It’s unusual and difficult to make humorous paintings. Here’s a fine selection from Bosch, Brueghel and Rubens to the late 19th century.
Bosch
Why did Bosch show people wearing funnels on their heads? Why the Roundheads? How to tell priestly rank by the hat, and more about chaperons and top hats.
A saint banished to the island of Patmos, a history wound around a column, and a megalomaniac emperor strangled in his bath by a professional wrestler.
With Umberto Eco as our guide, explore Parnassus, the Garden of Earthly Delights, Alcina’s island, Colchis, and the Garden of the Hesperides.
Bosch’s two wayfarers, Courbet’s Stone Breakers, and wonderful paintings by Brett, Troyon and Ford Madox Brown show those who lived on the road.
Sphinxes by Ingres and Moreau, Watts’ Minotaur, Blake’s Cerberus, Hieronymus Bosch, and more monsters.
Wanderers, wayfarers and pilgrims have walked across continents in search of wisdom, spiritual enlightenment, or a bite to eat and sheltered sleep.
Paintings of the Frog Prince and variants by Marianne Stokes, Kolo Moser, and Pierre Bonnard. Medea by Sandys and Waterhouse.
In the Renaissance, the unicorn wasn’t legendary at all, but had appeared in classical accounts of natural history. It was as real as a rhinoceros.
Paintings of windmills from Hieronymus Bosch, Rembrandt, Jacob van Ruisdael, Thomas Girtin, and others.
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