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| Claude Mellan after Nicolas Poussin Muse placing Satyr-mask on the face of an Author ca. 1642 engraving - title-page for an edition of Horace British Museum |
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| Jan de Bisschop after Daniele da Volterra Architectural Caryatid 1671 etching British Museum |
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| Jan de Bisschop after Daniele da Volterra Architectural Caryatid 1671 etching British Museum |
"It has indeed been argued that such phenomena as mannerism or the baroque, however they may be valued, occur in the development of any art which has reached maturity and, perhaps, overripeness. In that 'late' phase, the increasingly hectic search for fresh complexities may lead to an 'exhaustion' of the style when all permutations have been tried. Although there is a certain superficial plausibility in this interpretation, which accounts for some stretches of historical development, it must never be forgotten that terms such as 'complexity' and 'elements' do not here refer to measurable entities and that even the relationship of means to ends is open to contrasting interpretations. What may appear to one critic as the classic moment of an art may carry, for another, the seeds of corruption, and what looks like the final stage of exhaustion of a style to one interpreter may be seen from another point of view as the groping beginnings of a new style. . . . It is evident, moreover, that the units, or styles, by which the evolution is traced will always be rather arbitrarily chosen."
– from an article on Style by Ernst Gombrich, originally published in the International Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences (1968)
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| Andrea Andreani after Giambologna Abduction of Sabine Women before 1623 chiaroscuro woodcut printed on multiple panels Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Annibale Carracci after Michelangelo Figures adapted from Sistine ceiling before 1605 drawing Royal Collection, Windsor |
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| Annibale Carracci after Michelangelo figure of Eliud from Sistine lunette before 1605 drawing Royal Collection, Windsor |
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| Cornelis Bloemaert after Annibale Carracci St Margaret with vanquished Dragon ca. 1630-50 engraving British Museum |
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| Cornelis Bloemaert after Guercino St Peter raising Tabitha ca. 1630-60 engraving British Museum |
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| Guercino after Annibale Carracci Soldier before 1666 drawing Royal Collection, Windsor |
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| Sisto Badalocchio after Correggio St Hilary of Poitiers ca. 1605-1620 etching of fresco in Duomo, Parma British Museum |
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| Gio. Ambrogio Figino after Sebastiano del Piombo Christ of the Transfiguration before 1608 drawing Royal Collection, Windsor |
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| Hendrik van der Borcht after Perino del Vaga Apollo with Cupid ca. 1637 etching British Museum |
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| Jan de Bisschop after Pellergrino Tibaldi Polyphemus ca. 1672-89 etching British Museum |
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| Antonio Gherardi after Andrea Sacchi Catafalque erected by Jesuits in Rome ornamented with obelisks and skeletons 1640 etching, engraving British Museum |