Jan van Kessel the Younger Portrait of Maria Anna of Neuburg ca. 1690-93 oil on canvas Collection Abelló, Madrid |
Jan van Kessel the Younger Portrait of a Family in a Garden 1679 oil on canvas Museo del Prado, Madrid |
Anonymous Flemish Artist Family Portrait 17th century oil on canvas Government Art Collection, London |
Anonymous Flemish Artist Portrait of a Young Lady as the Goddess Diana 17th century oil on canvas Royal Collection, Great Britain |
Adam Frans van der Meulen Equestrian Portrait of Cardinal Infante Ferdinand of Austria ca. 1660 oil on panel Villa Vauban, Ville de Luxembourg |
Jacob van Reesbroeck Portrait of a Young Woman with a Child 1667 oil on canvas Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent |
attributed to Jacob van Reesbroeck Portrait of a Man with a Lute ca. 1655-60 oil on canvas Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow |
workshop of Peter Paul Rubens Portrait of Jacquelina van Caestre wife of Jean-Charles de Cordes ca. 1615 oil on canvas Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels |
Anthony van Dyck Prince Rupert, Count Palatine 1637 oil on canvas National Gallery, London |
Anthony van Dyck Cornelis van der Geest ca. 1620 oil on panel National Gallery, London |
Jacob Jordaens Portrait of a Young Married Couple ca. 1621-22 oil on panel Museum of Fine Arts, Boston |
Jacob Jordaens Rogier Le Witer, Grand Almoner of Antwerp 1635 oil on canvas Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
Remee van Leemput after Peter Lely Barbara Villiers, Duchess of Cleveland before 1675 oil on panel Royal Collection, Great Britain |
The Masked Face
I found me in a great surging space,
At either end a door,
And I said: "What is this giddying place,
With no firm-fixèd floor,
That I knew not of before?"
"It is Life," said a mask-clad face.
I asked: "But how do I come here,
Who never wished to come;
Can the light and air be made more clear,
The floor more quietsome,
And the doors set wide? They numb
Fast-locked, and fill with fear."
The mask put on a bleak smile then,
And said, "O vassal-wight,
There once complained a goosequill pen
To the scribe of the Infinite
Of the words it had to write
Because they were past its ken."
– Thomas Hardy (1917)