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| Giovanni Battista Scultori David cutting off the head of Goliath 1540 engraving National Galleries of Scotland |
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| Georg Pencz Vengeance of Queen Tomyris 1539 engraving Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
"Tomyris, when she found that Cyrus paid no heed to her advice, collected all the forces of her kingdom, and gave him battle. Of all the combats in which the barbarians have engaged among themselves, I reckon this to have been the fiercest. The following, as I understand, was the manner of it: First, the two armies stood apart and shot their arrows at each other; then, when their quivers were empty, they closed and fought hand-to-hand with lances and daggers; and thus they continued fighting for a length of time, neither choosing to give ground. At length the Massagetai prevailed. The greater part of the army of the Persians was destroyed and Cyrus himself fell, after reigning nine and twenty years. Search was made among the slain by order of the queen for the body of Cyrus, and when it was found she took a skin, and, filling it full of human blood, she dipped the head of Cyrus in the gore, saying, as she thus insulted the corpse, "I live and have conquered you in fight, and yet by you am I ruined, for you took my son with guile; but thus I make good my threat, and give you your fill of blood." Of the many different accounts which are given of the death of Cyrus, this which I have followed appears to me most worthy of credit."
– from the History of Herodotus, translated by George Rawlinson (1862)
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| Marcantonio Raimondi Fall of Man ca. 1500 engraving National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa |
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| Heinrich Aldegrever Adam 1529 engraving Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Monogrammist SC The Savage 1520 engraving Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Lucas van Haelwech after Hendrik Goltzius Romulus and Remus with Wolf and River God 1599 drawing Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| attributed to Giovanni Battista Palumba Leda and the Swan with infants Castor, Pollux, Helen, and Clytemnestra ca. 1500-1520 drawing (print study) British Museum |
Leda was the wife of King Tyndareus of Sparta. In many accounts, she bore two mortal children to him – Castor and Clytemnestra (later the wife of Agamemnon). Zeus, in the form of a swan, also impregnated Leda, with the result that she bore two other children who were immortal, Pollux and Helen (later the cause of the Trojan War). Tyndareus and Zeus having fathered their children with Leda on the same night, the four were born at the same time, from two eggs.
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| Anonymous Italian artist Study of sleeping baby ca. 1575-1600 drawing Teylers Museum, Haarlem |
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| Anonymous Italian artist Draped female figure ca. 1500-1600 drawing Prado, Madrid |
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| Anonymous Italian artist Angel with lance ca. 1550-1600 drawing Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Domenico Beccafumi Two male nudes in a landscape ca. 1537 engraving National Gallery of Art, Washington DC |
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| Domenico Beccafumi Two male nudes in a landscape ca. 1537 engraving with chiaroscuro woodcut Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge |
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| Frans Crabbe Christ as Man of Sorrows before 1550 hand-colored engraving mounted in manuscript Book of Hours on vellum Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Jacopo Bassano St Jerome in the Wilderness 1562 oil on canvas Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge |
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| Annibale Carracci Head of an old woman ca. 1590 oil on paper, mounted on panel Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge |