Illustrated summary of the 8 articles in this series, links to articles on specific themes, alphabetical list and links for artists, and recommended books.
history of painting
From their genre roots in the Dutch Golden Age, through Géricault and Courbet, to the social realism of Millet, Manet, and most of all Lhermitte.
The very large Paris Salon of 1883 introduced the public and critics to a new and growing movement in painting. It wasn’t Impressionism or Post-Impressionism, though.
The best of the 111 paintings shown in this series, to mark the half millennium which has elapsed since his birth.
His 8 Last Suppers from 1547 to around 1593 compared with contemporary versions by Titian, the Bassanos, and Veronese. A true feast.
In his final decade, he designed the vast ‘Paradise’ for the Doge’s Palace, and several great paintings, but probably painted relatively little himself.
Scenes from the early life of Christ, carefully referenced to those of the Passion to come, the Virgin Mary, and two other saintly Marys. His last major series.
A prolific period in which he painted the life of Christ for the Scuola di San Rocco, the Gonzaga Cycle, and a smaller series of Venetian histories.
Danaë, raped by Jupiter in the form of a shower of gold; Lucretia, whose rape resulted in the Republic of Rome; Leda, raped by Jupiter in the form of a swan. And a portrait of a Venetian senator.
Six mythological works, which culminate in what is probably his finest of all: the Origin of the Milky Way, analysed in detail here.
The Eclectic Light Company 