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| Roelant Savery Mountainous Landscape 1606-07 watercolor Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
The Philosophic Flight
Now that these wings to speed my wish ascend,
The more I feel vast air beneath my feet,
The more toward boundless air on pinions fleet,
Spurning the earth, soaring to heaven, I tend:
Nor makes them stoop their flight the direful end
Of Daedal's son; but upward still they beat,
What life the while with this death could compete,
If dead to earth at last I must descend?
My own heart's voice in the void air I hear,
Where wilt thou bear me, O rash man! Recall
Thy daring will! This boldness waits on fear!
Dread not, I answer, that tremendous fall:
Strike through the clouds, and smile when death is near,
If death so glorious be our doom at all!
– sonnet by Giordano Bruno (burned alive in public as an unrepentant heretic at Rome on February 17, 1600), translated by John Addington Symonds (1840-1893)
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| Federico Barocci Landscape with Bank and Trees before 1612 watercolor British Museum |
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| Jacob Hoefnagel Orpheus charming the Animals 1613 watercolor and gouache on vellum Morgan Library, New York |
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| Hendrick Avercamp Two Young Officers greeting each other on the Ice ca. 1620 watercolor Royal Collection, Windsor |
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| Abraham Bloemaert Gateway to a Town ca. 1625-35 watercolor Museum of Fine Arts, Houston |
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| Philip Fruytiers Four Children of Peter Paul Rubens with Maids 1638-39 watercolor Royal Collection, Windsor |
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| Domenichino Classical Landscape with Five Fishermen before 1641 watercolor Morgan Library, New York |
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| Pierre Patel Landscape with Bridge ca. 1650 watercolor Hermitage, Saint Petersburg |
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| Pietro Santi-Bartoli Copy after Ancient Roman Wall-decoration ca. 1660-90 watercolor Royal Collection, Windsor |
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| Gerrit Battem Figures on a Frozen Canal 1670s watercolor Getty Museum, Los Angeles |
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| Giacomo Torelli Stage-set with Sea-front viewed through Rocky Cavern before 1678 watercolor Morgan Library, New York |
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| Giacinto Calandrucci Composition-study for Ceiling Decoration 1680 watercolor Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf |
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| Lorenzo Baldi Presentation Drawing for Epitaph 1680s watercolor Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf |
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| Anthonie Waterloo Wooded River Landscape before 1690 watercolor Morgan Library, New York |