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| Guercino (Bologna) Christ and the Samaritan Woman at the Well ca. 1640-41 oil on canvas Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid |
"In antiquity, life was nothing but silence. Noise was really not born before the nineteenth century, with the advent of machinery. Today noise reigns supreme over human sensibility. For several centuries, life went on silently or mutedly. The loudest noises were neither intense nor prolonged nor varied. In fact, nature is normally silent, except for storms, hurricanes, avalanches, cascades and some exceptional telluric movements. This is why man was thoroughly amazed by the first sounds he obtained out of a hole in reeds or a stretched string. . . . In the pounding atmosphere of great cities as well as in the formerly silent countryside, machines create today such a large number of varied noises that pure sound, with its littleness and its monotony, now fails to arouse any emotion."
– from The Art of Noises by Luigi Russolo, originally published in Italian in 1913, translated by Robert Filliou and published in English in 1967
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| Anthony van Dyck (Flanders) Entry of Christ into Jerusalem ca. 1617 oil on canvas Indianapolis Museum of Art |
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| Peter Paul Rubens (Flanders) Sketch for Death of Adonis ca. 1614 oil on canvas Dulwich Picture Gallery, London |
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| Peter Paul Rubens (Flanders) Death of Adonis ca. 1614 oil on canvas Israel Museum, Jerusalem |
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| Willem Cornelisz Duyster (Netherlands) The Marauders ca. 1630-35 oil on panel Louvre |
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| Filippo Lauri (Rome) Bacchanal 1675 oil on canvas private collection |
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| Philippe de Champaigne (France) Marriage of the Virgin ca. 1644 canvas Wallace Collection, London |
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| Karel Dujardin (Netherlands) Tobias and the Angel 1664-65 oil on canvas Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest |
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| Carlo Dolci (Florence) Guardian Angel 1630s oil on canvas private collection |
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| Giulio Carpioni (Venice) Apollo and Marsyas with King Midas 17th century oil on canvas private collection |
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| Bartolomeus Breenbergh (Netherlands) Idealized View with Roman Ruins, Statue, and Port ca. 1650 oil on canvas Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid |
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| Philips Wouwerman (Netherlands) Battle scene ca. 1646 oil on canvas Los Angeles County Museum of Art |
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| Giacomo del Pó (Palermo) Combat between Aeneas and King Turnus, from the Aeneid ca. 1700 oil on copper Los Angeles County Museum of Art |
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| Giacomo del Pó (Palermo) Camilla at War, from the Aeneid ca. 1700 oil on copper Los Angeles County Museum of Art |