After escaping from Polyphemus, Odysseus’ crew release a bag of winds, resulting in all except for his ship being eaten by cannibals. They then reach Circe’s island, where she wants to turn them all into pigs.
Böcklin
The most characteristic tree of the north coast of the Mediterranean, it has long been associated with cemeteries and other places of grief.
When the centaur Nessus tries to abduct his wife, Hercules shoots him with a poisoned arrow. But Nessus gets his revenge when Hercules’ wife gives her husband a shirt impregnated with Nessus’ blood.
Well known for their fights and battles, Delacroix was fond of Chiron, Achilles tutor, but Pirithous and Hippodame regretted inviting them to their wedding feast.
Applying thinner layers of paint, or glazes, developed optical effects that were widely used into the late 19th century, but have now fallen from favour.
They tried to lure Odysseus and his crew to their deaths, and the same with Jason and his Argonauts. With the head of a beautiful woman and the legs of a bird, their singing was alluring to sailors.
Tiny jewels fashioned from blobs of white paint, Rembrandt’s textured paint layers. Turner’s scratchings, and van Gogh’s textured Wheat Field with Cypresses, seen in fine detail.
Some of the most haunting images in European art were painted using a mixture of pigment in molten beeswax for use on their mummies when they were interred at Fayum in Egypt.
Derived from the dull yellow-green of chromium oxide, it was widely used by Impressionists, and well into the 20th century. Less toxic, but an environmental hazard.
Painting captions give information you’d never get from looking at an image, and that in turn tells you even more. This series looks beyond mere images at the media behind them.
The Eclectic Light Company 