The story of a Renaissance city-state on Sardinia, a good mother, and the state funeral of a great Greek general on Sicily – some of the paintings shown.
Gérôme
Some religious stories which may have had personal relevance, and conclusions to his series of Roman spectacles, and his sculpture. Finally, a joke which may have inspired the Surrealists.
Rembrandt’s masterpiece looking deep into Bathsheba’s predicament, but it was von Stuck who first suggested that she may have been a willing participant.
His late career tackled his dislike of Impressionism, sculpture, photography as an art, and the depiction of truth – in several superb paintings.
He solves the problem of how to paint a stock market crash, and looks at what is seen, visual revelation, and truth.
A series of history paintings showing events in France in the 1600s, even a painting of Saint Jerome. Where had his Roman reconstructions gone?
Several pro-Empire paintings, including the story of Cleopatra’s seduction of Caesar, as the Suez Canal was being built. Then his most famous painting of all: Pollice Verso.
In 3 years, he swung from conventional to highly novel narrative, covering themes of assassination, cynicism, prostitution, and looking.
Tracing the origin of a vivid allegory in late 19th century painting, normally attributed to the Dreyfus affair. When did the naked Truth first climb out of a well, and why?
Paintings of gladiatorial combat and martyrdom in the Colosseum had also been quite different before Gérôme’s ‘Ave Caesar’. Examples from Artemisia Gentileschi and others.
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