Tulips to mark a stock market crash and recession, David’s lust for Bathsheba, his work as a sculptor, Pygmalion and Galatea, and a summary of his career.
Gérôme
Thumbs up or down in the gladiatorial arena, French history, the leading general in the Greek War of Independence, and the Wailing Wall.
Three paintings about prostitution, a reception for Napoleon III, Cleopatra smuggled in a carpet, the Crucifixion, Napoleon I in Egypt, and a grim execution.
Orientalism, a duel in fancy dress, gladiators in the Colosseum, the assassination of Julius Caesar, and the cynic Diogenes.
First in a new series to celebrate the bicentenary of one of the major French painters of the second half of the 19th century. Early career as a Neo-Greek.
The grandson of the founder of Thebes happens into Diana’s sacred wood when out hunting, and sees the goddess naked. She changes him into a stag, with fatal consequences.
From the Circus Maximus with its crowd of 150,000 to those walking the tightrope under the canvas of the Big Top.
Hatboxes from Shakespeare to the Champs Elysées, the wig-box of hanged highwayman, Dickens’ cashboxes, and the painter’s pochade.
In classical times, they were strummed like a guitar rather than plucked. Apollo, Orpheus and lyric poets from Raphael, Rubens, Waterhouse and others.
Hyacinthus killed by a discus, a couple married as the result of a running race, funeral games, Roman spectacle, and the games of childhood.
The Eclectic Light Company 