Three charming ladies of the 1670s

Elisabeth Tallyarde, by Godfried Schalcken, 1679.

I love her earrings; certainly crystal, they look exactly like pendants intended for a chandelier - but beautifully painted.

I find her glove quite curious.

Princess Teresa Pamphilj Cybo, by Jacob Ferdinand Voet, circa 1673.

A knowing glance.

A most graceful gesture of the hand, and dizzying detail.

Catherine Sedley, Countess of Dorchester, Countess of Portmore, by Sir Peter Lely, circa 1675.

I love the - certainly unintentional - variation in the blue pigments of her drapery.

Even though Lely was a crude and repetitive painter - and all his women look peculiarly alike - I still find this portrait captivating.

Weirdness in a lady's bed

Mareridtscene (nightmare scene), by Ditlev Blunck, 1846.

The Nightmare, by John Henry Fuseli (Johann Heinrich Füssli), 1781.

Sleeping Venus with Cupido, by Godfried Schalcken, before 1685.

The Nightmare, by John Henry Fuseli (Johann Heinrich Füssli), 1790-91. A variation on the painting of 1781.

Danaë and the Shower of Gold, by Adolf Ulrik Wertmüller, 1787.

Title unknown, by Richard Tennant Cooper, circa first quarter of the twentieth century.

Though the title is unknown, going by the artist's other work, this is most likely a "lesson" on venereal disease.

La liseuse de romans (The reader of novels), by Antoine Wiertz, 1853.