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| Jan Gossaert Salmacis and Hermaphroditus ca. 1520 oil on panel Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam |
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| Jan van Hemessen Nature as Nursemaid of Art 1540-50 oil on panel Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Christoph Rodt St Peter ca. 1608 painted boxwood Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich |
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| Christoph Rodt St John the Evangelist ca. 1608 painted boxwood Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich |
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| Pieter Feddes after Martin Gheeraerts Mature Écorché (series, Anatomical Figures of Various Ages) 1614 etching Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna |
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| Pieter Feddes after Martin Gheeraerts Mature Skeleton (series, Anatomical Figures of Various Ages) 1614 etching Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna |
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| Sebastiano Galeotti Two Sculpted Figures ca. 1720 drawing Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna |
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| John Bacon the Elder Fireplace Panel with the Muse Calliope ca. 1775 marble relief Saint Louis Art Museum |
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| John Bacon the Elder Fireplace Panel with the Muse Euterpe ca. 1775 marble relief Saint Louis Art Museum |
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| Wybrand Hendriks Self Portrait with Agatha Ketel ca. 1800-1804 oil on panel Teylers Museum, Haarlem |
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| Winslow Homer Scene at Houghton Farm 1878 watercolor and gouache on paper Hirshhorn Museum, Washington DC |
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| Valerie Wieselthier for Wiener Werkstätte Insert for Curtain Panel 1919 linen (bobbin lace) Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
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| Valerie Wieselthier for Wiener Werkstätte Insert for Curtain Panel 1919 linen (bobbin lace) Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
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| Edward Hopper Hotel by a Railroad 1952 oil on canvas Hirshhorn Museum, Washington DC |
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| John Koch Conversation ca. 1962 oil on canvas Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC |
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| Alex Katz Ada and Vincent in the Car 1972 oil on linen Hirshhorn Museum, Washington DC |
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| Joe Furlonger 2 Bathers and Little White Cloud 1989 lithograph National Gallery of Australia, Canberra |
from To the Noblest & best of Ladyes, the Countesse of Denbigh, perswading her to Resolution in Religion, & to render her selfe without further delay into the Communion of the Catholick Church.
What heav'n-intreated Heart is This?
Stands trembling at the gate of blisse;
Holds fast the door, yet dares not venture
Fairly to open it, and enter.
Whose Definition is a doubt
Twixt life & death, twixt in & out.
Say, lingring fair! why comes the birth
Of your brave soul so slowly forth?
Plead your pretences (o you strong
In weakness!) why you choose so long
In labor of your selfe to ly,
In labor of your selfe to ly,
Nor daring quite to live nor dy?
Ah, linger not, lov'd soul! a slow
And late consent was a long no,
Who grants at last, long time tryd,
And did his best to have deny'd.
What magick bolts, what mystick Barres
Maintain the will in these strange warres!
What fatall, yet fantastick, bands
Keep the free Heart from its own hands!
– Richard Crashaw, Sacred Poems (1652)