Derived from the dull yellow-green of chromium oxide, it was widely used by Impressionists, and well into the 20th century. Less toxic, but an environmental hazard.
Feuerbach
Princess, sorceress, seductress, wife, mother, and vengeful filicide – which is the true face of Medea, and why shouldn’t you try to paint her?
She tricks the daughters of King Pelias to murder him, then flees to Corinth, where Jason abandons her. She murders his bride with a poisoned wedding dress, then kills her two children. After that, she tries to kill the young Theseus.
They fought the Greeks in one of the three major wars of ancient times, before that against Troy. Paintings by Rubens, Feuerbach, von Stuck and others.
Once he has the Golden Fleece, Jason is pursued by Medea’s father. They make away in his ship the Argo, but he later abandons Medea, and everything goes wrong for them both.
Two pigments: straight Chromium Oxide, which is rather dull, and the more intense Viridian. Paintings by Böcklin, Renoir, Manet, Monet, Seurat, van Gogh, and Cézanne.
More popular today than in classical Greece, these warrior women could have been an opportunity to redress the balance between genders. Here they are at war.
Princess, sorceress, seductress, wife, mother, and vengeful filicide – one of the most complex characters to paint. Known from her letter in Heroides, and a lost work by Ovid.
Unheard of now outside Germany, his narrative paintings look straightforward at first. But when you try reading them…
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