Made of almost pure pigment, soft pastel painting didn’t start until after 1650. They excel in representing flesh, so became popular for portraits, and have since extended to other genres.
Coypel
That well-muscled man brandishing a large olive-wood club and wearing a lion-skin can only be the ultimate high-testosterone uncouth hero, Hercules.
Hercules wrestling with Achelous, Jacob wrestling with the Angel, the young Samson wrestling with a lion, and wrestlers from Courbet, Bazille and Friant.
How Hercules and Achelous came to fight one another over the hand of Deianira, resulting in one of the river god’s horns being wrenched off to become the Horn of Plenty.
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.
The incredible myth of Leda and the swan, the transformation of Phaëthon’s brother Cycnus, King Arthur, Hesiod, Swan Pie and more.
How Arethusa was turned into a sacred stream, why King Lyncus was turned into a lynx, and what the Pierides were transformed into.
A simple story of an unsuccessful attempt at abduction and rape becomes a compositional struggle. It also results in the death of Heracles.
Paintings by Rubens, Rembrandt, Jordaens, Coypel and an unusual watercolour on ivory by Goya, telling this story.
The river runs red with the blood of Trojans before Achilles gets his chance to fight Hector, and kills him. Then he dishonours the Trojan’s body.
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