 |
| Anonymous Italian Artist working in Florence An Allegory ca. 1500 tempera and oil on panel National Gallery, London |
 |
| Domenico Beccafumi Reclining Nymph ca. 1519 oil on panel Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham |
 |
| Palma il Vecchio Venus in a Landscape ca. 1520 oil on canvas Courtauld Gallery, London |
 |
| Palma il Vecchio Mars, Venus and Cupid ca. 1520 oil on canvas National Museum Cardiff, Wales |
 |
| Jan Gossaert Hercules and Dejanira 1517 oil on panel Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham |
 |
| Andrea Solario Ecce Homo ca. 1505-1507 tempera and oil on panel Ashmolean Museum, Oxford |
That All Things Kill Themselves
To affect, yea to effect their own death all living things are importuned, not by Nature only, which perfects them, but by Art and Education, which perfects her. Plants quickened and inhabited by the most unworthy soul, which therefore neither will nor work, affect an end, a perfection, a death; this they spend their spirits to attain, this attained, they languish and wither. And by how much more they are by man's Industry warmed, cherished, and pampered, so much the more early they climb to this perfection, this death. And if amongst Men not to defend be to kill, what a heinous self-murder is it, not to defend itself? This defence because Beasts neglect, they kill themselves, because they exceed us in number, strength, and a lawless liberty: yea, of Horses and other beasts, they that inherit most courage by being bred of gallantest parents, and by artificial nursing are bettered, will run to their own deaths, neither solicited by spurs, which they need not, nor by honour, which they apprehend not. If then the valiant kill himself, who can excuse the coward? Or how shall Man be free from this, since the first Man taught us this, except we cannot kill ourselves, because he killed us all? Yet lest something should repair this common ruin, we daily kill our bodies with surfeits and our minds with anguishes. Of our Powers, remembering kills our memory; of Affections, lusting our lusts; of Virtues, giving kills liberality. And if these kill themselves, they do it in their best and supreme perfection: for after perfection immediately follows excess, which changeth the natures and the names, and makes them not the same things. If then the best things kill themselves soonest (for no affection endures, and all things labour to this perfection) all travel to their own death, yea the frame of the whole World, if it were possible for God to be idle, yet because it began, must die. Then in this idleness imagined in God, what could kill the world but itself, since out of it, nothing is?
– John Donne (ca. 1592-95)
 |
| Bernardino Zaganelli St Sebastian ca. 1505-1506 oil on panel National Gallery, London |
 |
| Jan Mostaert Portrait of a Young Man ca. 1500 tempera and oil on panel Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool |
 |
| Master of Moulins St Maurice with Donor ca. 1500-1505 oil on panel (altarpiece fragment) Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow |
 |
| Cima da Conegliano Madonna and Child ca. 1500 oil on panel National Museum Cardiff, Wales |
 |
| Gerard David Virgin and Child with Music-Making Angels ca. 1500 oil on panel National Trust, Upton House, Warwickshire |
 |
| Raphael Madonna and Child with the Infant Baptist (The Garvagh Madonna) ca. 1509-1510 oil on panel National Gallery, London |
 |
| Andrea del Sarto Virgin and Child with the infant St John the Baptist and Angels ca. 1517-19 oil on canvas Wallace Collection, London |
 |
| Giulio Romano Holy Family with the infant St John the Baptist (Vierge de Novar) ca. 1518-20 oil on panel Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh |
 |
| Anonymous Italian Artist Holy Family with a Virgin Martyr, St John the Baptist, and St George ca. 1510-20 oil on panel Glasgow Museums |