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| John Flaxman Design for Monument to Alderman Beckford 1770 drawing Tate Britain |
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| John Flaxman Thomas Chatterton receiving Bowl of Poison from Despair ca. 1775-80 drawing British Museum |
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| John Flaxman Waiting on Sir Ed. Hales at St Stephen's 1775 drawing (Flaxman caricatures himself at right as a poor supplicant) Tate Britain |
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| John Flaxman Self Portrait, age 24 1779 drawing University College London Art Museum |
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| John Flaxman Kneeling Figures receiving Two-Handled Cup ca. 1780-1820 drawing Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
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| John Flaxman Alcestis and Admetus 1789 drawing Tate Britain |
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| John Flaxman Sheet of Studies (from album of designs for tombs and monuments) before 1820 drawing Tate Britain |
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| John Flaxman Two Women at a Counter before 1820 drawing Yale Center for British Art |
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| John Flaxman Woman and Child before 1820 drawing Tate Britain |
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| John Flaxman Design for Monument to poet William Collins 1792 drawing, incorporated in letter (recto) British Museum |
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| John Flaxman Design for Monument to poet William Collins 1792 drawing, incorporated in letter (verso) British Museum |
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| John Flaxman (design) for Josiah Wedgwood & Sons Bulb Pot before 1800 black basalt Cooper-Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, New York |
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| John Flaxman (design) for Josiah Wedgwood & Sons Urn before 1800 black basalt Cooper-Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, New York |
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| John Flaxman Statue of St John the Evangelist in Westminster Abbey ca. 1811 drawing Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| John Flaxman St Michael overcoming Satan ca. 1817 plaster modello for marble sculpture Victoria & Albert Museum, London |
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| John Flaxman Shield of Achilles 1821-22 silver-gilt (designed and modeled by Flaxman, cast by others) Royal Collection, Great Britain |
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| Henry Wolf after George Romney John Flaxman modeling Bust of William Hayley 1899 wood-engraving Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC |
from Pharsalia
A woode untoucht of old was growing there,
Of thicke set trees, whose boughs spreading and faire,
Meeting obscured the enclosed aire,
And made darke shades exiling Phoebus rayes.
There no rude Fawne, nor wanton Silvan playes,
No Nimph disports, but cruell Deityes
Claim barbarous rites, and bloody sacrifice:
Each tree's defil'd with humane blood: if wee
Beleeve traditions of antiquitie,
No bird dares light upon those hallowed bowes:
No beasts make there their dennes: no wind there blowes,
Nor lightning falls: a sad religious awe
The quiet trees unstirr'd by wind doe draw.
Blacke water currents from darke fountaines flow:
The gods unpolisht Images doe know
No arte, but plaine and formelesse trunkes they are.
Their mosse, and mouldinesse procures a feare:
The Common figures of knowne Deities
Are not so fear'd: not knowing what God tis
Makes him more awfull: by relation
The shaken earths darke carvernes oft did grone:
Fall'n Yew trees often of themselves would rise:
With seeming fire oft flam'd th'unburned trees:
And winding dragons the cold oakes imbrace:
None give neere worship to that balefull place;
The people leave it to the Gods alone.
– Lucan (AD 39-65), translated by Thomas May (1626)