Now known as one of the leading illustrators of children’s books, he was also an accomplished and recognised painter. Here are some narratives from his early career.
Botticelli
Dante and Virgil enter the first circle of Hell, Limbo, where those who never sinned but weren’t baptised in the Christian faith are confined.
First imported through Venice by 1300, it became more precious than gold until it could be made synthetically from 1830. The queen of pigments.
If there’s one book every head of state and leader should read, it’s Dante’s Inferno. Introduction to a new series showing paintings of this first part of his Divine Comedy.
The red that lasts hundreds of years without fading, but it’s a highly toxic salt of mercury. Used in European paintings from the Romans to the late 19th century.
From Botticelli’s Primavera to floral meadows of the Spring, with Millais, Millet, Böcklin, Walter Crane, Dennis Miller Bunker, and an unknown Italian Impressionist.
Pitched battles at the weddings of Hippodame and Pirithous, and Andromeda and Perseus. The Trojan War resulting from the wedding of Thetis and Peleus, and turning water into wine with Veronese.
Myths of the strange births of Venus, Bacchus, Helen and Adonis, the Nativity, and Ford Madox Brown’s son.
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.
In some of the earliest European paintings, the Fall of Man, the fable of the cat’s paw, in Vanitas paintings, and for their mischief and mayhem.
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