To celebrate his bicentenary, here are some early works, including some of his ‘faerie paintings’ of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’.
Category Archive: Life
This wonderful late oil sketch by Rubens shows a man walking his dog on a Mediterranean beach. It tells a fascinating story of an ancient industry, and the dress of the most wealthy and privileged few.
One king trusts his daughter into the care of his son-in-law, another king. What happens next is horrific, and shown brilliantly by Artemisia Gentileschi and Rubens.
Her image has been used by the French nation, the Catholic church, Napoleon, revanchists, romantics, feminists, and now the extreme right. Here are some of those powerful paintings.
She has been a symbol of French nationalism, of the revanchism following the Franco-Prussian War, and then of early feminism: some wonderful paintings of Joan’s divine visions.
Some of the key paintings telling the story of the grisly death of the satyr Marsyas, who lost his musical contest against Apollo.
Thomas Cook could take you anywhere in the world. Today we do better, although getting from the far south of England to the Outer Hebrides could be a bit too far.
A clutch of myths about individual Amazons reveal more about their role in affirming role models in Greek and subsequent society. With some fine paintings too.
More popular today than in classical Greece, these warrior women could have been an opportunity to redress the balance between genders. Here they are at war.
A lighter and formerly very popular story brings to light some masterly paintings, including a superb work by Jan Brueghel the Elder.
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