One for sorrow, two for joy, according to the rhyme. Magpies play cameo roles in several major paintings, as shown here.
Bosch
In Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights, animals charmed by Orpheus, the story of Rebecca and Eliezer, and accompanying the three Magi to the Nativity.
Stories involving swimmers, including Hero and Leander, the Ship of Fools, and a poem by Thomas Gray, with paintings by Bosch, Rubens and others.
Largely restricted among Classical deities to Hermes, Cupid, and personifications of winds, heavenly bodies, and events, the gift of flight extends to angels and even saints.
Played for the Danse Macabre in the Middle Ages, a favourite of Hieronymus Bosch, and Joseph Stella in the early 20th century.
The fairy tale of the Frog Prince, the fable of The Frogs who Demand a King, frogs at the Fall of Man, and dangling from a kite tail above Strasbourg.
Gambling as a sure road to Hell, with Bosch, Caravaggio, Georges de la Tour, Hogarth, Géricault, Courbet, Rossetti, and others.
Hands are rarely covered in paintings. Examples include outdoors in winter, armoured gloves for crossbows, a sommelier, and fashion.
Jacob’s Ladder, the Crucifixion, scaling the walls of Charlemagne’s Paris, picking fruit, or just crossing a dry stone wall.
An exquisite miniature, the Virgin among a group of virgin saints, the Madonna and Child with Milk Soup, the Mystic Marriage of St Catherine, and more.
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