Hendrik Goltzius, The Sleeping Danaë Being Prepared to Receive Jupiter, 1603
Why are you surprised? Why are you astonished, when my teacher was a dream, and in my anxiety I’m afraid I may wake up again and find myself once more in my locked cell? And even if that doesn’t happen, merely dreaming it might is enough: for in that way I came to know that all of human happiness passes by in the end like a dream.
Di che vi meravigliate se il mio maestro fu un sogno, e ancora tremo per l’ansia di dovermi ridestare nel chiuso di quel carcere? Ma quand’anche ciò non fosse, solo sognarlo mi basta, perchè ho appreso proprio questo: la felicità umana scorre e passa come un sogno.