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| Adolphe Bilordeaux Dessins d'après l'Antique (cast) 1864 albumen print Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
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| Adolphe Bilordeaux Dessins d'après l'Antique (cast) 1864 albumen print Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
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| Adolphe Bilordeaux Dessins d'après l'Antique (cast) 1864 albumen print Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
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| Jan de Bisschop Antique Statue ca. 1666 drawing (study for unexecuted print) British Museum |
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| Giovanni Domenico Campiglia Antique Statues of Pan and Apollo (now in Museo delle Terme, Rome) before 1775 drawing British Museum |
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| Cassiano dal Pozzo Paper Museum Antique Statue of Draped Woman (now in Villa Doria Pamphili, Rome) ca. 1650 drawing British Museum |
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| Giovanni Battista Cipriani Antique Head of Emperor Augustus ca. 1760-70 drawing British Museum |
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| John Deare Seated Antique Figure before 1798 drawing British Museum |
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| Battista Franco (il Semolei) Scene before a Divine Statue before 1561 etching and engraving (based on an antique relief) Philadelphia Museum of Art |
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| Pier Leone Ghezzi Antique Capital with Harpies 1726 drawing British Museum |
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| Elisha Kirkall Antique Roman Statue in Kensington Palace ca. 1720-30 mezzotint British Museum |
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| Pirro Ligorio Antique Battle Scene from the Arch of Constantine, Rome ca. 1550 drawing British Museum |
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| Pirro Ligorio Antique Battle Scene from the Arch of Constantine, Rome ca. 1550 drawing British Museum |
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| Alice Trumbull Mason Study of Antique Horse ca. 1942 drawing Archives of American Art, Washington DC |
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| Agostino Musi (Agostino Veneziano) Antique Vase 1530 engraving British Museum |
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| attributed to Vincenzo Pacetti Antique Herm of River God (sculpture now in the Vatican) 1777 drawing British Museum |
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| attributed to Vincenzo Pacetti Handle of Antique Basalt Krater (artifact now in the Vatican) 1777 drawing British Museum |
Though not for life itself, yet that to after worlds thou might'st leave some monument that once thou wast, haply in the clear light of reason it would appear that life were earnestly to be desired: for sith it is denied us to live ever (said one) let us leave some worthy remembrance of our once here being and draw out this span of life to the greatest length and so far as is possible. O poor ambition! to what, I pray thee, may'st thou concredit it? Arches and stately temples, which one age doth raise, doth not another raze? Tombs and adopted pillars lie buried with those which were in them buried. Hath not avarice defaced what religion did make glorious? All that the hand of man can uprear is either overturned by the hand of man, or at length by standing and continuing consumed: as if there were a secret opposition in Fate (the unevitable decree of the Eternal) to control our industry and countercheck all our devices and proposing. Possessions are not enduring, children lose their names, families glorying like marigolds in the sun on the highest top of wealth and honour no better than they which are not yet born, leaving off to be. So doth heaven confound what we endeavour by labour and art to distinguish. That renown by papers which is thought to make men immortal and which nearest doth approach the life of those eternal bodies above, how slender it is the very word of paper doth import; and what is it when obtained but a flourish of words which coming times may scorn? How many millions never hear the names of the most famous writers; and amongst them to whom they are known how few men turn over their pages; and of such as do, how many sport at their conceits, taking the verity for a fable, and oft a fable for verity, or (as we do pleasants) use all for recreation? Then the arising of more famous doth darken, put down and turn ignoble the glory of the former, being held as garments worn out of fashion. Now, when thou hast attained what praise thou couldst desire and thy fame is emblazoned in many stories, never after to be either shadowed or worn out, it is but an echo, a mere sound, a glow-worm, which, seen afar, casteth some cold beams, but approached is found nothing, an imaginary happiness, whose good depends on the opinion of others. Desert and virtue for the most part want monuments and memory, seldom are recorded in the volumes of admiration, nay, are often branded with infamy, while statues and trophies are erected to those whose names should have been buried in their dust and folded up in the darkest clouds of oblivion: so do the rank weeds in this garden of the world choke and over-run the sweetest flowers.
– William Drummond of Hawthornden, from A Cypress Grove (London: Hawthornden Press, 1919, reprinting the original edition of 1623)