A selection of these precursors to modern comic books from about 1263 to 1700. Some are based on rectangles, but others are arranged in the round.
Bosch
Paintings by Bosch, Giorgione, Velázquez, Jordaens, Benjamin West, Joseph Wright, Ingres, Ecksersberg, Ary Scheffer and others.
Introduction from Roman times through the late Middle Ages into the Renaissance. The main types of visual narrative, why they were so important, and how sophisticated they became.
Worn by the figure of death to obscure its face, as a cowl on a monk’s robes, in religious and academic uniforms, as a chaperon on Dante, and for the traveller when migrating.
Associated with the legendary story of the origin of Rome, a woodpecker kept a close eye on the twin infants Romulus and Remus. It’s also associated with the sorceress Circe.
Typically by a road junction outside a town, they are a grim reminder of the brutal consequences of even petty crimes, and significant to the reading of paintings shown.
The Nativity, Adoration of the Shepherds and the Magi, painted by Bastien-Lepage, Murillo, Hieronymus Bosch, Edward Burne-Jones, and others.
Paintings by Michelangelo, Hieronymus Bosch, Grünewald, Pieter Coecke van Aelst, Paolo Veronese, Jan Brueghel the Elder and others.
Hephaistos or Vulcan in classical myth, cheated on by Aphrodite/Venus, and as creator of Pandora. In Bosch’s Last Judgement, and elsewhere.
Adam and Eve during a happy moment before the Fall. Countless naked men and women cavorting with giant fruit. Gambling and music seen as sure ways to hell. Delving into Bosch’s details.
