Masaccio’s 20-panel polyptych, Bosch’s triptych, and one of the most substantial paintings by Leonardo da Vinci. Even Monet’s Grainstacks series.
Bosch
A collection of paintings with strange incongruities that can make them impossible to read, from Masaccio to Gérôme.
In quest of the Chimera from classical mythology in paintings of Michelangelo, Bosch, de Vos and others.
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.
An allegory of a flawed democracy by Plato, a fragment of a triptych by Bosch, then two paintings in 1922 and 1930. What is its meaning?
A visual history tracing wings back to their origins in messengers of the gods and messenger-gods of the dawn of civilisation, 4 millennia ago.
Rediscovering our iconology and visual tradition, starting with a Ship of Fools, Death and the Maiden, Truth coming out of her well, and the wings on angels.
Grisaille – grey underpainting used to set the tone for a finished work – is like underwear, waiting for richly coloured clothes to go on top. Not in these paintings, though.
From sacred symbols in a mosaic of Theodora and the Adoration of the Lamb, to roadside watering holes, and the town’s fresh water supply.