Alessandro Masnago Aurora ca. 1590-1600 agate cameo with enameled-gold mount Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
Alessandro Masnago Neptune pursuing Amphitrite ca. 1600-1620 agate cameo with silver-gilt mount Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
Alessandro Masnago Abduction of Europa ca. 1590-1600 agate cameo with enameled-gold mount Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
Alessandro Masnago Abduction of Proserpine ca. 1590 agate cameo with enameled-gold mount Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
Alessandro Masnago Latona beseeching the Peasants for Water ca. 1590-95 agate cameo with enameled-gold mount Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
Alessandro Masnago Latona transforming the Peasants into Frogs ca. 1600 jasper cameo with enameled-gold mount Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
from Tamburlaine the Great
What is Beauty? saith my sufferings then,
If all the pens that poets ever held
Had fed the feeling of their master's thoughts,
And every sweetness that inspired their hearts,
Their minds, and muses on admired themes,
If all the heavenly quintessence they still
From their immortal flowers of Poesy,
Wherein, as in a mirror, we perceive
The highest reaches of a human wit,
If these had made one poem's period
And all combined in Beauty's worthiness,
Yet should there hover in their restless heads
One thought, one grace, one wonder at the least,
Which into words no virtue can digest.
– Christopher Marlowe (1590)
Alessandro Masnago Aeneas in the Underworld ca. 1590-1600 agate cameo with enameled-gold mount Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
Alessandro Masnago Atalanta and Hippomenes ca. 1590-1600 agate cameo with enameled-gold mount Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
Alessandro Masnago Orpheus enchanting the Animals with Music ca. 1600-1620 agate cameo with enameled-gold mount Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
Alessandro Masnago Leda and the Swan ca. 1590-1600 agate cameo with enameled-gold mount Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
Alessandro Masnago Jupiter and Io ca. 1590-1600 agate cameo with enameled-gold mount Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
Alessandro Masnago Jason and the Golden Fleece ca. 1590-1600 agate cameo with enameled-gold mount Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
Alessandro Masnago Gods of Olympus ca. 1590-1600 onyx cameo with enameled-gold mount Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
Alessandro Masnago Diana with her Nymphs ca. 1600 agate cameo with enameled-gold mount Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |