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| Andrew Law Hall with Equestrian Statue and Staircase ca. 1910 oil on canvas Dick Institute, Kilmarnock, Scotland |
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| Édouard Vuillard La Cheminée 1905 oil on cardboard National Gallery, London |
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| Félix Vallotton Red Dahlias and Open Book 1924 oil on canvas Musée d'Art Moderne, Troyes |
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| Jan Jansz Treck Vanitas Still Life 1648 oil on panel National Gallery, London |
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| Pieter van Roestraten Chained Flask, Brown Teapot and Globe ca. 1690 oil on canvas Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
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| Pierre-Ambroise Richebourg Salon of 1861 1861 mounted photograph Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris |
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| Lyubov Popova Painterly Architectonic (Still-Life Instruments) 1915 oil on canvas Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid |
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| Giovanni Battista Piranesi Interior of an Apse ca. 1763-65 drawing Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart |
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| Bernard Picart Carriage of the Duke of Osuna, Ambassador of Philip V of Spain ca. 1714 drawing (print study) Musée du Louvre |
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| attributed to Jean Pelletier Side Table ca. 1699 giltwood, with marble top Royal Collection, Great Britain |
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| Lisette Model Rome (Bernini's Colonnade at St Peter's Basilica) 1953 gelatin silver print Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Massachusetts |
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| François Masson Study for Quadratura Ceiling Decoration 1796 drawing Musée du Louvre |
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| Gwen John A Corner of the Artist's Room in Paris ca. 1907-1909 oil on canvas Museums Sheffield, Yorkshire |
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| Gwen John A Corner of the Artist's Room in Paris ca. 1907-1909 oil on canvas National Museum of Wales, Cardiff |
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| Member of the Galli-Bibiena Family Interior of a Palace with Staircase and Gallery ca. 1650-1750 drawing Musée du Louvre |
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| Giuseppe Antonio Castellini Design for Palace Courtyard with Fountain before 1724 drawing Musée du Louvre |
– Some enter the gates of art with golden keys, and take their seats with dignity among the demi-gods of fame; some burst the doors and leap into a niche with savage power; thousands consume their time in chinking useless keys, and aiming feeble pushes against the inexorable doors.
– Taste, founded on sense and elegance of mind, is reared by culture, invigorated by practice and comparison; scantiness stops short of it; fashion adulterates it; it is shackled by pedantry, and overwhelmed by luxuriance.
– All apparatus destroys terror, as all ornament grandeur; the minute catalogue of the cauldron's ingredients in Macbeth destroys the terror attendant on mysterious darkness; and the seraglio-trappings of Rubens annihilate his heroes.
– Colour affects or delights like sound. Scarlet or deep crimson rouses, determines, invigorates the eye, as the war-horn or the trumpet the ear; the flute soothes the ear, as pale celestial blue or rosy red the eye.
– All first impressions are involuntary and inevitable, but the knowledge of the subject will guide you to judge first of the whole; not to creep on from part to part, and nibble at execution before you know what it means to convey. The notion of a tree precedes that of counting leaves or disentangling branches.
– Henry Fuseli, from Aphorisms on Art (1818)