Amorous

Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen
David encountering Abigail
ca. 1495
oil on panel
Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen

Agostino Carracci after Paolo Fiammingo
Reciproco Amore
ca. 1589-95
engraving
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

Hendrik Goltzius
The Sense of Smell
(series, The Five Senses)
ca. 1595-96
drawing (print study)
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

Christoph Gertner
Amorous Couple, with Death lurking in the Shadows
ca. 1600
oil on slate
Národní Galerie, Prague

Giovanni Francesco Guerrieri
Lot and his Daughters
1617
oil on canvas
Galleria Borghese, Rome

Jacques de Gheyn II
Allegory of Unequal Love
ca. 1620
oil on canvas
North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh

Christoph Gertner
Monk with Harlot and Procuress
1624
drawing
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden

Abraham Bloemaert
Shepherd wooing Shepherdess in a Landscape
1627
oil on canvas
Landesmuseum, Hannover

Giovanni Francesco Romanelli
Dido accosting the departing Aeneas
ca. 1646
gouache on paper, mounted on canvas
Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, California

Pieter de Hooch
The Intruder - A Lady at her Toilette surprised by her Lover
1665
oil on canvas
Wellington Collection, Apsley House, London

Pietro Paolini (il Lucchese)
The Procuress (Old Man and Young Woman)
ca. 1670
oil on canvas
Musée de l'Oise

Petr Brandl
Lot and his Daughters
ca. 1700
oil on canvas
Národní Galerie, Prague

Laurent Delvaux
Caunus and Biblis
ca. 1735
marble
Bode Museum, Berlin

Benjamin West
Helen brought to Paris
1776
oil on canvas
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Salomon Gessner
Lovesick Boatman with Cupid
1777
etching
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

Giovanni Volpato after Francesco Maggiotto
Young Man with Harlot and Procuress
ca. 1780
etching and engraving
Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig

from Cyclops

 

Thus sweetly sad of old, the Cyclops stove

To soften his uneasie hours of Love.

Then when hot Youth urg'd him to fierce desire,

And Galatea's eyes kindled the raging fire,

His was no common Flame, nor could he move

In the old Arts, and beaten Paths of Love;

Nor Flowers, nor Fruits sent to oblige the Fair,

Nor more to please, curl'd his neglected Hair.

His was all Rage, all Madness; To his Mind

No other Cares their wonted entrance find.

Oft from the Field his Flock return'd alone

Unheeded, unobserv'd: He on some stone,

Or craggy Cliff, to the deaf Winds and Sea

Accusing Galatea's Cruelty;

Till Night from the first dawn of opening Day,

Consumes with inward heat, and melts away.

Yet then a Cure, the onely Cure he found,

And thus apply'd it to the bleeding Wound;

From a steep Rock, from whence he might survey

The Floud, (the Bed where his lov'd Sea-Nymph lay)

His drooping head with Sorrow bent he hung,

And thus his grief calm'd with his mournfull Song.

– Theocritus (early 3rd century BC), translated by Richard Duke (1684)