Vivat! Crescat! Floreat!

François Boucher (1703–1770): The Secret Message.

Jupiter and Callisto, attributed to Karel Philips Spierincks, who was active in Rome between 1609 and 1639.

Federico Barocci: Portrait of a Young Man, 1580–90.

Giorgio Ghisi: Venus and Adonis, c. 1570.

Giambattista Tiepolo: Saint Cecilia, 1750–60.

Domenico Fetti: Sleeping Girl, 1620–22.

Saint-Saëns began working on Samson and Delilah in 1867, just two years after completing his first (and as then yet unperformed) opera, Le timbre d'argent. The first performance took place in Weimar at the Grossherzogliches Theater (now the Staatskapelle Weimar) on December 2, 1877, in a German translation.

Angelo Falconetto: Bellona, Goddess of War, c. 1555–67

Peter Paul Rubens: Samson and Delilah, 1609.

Carved giltwood mirror, one of a pair, Piedmont, c. 1750.

Roman mosaic floor panel, 2nd century A.D. The rectangular panel represents the entire decorated area of a floor and was found together with another mosaic in an olive grove at Daphne-Harbiye in 1937. In Roman times, Daphne was a popular holiday resort, used by the wealthy citizens and residents of Antioch as a place of rest and refuge from the heat and noise of the city. American excavations at Daphne in the late 1930s uncovered the remains of several well-appointed houses and villas, including the one that contained this mosaic. At its center is a panel (emblema) with the bust of a woman, decked out with a wreath of flowers around her head and a floral garland over her left shoulder. Traditionally identified as Spring, the figure is probably the representation of a more generic personification of abundance and good living, well suited to the luxurious atmosphere created at Daphne by its rich patrons. [X] [X] [X]

Luca Giordano: Flora, 1697.

This concert was written in the 1760s, possibly 1765.

Alexandre Cabanel: Self-Portrait, 1847.