From Apelles, in around 330 BCE, the personification of Truth has had particular importance to painters, in the faithfulness and accuracy of their work. Here she is.
Carracci
From about 1530, painting started to change. Brushstrokes became visible, anatomy exaggerated, composition less balanced and ideal. First Mannerism, then came the Baroque.
In Florence, stories told in paintings became increasingly secular, and ingeniously integrated multiple scenes from the single story into one painting.
With Umberto Eco as our guide, explore Parnassus, the Garden of Earthly Delights, Alcina’s island, Colchis, and the Garden of the Hesperides.
Three classical myths – Atlas turned to stone, Philemon and Baucis, and Leto and the Lycians turned into frogs. Why you should always show hospitality to strangers.
Seen with his three-headed dog Cerberus, the god of the Underworld. Paintings by Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Rubens and others.
Romulus as founder of Rome, including the Rape of the Sabine Women and paintings by Rubens, Poussin, Ingres, David and others.
Not well known now, she features in two myths which have been extensively painted by Tintoretto, Carracci, Brueghel, and Claude Lorrain.
Paintings of this popular story from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, by Tintoretto, Jan Brueghel the Elder, and the unknown Gabriel Guay.
Father Time, a grey-haired old man with a beard, wearing ultramarine blue, and holding a scythe and hourglass.
