Aeneas and his family flee the burning city of Troy, losing his wife on the way. They sail to Delos, where they see the trees that Latona gripped when giving birth to Apollo and Diana.
Baur
How Daedalion was turned into a hawk, a wolf was turned into marble, King Ceyx and his wife became kingfishers, and Aesacus was turned into a diver.
The first transformed into a Lotus Tree for picking lotus flowers; the second dissolved in her own tears to become a spring; the third changing gender in time for their wedding.
Stories of shape-shifters who could morph readily into animals and even inanimate objects. Includes Proteus, Erysichthon’s daughter, and leads on to Achelous himself.
Perception changed with photography, and we came to interpret blur, lines and other devices as indicating motion.
Even Poussin used this narrative form. Here are other example right up to 1947, including paintings by Corot, Munch, Corinth, and others.
Aeneas’ first port of call is the island of Delos, where its king and priest tells the story of his four daughters turned into white doves. With a superb landscape by Claude.
What to our ancestors would have been blurred and defective images are now accepted as depicting motion. How our perception has changed, thanks to photography.
Chione, who had been raped by Mercury and Apollo, is silenced by Diana’s arrow. Her father is transformed into a hawk, and King Ceyx and his grieving widow are changed into kingfishers.
A girl is brought up as a boy. All goes well until they want to marry. Then the gods intervene. A very modern story from 2,000 years ago, with paintings.
The Eclectic Light Company 