But what any man knew to be delightful and to be profitable to pleasure, that was made both profitable and honourable.  Neither the fear of the gods nor laws of men awed any man, not the former because they concluded it was alike to worship or not worship from seeing that alike they all perished, nor the latter because no man expected that lives would last till he received punishment of his crimes by judgment.  But they thought there was now over their heads some far greater judgment decreed against them before which fell, they thought to enjoy some little part of their lives. 

– from The Peloponnesian War as written by Thucydides (5th century BC) and translated by Thomas Hobbes (1628) and edited by David Grene (1959)