Venus born surrounded by colourful fish, in the element water, in a feeding frenzy by Turner’s Slave Ship, with mermaids, and brought ashore ready to eat.
Beuckelaer
A grand castle kitchen, the element fire, Vermeer’s milkmaid, a witch’s kitchen for Faust, a rotund cardinal tasting the sauce, and in a humble apartment in London.
Goya’s crockery salesman, Lhermitte’s Les Halles in Paris, a trio of specialist markets, Rosa Bonheur’s horse fair in Paris, and the last hay market in London.
Miniature landscape views embedded in more conventional paintings were not uncommon during the Renaissance, before landscape was established as a genre.
In the century from 1560, many artists painted allegories of the four elements of the classical world: earth, air, water and fire. Here are some fine examples.
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