Monday, August 12, 2024

Love as Folly

Jean-Honoré Fragonard
Love as Folly
ca. 1773-76
oil on canvas
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Thomas Willeboirts Bosschaert
Dido and Aeneas in the Cave
1646
oil on canvas
Bildgalerie von Sanssouci, Potsdam

attributed to Francesco Albani
Salmacis spurned by Hermaphroditus
ca. 1633-35
oil on canvas
Galleria Sabauda, Turin

Giulio Bonasone
Semele overcome by Jupiter's Fiery Splendor
ca. 1545
engraving
Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest

Johann König
Arethusa and Alpheus
ca. 1625
oil on copper
Deutsche Barockgalerie, Augsburg

Willem van Mieris
Joseph and Potiphar's Wife
1693
gouache on vellum
Morgan Library, New York

Juan Bautista Maíno
Narcissus
ca. 1600-1610
oil on canvas
John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota

G.F. Folingsby
First Meeting of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn
1879
oil on canvas
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

John William Waterhouse
Lamia
1905
oil on canvas
Auckland Art Gallery, New Zealand

Nicolas Joseph Delin
Hercules and Omphale
1786
oil on canvas
Museum De Lakenhal, Leiden

Cesare Dandini
Rinaldo and Armida
1635
oil on canvas
Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence

attributed to Gregorio Lazzarini
Rinaldo and Armida
ca. 1690
oil on canvas
National Gallery of Slovenia, Ljubljana

François-André Vincent
Rinaldo and Armida
ca. 1787
oil on canvas
Musée Fabre, Montpellier

Pieter van der Werff
Samson and Delilah
before 1722
oil on panel
Národní Galerie, Prague

Giovanni Battista Langetti
Old Woman with Love Note and Pearls
(Vanitas)

ca. 1663
oil on canvas
Národní Galerie, Prague

Gaspare Traversi
The Love Note Discovered
ca. 1750-60
oil on canvas
John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota

The Fool by the Roadside

When all works that have
From cradle run to grave
From grave to cradle run instead;
When thoughts that a fool
Has wound upon a spool
Are but loose thread, are but loose thread;

When cradle and spool are past
And I mere shade at last
Coagulate of stuff
Transparent like the wind,
I think that I may find
A faithful love, a faithful love.

– W.B. Yeats (1928)