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"O, that her hand, In whose comparison all whites are ink, Writing their own reproach, to whose soft seizure The cygnet's down is harsh and spirit of sense Hard as the palm of ploughman." – William Shakespeare, "Troilus and Cressida" (c. 1602)
"The influence of 15th century Italian scholasticism idealized women as angelic creatures, contributing to reinforce a limited typology of deminine angels in painting. A source of mroal perfection, endowed with mystic virtues, the beautiful angel woman (donna angelicata) became an intermediary between men and God, a point of intersection between the human and the divine, thus fusing feminine and angelic qualities. The visual heritage of the Greek Nike…
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