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| Edwin Austin Abbey Penitence of Eleanor of Gloucester 1900 oil on canvas Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh |
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| Jacob Jordaens Christ driving the Money-changers from the Temple ca. 1650 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
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| Walt Kuhn Bathers on a Beach 1915 oil on canvas Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid |
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| Antonio Zanchi Wound of the Prince of Sulmona 1679 oil on canvas Scuola Grande dei Carmini, Venice |
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| Anna Zinkeisen Mediæval Lincoln ca. 1937 oil on canvas (for reproduction as poster) Usher Gallery, Lincoln |
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| Giovanni Battista Trotti (il Molosso) Miracle of San Giacinto 1596 oil on canvas Museo Civico ala Ponzone, Cremona |
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| Byam Shaw Love's Baubles 1897 oil on canvas Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool |
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| Carlo Portelli The Immaculate Conception before 1574 oil on panel Galleria dell'Accademia di Firenze |
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| Giovanni Francesco Romanelli Israelites gathering Manna in the Desert 1657 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
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| Michel-François Dandré-Bardon Parisian Salon ca. 1740-60 drawing Musée du Louvre |
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| Maurice Denis Hommage à Cézanne 1900 oil on canvas Musée d'Orsay, Paris |
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| Domenico Fiasella (il Sarzana) Our Lady, Queen of Genoa ca. 1637 oil on canvas Chiesa di San Giorgio dei Genovesi, Palermo |
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| Peter Paul Rubens after Leonardo da Vinci Battle of Anghiari ca. 1601-1608 drawing (after lost fresco) Musée du Louvre |
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| Lavinia Fontana Consecration to the Blessed Virgin before 1614 oil on canvas Musée des Beaux-Arts de Marseille |
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| Pieter Pietersz the Elder Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego brought to the Fiery Furnace by Nebuchadnezzar 1575 oil on panel Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem |
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| Guy Pène du Bois Forty-Second Street 1945 oil on canvas Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid |
"Every work of art that does not express an idea signifies nothing; in addressing itself to such or such a sense, it must penetrate to the mind, to the soul, and bear thither a thought, a sentiment capable of touching or elevating it. From this fundamental rule all the others are derived; for example, that which is continually and justly recommended – composition. To this is particularly applied the precept of unity and variety. But, in saying this, we have said nothing so long as we have not determined the nature of the unity of which we would speak. True unity, is unity of expression, and variety is made only to spread over the entire work the idea or the single sentiment that it should express. It is useless to remark, that between composition thus defined, and what is often called composition, as the symmetry and arrangement of parts according to artificial rules, there is an abyss. True composition is nothing else than the most powerful means of expression."
– Victor Cousin, from Lectures on the True, the Beautiful and the Good (1854)