Filippino Lippi Allegory of Music (the Muse Erato) ca. 1500 tempera and oil on panel Gemäldegalerie, Berlin |
Bernardino Luini Figure of Silence ca. 1521-23 detached fresco (fragment) Musée du Louvre |
Michele Tosini after Michelangelo Personification of Night ca. 1555-65 oil on panel Galleria Colonna, Rome |
Francesco Morandini (il Poppi) Charity ca. 1575-80 oil on canvas Galleria dell'Accademia di Firenze |
Paolo Fiammingo Triumph of the Virtues over the Vices 1592 oil on canvas private collection |
Francesco Rustici (il Rustichino) Allegory of Painting and Architecture before 1626 oil on canvas Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence |
Peter Paul Rubens Peace and War (Minerva protecting Peace from Mars) ca. 1629-30 oil on canvas National Gallery, London |
Jacob Van Loo Allegory of Transience with Venus and Cupid 1654 oil on panel Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Kentucky |
Joseph Werner the Younger Louis XIV as Apollo driving the Chariot of the Sun ca. 1680 gouache on paper Musée du Louvre |
Charles Boit after Carlo Cignani Charity ca. 1690 enamel miniature Musée du Louvre |
Jean-Antoine Watteau Personification of Autumn ca. 1716 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
Johann Heinrich von Hurter Allegory of Youth rejecting Pleasure to follow Virtue 1775 enamel miniature Musée du Louvre |
Pompeo Batoni Allegory of Peace and War (detail) 1776 oil on canvas Art Institute of Chicago |
Andrea Appiani the Younger Allegory of Venice aspiring to join a newly-united Italy before 1865 oil on canvas Museo del Risorgimento, Milan |
Ettore Tito Love and Fate ca. 1909 oil on canvas private collection |
Valentine to RR written extempore, Feb. 14 1802
Custom, whose laws we all allow,
And bow before his shrine,
Has so ordained, my friend, that you
Are now my Valentine.
Ah, could my humble Muse aspire
To catch the flame divine!
These are the gifts that I'd require
For thee, my Valentine!
May virtue o'er thy steps preside
And in thy conduct shine;
May truth and wisdom ever guide
And guard my Valentine.
May piety, seraphic maid,
Her influence divine
Shed on thy head, and ever lead,
And bless my Valentine.
Life's dangerous paths safe may'st thou tread,
Shielded by Grace divine;
And when these artless lines are read,
Think on my Valentine!
– Charlotte Richardson