They tried to lure Odysseus and his crew to their deaths, and the same with Jason and his Argonauts. With the head of a beautiful woman and the legs of a bird, their singing was alluring to sailors.
Girodet
Emperor Napoleon I, a Corsican of Italian origin who died on a remote British island in the South Atlantic. Paintings of his early military successes, and the Empress Joséphine before their divorce.
A brilliant pupil of David who won the Prix de Rome, he survived the Revolution unscathed, and even won a battle with one of his models when she refused to pay him.
What happens when a mortal is turned into a heavenly body, as with Orion; or when the Virgin Mary was taken up into Heaven.
Daughter of the King of Sparta, she was first given in marriage to Orestes, then taken away and married to Pyrrhus, who already had a concubine. She wanted to return Orestes, though.
More literary ghosts from the tales of Ossian, Charles Dickens’ novella ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Arthur Rackham, and a watercolour by Lizzie Siddal.
Tragedy for Agamemnon, who is murdered by his wife, and his son Orestes murdered her (his mother), her lover, their daughter and son.
The fictional Marcus Sextus, Napoleon pardoning the rebels of Cairo, and Narcissus where he shouldn’t be: disinformation in history painting.
Well known from language, the scarlet woman should be easy to read in paintings. But all that is scarlet isn’t who you’d expect.
The story of Orestes, son of Agamemnon, King of Mycenae and commander of the Greek forces in the Trojan War, who was murdered by his wife.
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