Prospect

El Greco
The Disrobing of Christ
ca. 1580-85
oil on canvas
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon

John White Alexander
Aurora Leigh
1904
oil on canvas
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh

Cherubino Alberti
Study for The Raising of Lazarus
ca. 1580
drawing
Yale University Art Gallery

Taddeo Zuccaro
Gladiators in Roundel
before 1566
drawing
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Francisco de Zurbarán
St Francis
c. 1660
oil on canvas
Alte Pinakothek, Munich

Bernardino di Bosio Zaganelli
Portrait of a Woman
ca. 1500
oil on panel
Liechtenstein Museum, Vienna

Roar Wold
In the Room
1982
acrylic on canvas
Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo

Philips Wouwerman
Landscape with Bathers
ca. 1660
oil on canvas
Liechtenstein Museum, Vienna

Carel Willink
Portrait of Wilma
1938
oil on canvas
Museum de Fundatie, Zwolle, Netherlands

Wobbe Alkema
Composite no. 4
1961
oil on board
Groninger Museum, Netherlands

Pieter Withoos
Field Poppy
before 1693
gouache on vellum
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Joachim Martin Falbe
Henriette Amalie, Princess of Anhalt-Dessau
ca. 1740-45
oil on canvas
Schloss Mosigkau, Dessau

Adolf Hölzel
Church Goers
1903
oil on canvas
Kunsthalle Mannheim

Garofalo (Benvenuto Tisi)
St Martin dividing his Cloak with the Beggar
ca. 1517-20
oil on panel
Alte Pinakothek, Munich

Wenceslaus Hollar
Neapolitan Triton Shell
ca. 1645
etching
Royal Collection, Windsor

Svend Wiig Hansen
Monumental Figure with Small Head
1957
drawing
Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen

Ventidius

     I pity Dollabella, but she's dangerous:

     Her eyes have power beyond Thessalian charms

     To draw the moon from heaven; for eloquence,

     The sea-green Sirens taught her voice that flattery,

     And while she speaks, night steals upon the day,

     Unmarked of those that hear; then she's so charming,

     Age buds at sight of her, and swells to youth;

     The holy priests gaze on her when she smiles,

     And with heaved hands, forgetting gravity,

     They bless her wanton eyes; even I, who hate her, 

     With a malignant joy behold such beauty,

     And while I curse, desire it. Antony

     Must needs have some remains of passion still,

     Which may ferment into a worse relapse

     If now not fully cured. I know this minute 

     With Caesar he's endeavouring her peace.

                          *          *         *          

Octavia
     Yes, I will go, but never to return.

     You shall no more be haunted with this Fury.

     My Lord, my Lord, love will not always last

     When urged with long unkindness and disdain.

     Take her again whom you prefer to me:

     She stays but to be called. Poor cozened man!

     Let a feigned parting give her back your heart,

     Which feigned love first got. For injured me,

     Though my just sense of wrongs forbid my stay,

     My duty shall be yours. 

     To the dear pledges of our former love

     My tenderness and care shall be transferred,

     And they shall cheer, by turns, my widowed nights.

     So, take my last farewell, for I despair

     To have you whole, and scorn to take you half.

– John Dryden, All for Love (1677)