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| James Ward The Fall of Phaëton before 1859 oil on canvas Tabley House, Cheshire |
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| John Collier The Death of Cleopatra 1890 oil on canvas Gallery Oldham, Manchester |
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| David Scott Sappho and Anacreon ca. 1835 oil on canvas Glasgow Museums |
from Hypocrite Auteur
A world ends when its metaphor has died.
An age becomes an age, all else beside,
When sensuous poets in their pride invent
Emblems for the soul's consent
That speak the meanings men will never know
But man-imagined images can show:
It perishes when those images, though seen,
No longer mean.
* * *
Empty as conch shell by the waters cast
The metaphor still sounds but cannot tell,
And we, like parasite crabs, put on the shell
And drag it at the sea's edge up and down.
– Archibald MacLeish (1952)
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| William Etty after Peter Paul Rubens Abduction of the Sabine Women ca. 1840 oil on canvas York City Art Gallery |
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| Alfred Joseph Woolmer Lady Godiva disrobing for her Ride through Coventry ca. 1856 oil on canvas Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, Coventry, West Midlands |
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| Ludwig von Hoffman Adam and Eve with the Apple ca. 1895 oil on canvas private collection |
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| Peter von Cornelius The Wise and Foolish Virgins ca. 1813 oil on canvas Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf |
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| Charles Lock Eastlake Hagar and Ishmael in the Wilderness 1830 oil on panel Royal Academy of Arts, London |
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| Benjamin Robert Haydon The Agony in the Garden ca. 1830 oil on canvas Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
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| Benjamin Robert Haydon Mary Queen of Scots as an Infant 1842 oil on canvas Leeds Art Gallery, Yorkshire |
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| William Powell Frith L'Adieu de Marie Stuart (Mary, Queen of Scots departing France as a young widow) ca. 1893 oil on canvas Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate, Yorkshire |
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| William Bell Scott Fair Rosamund alone in her Bower (Rosamund Clifford, mistress of King Henry II) ca. 1853 oil on canvas Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow |
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| Evelyn de Morgan Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine and Fair Rosamund (Rosamund Clifford, mistress of King Henry II) ca. 1890 oil on canvas Wandsworth Museum, London |
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| William Frederick Yeames Amy Robsart awaiting Lord Robert Dudley at Kenilworth Castle 1864 oil on panel Wolverhampton Art Gallery, West Midlands |
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| Charles West Cope Edward, the Black Prince, created Knight of the Garter by his father, King Edward III 1845 oil on canvas Parliamentary Art Collection, London |