Axes for human sacrifice, execution, demolition of a bridge to save the city of Rome, as symbols of authority leading to Fascism, and cleaving a hazelnut for fairies.
Alma-Tadema
Pygmalion painted by Edward Burne-Jones and Gérôme, the painted frieze of the Parthenon, Eakins and the sculptor Rush, Lovis Corinth’s portrait, and a cheeky monkey by Watteau.
Lawrence and his second wife Laura were successful painters, and taught their older daughter Anna to paint. He was knighted, and after his death was interred with great honour in St Paul’s Cathedral.
1869 was a disastrous year for Lawrence: his wife died suddenly, leaving him to care for their daughters, and he also had a medical problem that defied diagnosis. He went to London and fell in love at first sight.
Glimpses into the world of children, with the 2 daughters of Joseph Coomans, an Italian family, 2 daughters of the Alma-Tademas, and several others.
Paintings mimicking an architectural frieze, with figures flattened into a plane parallel to the picture plane. Used deliberately by Ferdinand Hodler and others.
Blue-on-white Delft tiles in paintings of Vermeer, and those in the 19th century who recreated period interiors, including Laura Alma-Tadema.
Popularised with large-format colour printing in the middle of the 19th century, there appear in several paintings where they contribute to the reading.
Stairs to fall down, to sit in disgrace, or pose with your sibling? Stairs winding up and defying gravity, bearing ballet dancers, or in a Gothic prison.
A dramatic family break-up, Norwegian light and music, a library, ornate decor with a bird cage, and a truly avant-garde interior of 1913.
The Eclectic Light Company 