Motion can be implied against the rules we learn about how the world works. It can also be shown in billowing garments.
Fragonard
Pastellist like Rosalba Carriera led the way in making marks to create the illusion of finely detailed fabrics. This contrasts with smooth and detailed faces.
What is that princess doing dressed for a pageant, and what is happening to her swatch of carmine fabric? How billows express motion.
Wonderful paintings by Reni, Fragonard, Evelyn De Morgan, Poussin, Rubens, and a very unusual late Fantin-Latour.
Faithful Queen Olimpia is abandoned by her treacherous husband on a remote island. Ruggiero escapes on the hippogriff, and comes across Angelica, who is being fed to the orc.
How an orc came to eat a woman each day, and Angelica is kidnapped to provide its next meal. And how Orlando got to fight Frisians to save a marriage.
Godfrey’s siege is stalled due to a bewitched wood, then the temperatures rise and streams dry up. The pressure is on him, so they try to find the missing Rinaldo. Superb paintings from Poussin and others.
Not as easy as it may seem, there are several outstanding paintings about the sense of sight – and an ancient game which is played on every continent.
Poussin was by no means the only artist to paint the narrative of Rinaldo and Armida. Here are many more.
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