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| Hugo van der Goes Portrait of a man at prayer with St John the Baptist ca. 1475 oil on panel Walters Art Museum, Baltimore |
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| Antonello da Messina Portrait of a young man 1478 oil on panel Gemäldegalerie, Berlin |
BRIGHTNESS FALLS FROM THE AIR
A brittle jewell beauty is on mortall men employde,
Thou gift that for a season short of mankinde arte enjoyde,
How soone alas with feathered foot hence dost thou fading slide?
The partching sommers vapour hoate in Vers most pleasant pride
So withers not the meadowes greene, (when as the scorching sunne)
In Tropick ligne of burning crab full hoate at noone doth runne
And on her shorter clowdy wheeles unhorseth soone the night.
With wanny leaves downe hand the heads of withred lilies whight,
The balmy bloomes and sprouting floure do leave the naked head,
As beauty bright whose radiant beames in corauld cheekes is spred,
Is dashed in the twincke of eye: no day as yet did passe,
In which not of his beauty reft some pearles person was.
For favour is a fleetying thing: what wight of any wit
Will unto frail and fickle joy his confidence commit?
Take pleasure of it while thou mayst, for Tyme with stealing steps
Wil undermint, an howre past strayght in a worser leps:
Why flyest thou to the wilderness, to seeke thy succour there?
Thy beauty bydes not safer in the waylesse woodes than here.
– from Seneca's play Hippolytus, translated by John Studley (ca. 1545-1590)
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| Albrecht Dürer Portrait of Albrecht Dürer the Elder, the artist's father 1490 oil on panel Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence |
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| Hans Memling Old woman at prayer with St Anne 1470 tempera on panel Morgan Library, New York |
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| Hans Memling Young man at prayer with St William of Maleval 1470 tempera on panel Morgan Library, New York |
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| Hans Memling Portrait of an old woman ca. 1468-70 oil on panel Museum of Fine Arts, Houston |
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| Hans Memling Portrait of a man reading ca. 1480 oil on panel Brukenthal Museum, Sibiu, Romania |
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| Hans Memling Portrait of a woman at prayer ca. 1480 oil on panel Brukenthal Museum, Sibiu, Romania |
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| Hans Memling Portrait of a man 1490 oil on canvas Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence |
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| Anonymous German painter Portrait of a nobleman ca. 1500-1550 oil on panel Museum of Fine Arts, Houston |
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| Piero di Cosimo Portrait of a young man ca. 1500 oil on panel Dulwich Picture Gallery, London |
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| Anonymous painter working in Lombardy Ceiling panel with bust-portrait ca. 1500 oil on panel Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan |
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| Anonymous painter working in Lombardy Ceiling panel with bust-portrait ca. 1500 oil on panel Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan |
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| Anonymous painter working in Lombardy Ceiling panel with bust-portrait ca. 1500 oil on panel Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan |
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| Anonymous painter working in Lombardy Ceiling panel with bust-portrait ca. 1500 oil on panel Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan |
Hope for no immortalitie, for wealth will weare away,
As we may learne by every yere, yea howres of every day.
For Zepharus doth mollifye the colde and blustering windes:
The somers drought doth take away the spryng out of our minds.
And yet the somer cannot last, but once must step asyde,
The Autumn thinkes to kepe his place, but Autumn cannot bide.
For when he hath brought furth his fruits and stuft the barns with corn,
The winter eates and empties all, and thus is Autumn worne.
Then hory frostes possesse the place, the tempestes work much harm,
The rage of stormes done make al colde which somer had made so warm.
Wherfore let no man put his trust in that, that will decay,
For slipper welth will not continue, pleasure will weare away.
For when that we have lost our lyfe, and lye under a stone,
What are we then, we are but earth, then is our pleasure gon.
– from an Ode of Horace, translated anonymously as All Worldly Pleasures Fade and first published in 1557