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| Rembrandt Abduction of Proserpine ca. 1631 oil on panel Gemäldegalerie, Berlin |
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| Peter Paul Rubens Feast of Venus ca. 1632-35 oil on panel Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
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| Giovanni Andrea Ansaldo Herodias presented with the Head of the Baptist by Salome ca. 1630 canvas Musei di Strada Nuova, Genoa |
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| Bernardo Strozzi Angel releasing St Peter from prison ca. 1635 oil on canvas Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney |
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| Guido Reni St James the Great ca. 1636-38 oil on canvas Museum of Fine Arts, Houston |
"Mortal man, you have been a citizen of this great City; what does it matter to you whether for five or fifty years? For what is according to its laws is equal for every man. Why is it hard, then, if Nature who brought you in, and no despot nor unjust judge, sends you out of the City – as though the master of the show, who engaged an actor, were to dismiss him from the stage? 'But I have not spoken my five acts, only three.' 'What you say is true, but in life three acts are the whole play.' For He determines the perfect whole, the cause yesterday of your composition, today of your dissolution; you are the cause of neither. Leave the stage, therefore, and be reconciled, for He also who lets his servant depart is reconciled."
– from Book XII of the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, translated by A.S.L. Farquharson (1944)
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| Sassoferrato St Cecilia ca. 1635 oil on canvas Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan |
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| Cornelis van Poelenburgh Musical Contest between Apollo and Marsyas 1630 oil on panel Hallwyl Museum, Stockholm |
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| Anthonie Palamedes A Merry Company 1633 oil on panel Hallwyl Museum, Stockholm |
The tyrant Queen of soft desires,
With the resistless aid of sprightly wine,
And wanton ease, conspires
To make my heart its peace resign,
And readmit Love's long rejected fires.
For beauteous Glycera I burn,
The flames so long repelled, with double force return;
Matchless her face appears and shines more bright
Than polished marble, when reflecting light;
Her very coyness warms,
And with a look of graceful sullenness she charms;
Each look darts forth a thousand rays,
Whose lustre an unwary sight betrays;
My eyeballs swim, and I grow giddy while I gaze.
She comes! she comes! she rushes in my veins;
At once all Venus enters, and as large she reigns;
Cyprus no more with her abode is blest:
I am her palace and her throne my breast.
– from New Love, an Ode of Horace, translated by William Congreve in 1725
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| Jan van Bijlert Pulling the Pretzel ca. 1630-40 oil on canvas Centraal Museum, Utrecht |
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| Pieter Neefs the Elder Church Interior with Elegant Figures strolling and attending Mass 1630s oil on panel Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide |
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| Jusepe de Ribera Penitent Magdalene 1637 oil on canvas Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao |
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| Alonso Cano Crucifixion 1636-38 oil on canvas Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Salvator Rosa Witches' Sabbath ca. 1635-54 oil on canvas Museum of Fine Arts, Houston |
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| Francisco de Zurbarán The Virgin as Sleeping Child ca. 1630-35 oil on canvas Fundación Banco Santander, Madrid |