Joseph-Nicolas taught his son Tony, who like his father was an academic history painter with a taste for human disasters. He also taught at the Académie Julian in Paris.
David
Great paintings by Rubens, David, Rembrandt, Merson, Sciuti and Tiepolo telling some of the best stories from Plutarch’s ‘Lives’.
Showing two or more scenes from the same story in a single painting (multiplex narrative) is common, effective, and good art. Examples from Masaccio, Memling, Bosch, and more.
From cautionary tales for judges to Daumier’s wicked satire, courts of law have been an important theme for the artist, including Poussin, Rowlandson, and Gérôme.
He established the unique regime and society of Sparta, with communal meals, harsh selection of newborn babies, and devotion to the state. He enforced those with selfless ingenuity.
How could I follow my 85-part account of Ovid’s Metamorphoses? With the greatest collection of biographies of classical figures, an inspiration to Charlotte Corday herself.
In which Romulus, as the founder of the city of Rome, successfully defends the city against the Sabines, before his apotheosis, and that of his Sabine wife, Hersilia.
Most famously painted by David, the murder of Marat in his bath in 1793 has featured in many paintings. How has its interpretation changed with changing politics and public opinion?
Ovid’s fictional letter made it clear how the legend of Phaon was absurd. Yet it has been painted repeatedly ever since.
Was she abducted, seduced, or seducer? Victim or whore? Ovid’s pair of letters between Helen and Paris raises questions which many artists have tried to tackle.
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