Varnish has been applied to protect the paint layer. But layers of old varnish discolour and trap dirt and contaminants, letting a painting vanish into the dark.
Blake
Inscriptions in paintings that reveal the story, or quote from its literary source, from Rembrandt to the Pre-Raphaelites.
Tragic stories of great paintings that no longer look anything like their originals, from Leonardo da Vinci and William Blake.
Paris, Prince of Troy, is the perfect pawn in Zeus’s plan for war. He develops a taste for beautiful women, then accepts Aphrodite’s bribe in the beauty contest of the three goddesses.
Can William Blake, Gustave Moreau, Odilon Redon, Jacek Malczewski or others come any closer to the classical Chimera?
Paintings that don’t look like they were intended to be, from Leonardo’s Last Supper, to Manet’s cut-up Execution of Emperor Maximilian.
Two birds associated with myth: Zeus’s eagle, often used to indicate his presence in disguise, and the symbol of night and wisdom, the owl.
Paintings by William Blake, William Hogarth, Henry Fuseli, Paul Delaroche and others for this popular tragedy and history.
From Blake onwards, dreams often take over the whole view, with the dreamer the only link to reality. Examples from Blake, Rossetti, Hodler and others.
A summary history from 1700 to the 20th century, with examples of major paintings, and links to each of the detailed articles in this series.
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