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| Monogrammist E.F. Dancing pair accompanied by blindfolded Fortune 1693 drawing Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Mathäus Küsel after Ludovico Ottaviano Burnacini Group of young men dancing as the Gods look on from above Set-design for opera Il Pomo d'Oro 1668 etching Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
"The twenty-third of the twenty-three stage sets designed by Ludovico Burnacini for Il Pomo d'Oro, Festa Teatrale Rappresentata in Vienna per l'Augustissime Nozze delle Sacre Cesaree e Reali Measta di Leopoldo e Margherita, an opera celebrating the wedding of Emperor Leopold I and Margarita Teresa of Spain in 1666. Composed by Antonio Cesti with a libretto by Francesco Sbarra. It was first performed in July 1668 at the Theater auf der Cortina – also designed by Burnacini."
Margarita Teresa, Infanta of Spain, honored by this opera, was a teenager shipped off to Vienna to marry her uncle for dynastic purposes. She had featured some years earlier as the child-princess- centerpiece of the Velasquez masterpiece Las Meniñas. The Infanta Margarita died in childbirth a few years after the magnificent wedding celebrated by Il Pomo d'Oro.
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| Francesco Allegrini Seated female nude and Dancing female figure before 1663 drawing Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Leonardo Scaglia Three Dancing Putti ca. 1640-50 drawing Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Cornelis Koning after Willem Pietersz Buytewech Interior with dancing couples and musicians ca. 1620 engraving Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Federico Zuccaro The Allegory of Spring 1579 drawing Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
"Related to the frescoed ceiling of Federico's home in Florence ('Casa Zuccari'), this newly-discovered drawing presents the season of Spring as a combat between Chastity and Love. In the central fountain, a virgin is seated beside a unicorn who purifies the fountain with his horn. At left, the chaste nymphs of the huntress Diana are seen bathing, while at right other nymphs dance around a statue of Flora and are attacked by cupids' arrows. All these features appear in the fresco, but the drawing contains additional figures – nymphs of Diana who break one cupid's bow and bind another, as well as cupids who fight with each other. The more complicated iconography of the drawing, together with its rectangular format – the fresco fields are irregularly shaped – and elaborate border, suggest that Federico may have planned to publicize this private project through an engraving."
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| Dirk Volckertsz Coornhert The One To Whom Fortune Is Playing Will Dance Merrily ca. 1560 engraving Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Anonymous Italian artist Children Dancing ca. 1550-80 drawing Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Amico Aspertini Five Dancing Putti before 1552 engraving Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Daniel Hopfer Virgin and Child with Angels dancing in a landscape ca. 1530-40 etching Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Anonymous German artist Dance of Death ca. 1500-1600 ink drawing with watercolor and gouache Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Rome Dancing Maenad 1st century AD glass cameo Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| China (Western Han) Tomb Figure - Female Dancer 2nd century BC earthenware statuette Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
"This figure vividly captures the moment when, with one long sleeve thrown back and the other trailing down, a dancer gently stoops and flexes her knees as she lefts one heel to advance her step, performing a dance described in Han dynasty poetry:
Their long sleeves, twirling and twisting,
fill the hall;
Gauze-stocking feet . . . taking mincing steps,
Move with slow and easy gait.
They hover about long and continuous, as if
Stopped in mid-air;
Dazed, one thinks they are about to fall . . ."
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| Greek culture (Cyprus) Dancing Youth 3rd century BC terracotta statuette Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
– quoted texts are from curator's notes at the Metropolitan Museum