Three to seven sisters who guard Hera’s golden apples in a land ‘to the west’, painted by Burne-Jones, Leighton, Turner, Sargent, and more.
Burne-Jones
Epitomising human attitudes to life and death for millennia, they spin the thread of life, measure the length allotted to each person, and cut that length with shears.
The first caused war between centaurs and humans, in the second many were turned into stone, and the third caused the Trojan War
Reduced to viewing the blossom online? Here are wonderful paintings of tree blossom from Millais, Sisley, van Gogh and others.
From Mantegna and dancing Muses, through Rubens and Rochegrosse with the legend of Perseus, to a portrait by Odilon Redon.
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.
It’s sometimes hard to read a painting without understanding an inscription. Masaccio, Rossetti, Moreau, Corinth and Botticelli gives us some clues.
The Circe of Arthurian legend, for much of the time she battles with King Arthur. But when he is mortally wounded in battle, they are reconciled. Stories in paintings.
How Perseus came to behead Medusa, and how her head restored order to the worst wedding reception ever. In paint, of course.
Paintings from 1750 on didn’t show ‘Christian’ sibyls, but returned to their classical meaning. Then came Turner’s marvellous narrative landscapes.
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