Although of ancient origin, it took 7 centuries for Europeans to use them to cover the floor. They can be exotic in chinoiserie, luxuriant, worn and threadbare, or vibrant.
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Paintings of Istanbul and its surroundings by Alberto Pasini, Anders Zorn, Michael Zeno Diemer, Paul Signac, and pioneer Osman Hamdi Bey.
Although unusual in paintings, tortoises can have several different readings, from love to slow and faltering political reforms.
More women reading, from Dante’s beloved Beatrice to Charlotte Corday, who was psyching herself up with Plutarch’s Lives before murdering Marat in his bath.
From a naked woman devouring novels, through a class of young Breton girls, to Berthe Morisot’s and Lovis Corinth’s women reading.
Carpets in paintings by Gérôme, his former pupil Osman Hamdi Bey, Georges Rochegrosse, Pierre Bonnard and Paul Nash.
Paintings by Vermeer, Delaroche, Whistler, Gérôme, Waterhouse and others showing wonderful carpets and floors.
How can visual artists express non-visual concepts like the senses, virtues, the struggle between good and evil? Examples from Botticelli, Tintoretto, Rubens, and others.
A polymath during the final years of the Ottoman Empire, he trained in Paris, and painted wonderful street and other scenes in Turkey.
Why are there two tortoises in the foreground of Moreau’s ‘Orpheus’? After a journey through Zen Buddhism, fables, and political allegory, the answer may be more obvious.
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