Added to portraits to indicate the sagacity of the subject, owls were dear to the heart and brush of Hieronymus Bosch.
Cranach
Paintings of knights in armour from Raphael in c 1502, through Ingres’ rescue of Angelica, to Arthurian legends and the Pre-Raphaelite movement.
Artegall and his iron servant Talus progress on his quest. They come across Amazons who, led by their queen, capture knights, put them in women’s clothes and force them to perform women’s work like spinning. This fate is in store for Artegall too.
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.
One of the great technical challenges in painting, glassware has been used by young and aspiring artists to demonstrate their skills. Antonello and Cranach to Liotard’s pastels.
With a reputation for being an impulsive and rapid painter, evidence from IR reflectography shows how this painting evolved as it was being made.
How the term spinster came about, the thread of life, the feminisation of Hercules, and Velázquez’ baffling Las Hilanderas.
Great paintings by Botticelli, Bosch, Titian, Tintoretto, the Carraccis, and others, showing multiplex narrative.
The story of Bathsheba and King David involves adultery and murder, and ultimately the triumph of power not virtue. Early paintings up to Artemisia Gentileschi.
A puzzling painting of a lone woman, wrestling with inner turmoil; a trap laid by a dying Centaur; a king with a thing for Hercules, and his promotion to being a saint.
