A brief overview of the legendary and mythical history of the city and its empire, with links to all the articles in this series, and some of the finest paintings.
Delaunay
The curious legendary origin of a now vanished temple to Aesculapius on Tiber Island in Rome, shown in paintings and engravings.
A succession of individuals – Sulla, Pompey and Julius Caesar – tried to take control of the Republic. From the first consulship of Sulla to the murder of Pompey.
Millais’ wonderful painting of Ophelia wasn’t the first such work. From West and Delacroix to Rossetti and Bastien-Lepage, here she is.
Three exceptional paintings are dominated by geometrical forms. In one, a huge golden cylinder hangs in the night sky. Was this an innovative abstract painting?
Later painting of the Black Death and plague stressed the importance of divine intervention in limiting its spread.
From his early successes in Spain, Caesar had his heart set on high office. He worked hard for nearly ten years in his campaigns in Gaul, and even landed on the shores of Britain.
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.
After three brief tales of strange happenings in early Rome, Ovid gives an account of the bringing of the god Aesculapius to the city, to end an epidemic.
Louis Blériot’s flight across the Channel of 25 July 1909, then the First World War. Aircraft became popular subjects for paintings. With John Singer Sargent, Paul Klee, and Paul Nash.
