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| Piero di Cosimo Allegory of Civilization ca. 1490 oil and tempera on canvas National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa |
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| Bonino da Campione Allegorical Figure of Justice ca. 1357 marble National Gallery of Art, Washington DC |
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| Jacob Jordaens Allegory of Fertility ca. 1617 oil on canvas Alte Pinakothek, Munich |
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| Giulio Romano Allegorical Figure of Justice ca. 1530-34 drawing (fresco study, Palazzo Te, Mantua) Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio |
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| Lucas Cranach the Elder Allegory of Melancholy 1528 oil on panel Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh |
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| Anonymous Italian Artist Military Hero honoring a Personification of Rome 17th century drawing Art Institute of Chicago |
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| attributed to Abraham Janssens Allegory of Inconstancy ca. 1615-18 oil on canvas Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen |
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| Jacob de Wit Allegory with Minerva and Putti ca. 1740 oil on canvas Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam |
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| Mattheus Terwesten Allegory of the Arts 1694 drawing Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam |
-Allegory-of-Music-before-1774-porcelain-Harvard-Art-Museums.jpg) |
| Meissen Manufactory (Dresden) Allegory of Music before 1774 porcelain Harvard Art Museums |
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| Nicolai Abildgaard Allegorical Figure of Justice ca. 1780 drawing Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen |
-National-Gallery-of-Art-Washington-DC.jpg) |
| François Boucher Allegory of Music 1764 oil on canvas (dessus de porte) National Gallery of Art, Washington DC |
-National-Gallery-of-Art-Washington-DC.jpg) |
| François Boucher Allegory of Painting 1765 oil on canvas (dessus de porte) National Gallery of Art, Washington DC |
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| Eduard Bendemann Personification of Music ca. 1850 drawing Walters Art Museum, Baltimore |
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| Anonymous Artist Allegory of Time and Death 19th century hand-colored lithograph Wellcome Collection, London |
-Study-for-Personification-of-Medicine-c1614-15-drawing-Museum-Boijmans-Van-Beuningen-Rotterdam.jpg) |
| Pieter de Witte (Pietro Candido) Study for Personification of Medicine ca. 1614-15 drawing Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam |
from In Praise of Physical Forms
Painting, drawing, collage – they're all exercises
In imaginary spaces, as music is an exercise
In time, and life is too. They're immaterial forms
Of being, different ways of making something up,
Felt so deeply you become them while they last.
The figure in the carpet, the phantom in the snow –
They're other forms of unreality, ways of living
In the presence of nothing, from the imaginary
Notes in the air to the writing on the wall.
Of being, different ways of making something up,
Felt so deeply you become them while they last.
The figure in the carpet, the phantom in the snow –
They're other forms of unreality, ways of living
In the presence of nothing, from the imaginary
Notes in the air to the writing on the wall.
– John Koethe (2018)