 |
| Anonymous French sculptor Mask ca. 1890-1900 gilt bronze Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
 |
| Giuseppe Girometti after Bertel Thorvaldsen Priam supplicating Achilles for the body of Hector ca. 1815-25 onyx cameo Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
 |
| attributed to Giuseppe Gori Bust - probably of an Angel before 1810 polychromed terracotta, glass eyes Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
 |
| Josiah Wedgwood & Sons Scent Bottle with mythological scenes ca. 1790 jasperware Walters Art Museum, Baltimore |
 |
| Anonymous French sculptor Winged Sphinx ca. 1790-1800 gilt wood Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
Just as those swans are, poets must be rare
(Poets whose practice does not shame the art),
Not only because heaven will tolerate
No crowding in humanity's vanguard,
But also because noble patronage
Has scandalously let great genius starve,
Promoting vicious lives, but to the good
Proscriptive, and to art fetters and doom.
– Lodovico Ariosto (1474-1533) from Orlando Furioso, translated by Edwin Morgan (1920-2010)
 |
| Giovanni Volpato Personification of the River Nile (after Roman marble at the Vatican) ca. 1785-96 porcelain Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
 |
| Anonymous Italian sculptor working in Naples Cherub Head (fragment) ca. 1750-1850 polychromed terracotta Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
 |
| Giuseppe Sanmartino Angel with red and yellow dress before 1793 polychromed terracotta and other materials Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
 |
| after a model by Giambologna Fortuna ca. 1560-70 bronze statuette Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
Song, I think they will be few indeed
Who well and rightly understand your sense,
So difficult your speech and intricate.
Wherefore if you should come by any chance
Among such folk so little fit to read
As that you seem not to communicate,
I'd have you take heart even at that rate,
My latest and dear one, saying to them:
"Look you at least how beautiful I am."
– Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) from The Banquet, translated by Howard Nemerov (1920-1991)
 |
| Diego de Tiedra St Agnes ca. 1550 painted alabaster Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
 |
| Anonymous Italian potter Pharmacy Jar with the Apollo Belvedere (after an engraving by Nicoletto da Modena) ca. 1545-50 tin-glazed earthenware Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
 |
| Anonymous Italian sculptor Bust of an idealized Roman ca. 1520-30 bronze Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
 |
| Severo da Ravenna Inkwell in the form of Atlas holding a Globe (missing globe-shaped oil lamp) ca. 1500-1525 copper alloy Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
 |
| Anonymous Italian sculptor Horse and Rider startled by a Snake ca. 1500-1525 bronze statuette Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
Life hurries on, a frantic refugee,
And Death, with great forced marches, follows fast;
And all the present leagues with all the past
And all the future to make war on me.
Anticipation joins to memory
To search my soul with daggers; and at last,
Did not damnation set me so aghast,
I'd put an end to thinking, and be free.
The few glad moments that my heart has known
Return to me; then I foresee in dread
The winds upgathering against my ways,
Storm in the harbor, and the pilot prone,
The mast and rigging down; and dark and dead
The lovely lights whereon I used to gaze.
– Francesco Petrarch (1304-1374), Sonnet XVII, translated by Morris Bishop (1893-1973)