Associated with Dionysus/Bacchus and his followers, it’s basically a staff decorated with plant matter. Seen here in different variants from Pompeii onwards.
Gérôme
How truth is associated with a well, where Jesus spoke with a Samaritan woman, where to dispose of a rapist, and one of Paul Signac’s less successful paintings.
From depth cues used by painters in ancient times, through the many advances in the Northern Renaissance, to modern photographic projections.
Brunelleschi’s perspective projection was just a start. With optical instruments and later photography, painters exploited the visual effects of unusual projections.
An attribute of the goddess Athena (Minerva), it consists of the image of the face of Medusa on a shield or breastplate.
Neptune’s trident has three tines, while Pluto’s is a bident with only two. Or it could be a pitchfork. How to read them in paintings.
How to paint a landscape with faithful and coherent cast shadows, why most painters don’t do so, and a few get it wrong.
In the Roman arena, with a runaway slave, sparing the life of Daniel, at the feet of St Jerome and St Rufina, and snoring gently on the rug.
Leonardo da Vinci studied different types of shade and shadow, but recommended painters not to depict cast shadows in their paintings. This explains why.
Examples of putting figures in the spotlight from paintings of Tiepolo, David, Goya, Gérôme, Thomas Eakins, and others.
The Eclectic Light Company 