Easily told in words, stories are harder to paint. Here are five main methods used, explained and shown in examples from the masters.
Bosch
What was thought to be an unusual painting by Hieronymus Bosch turns out to be part of a triptych. But what is the Ship of Fools about?
Myrrh makes its appearance as one of the 3 gifts of the Magi, then as an attribute of Mary Magdalene. A history in paintings by Bosch and others.
Painted by Bosch, the animal painter Paulus Potter, Charles Le Brun, and others. Best known from Hannibal’s crossing of the Alps.
Before folk history changed with the concept of human evolution, caves were sacred places inhabited by hermits, or figures from myth.
From the funerary portraits of Fayum, through the work of Jan van Eyck, to Leonardo, Rubens and Botticelli, many of the greatest paintings are on wood panels.
How Samuel Palmer used ink in paintings, and some fine work using the milk protein casein, by Gustav Klimt and others.
Only Tintoretto and Louis Janmot have dared show their visions of Paradise. For others including Bosch, it couldn’t be envisioned.
Deep underground, Satan and his demons are torturing and tormenting naked people. If you don’t live an exemplary life, that may be what you get in return.
Western paintings of devils from Michelangelo to Fuseli show the great influence of Hieronymus Bosch.
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