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| Caspar Hersbach Celestial Globe with Comet below 1618 hand-colored engraving (broadside) British Museum |
from PORTENTS OF CIVIL WAR
The sun reveals the secrets of the sky;
And who dares give the source of light the lie?
The change of empires often he declares,
Fierce tumults, hidden treasons, open wars.
He first the fate of Caesar did foretell,
And pitied Rome, when Rome in Caesar fell;
In iron clouds, conceal'd the public light;
And impious mortals fear'd eternal night.
Nor was the fact foretold by him alone:
Nature herself stood forth, and seconded the sun.
Earth, air, and seas, with prodigies were signed;
And birds obscene, and howling dogs, divined.
* * *
Such peals of thunder never poured from high,
Nor forky lightnings flashed from such a sullen sky.
Red meteors ran across the ethereal space;
Stars disappeared, and comets took their place.
– from Virgil's Georgics, translated by John Dryden (1698)
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| Alain Manesson Mallet Map of Socotra Island off the coast of Yemen 1683 hand-colored engraving (book illustration) British Museum |
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| Philippus Velyn after Pierre-Paul Prud'hon Jean Racine flanked by deities and crowned with laurel by goddess 1816 etching (book frontispiece) British Museum |
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| Anonymous English printmaker Converte Angliam ca. 1685 etching, engraving British Museum (satirical anti-Catholic print) |
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| Claude Mellan Intellectus et Memoria 1625 engraving Los Angeles County Museum of Art |
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| Claude Mellan Letter D with Dolphins ca. 1639-43 engraving British Museum |
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| Wolfgang Hieronymus von Bömmel Lion and Hare composed of ornamental leaf-work 1698 engraving Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |
"This engraving of a lion and a hare composed entirely of scrolling acanthus leaves is from a series of designs for gold ornament. An ancient motif, the acanthus dominated European decorative arts during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Nuremberg, where the suite was published, was a major manufacturing center for German luxury goods and art, including metalwork and printmaking. Ornament prints featuring inventive designs were a source of inspiration for artisans working in various media."
– curator's notes from Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
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| Jacques Blondeau after Giovanni Battista Manelli Vision of St Teresa before 1698 engraving Teylers Museum, Haarlem |
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| Francesco Villamena St Hilarion in the Desert 1613 engraving British Museum |
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| Aelbert Cuyp Two Cows before 1691 etching Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Ludolph Busing The Procuress before 1669 chiaroscuro woodcut Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf |
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| Dirck de Bray Geographer ca. 1650-90 woodcut Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| after Andrea Camassei Dispute of Athena and Poseidon over patronage of Athens ca. 1620-1700 engraving British Museum |
"The dispute of Athena and Poseidon over the patronage of Athens, after Camassei, with in the right foreground Athena standing on a shore and creating the olive tree by striking the ground with her spear, and on the left Poseidon in his chariot brandishing his trident as his gift to the Athenian people, a horse, emerges from the sea; above them, Ares, Zeus and Hermes looking on."
– curator's notes from the British Museum
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| Frederick Bloemaert after Abraham Bloemaert Boys climbing a tree before 1669 engraving Teylers Museum, Haarlem |