Perception changed with photography, and we came to interpret blur, lines and other devices as indicating motion.
Baur
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.
Two transformations: Dryope changes into a Lotus Tree, and the incestuous Byblis becomes a spring.
A maze of myths about shape-shifting, Neptune, and the sea leads to two wonderful but puzzling paintings.
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