From Hannibal crossing the Alps with his war elephants, through the temptation of St Anthony, to the circus and an imaginary India.
history of painting
Although the term didn’t come into use until 1791, panoramic landscapes started earlier, and largely stopped by the end of the 19th century.
Gnarled, twisted, wizened and barren trees are one of the bleakest sights in the winter in northern Europe, and a common motif in German Romanticism.
Origin of the French tricolour, and Marianne, Norway making its way to independence, 4th July flag parades, and dressing overall at regattas.
Turner’s Ulysses Deriding Polyphemus, banners in Raphael’s and Tintoretto’s paintings of the Passion, and Friedrich’s Swedish flag.
The wedding of Perseus to Andromeda turns into a pitched battle, with many turned to stone by Medusa’s face. Then 9 daughters challenge the Muses to a contest.
When Edward Burne-Jones was invited to remove his painting from exhibition, it wasn’t so much the male genitals in the centre, but the scandal surrounding its model.
Odysseus had been away from his home, wife Penelope and son Telemachus for over 20 years. What would she have written to him?
From Velázquez’s pioneering sketches of 1630, through Valenciennes in 1780, to Constable, Corot, and Pissarro, Manet and John Singer Sargent in the late 19th century.
The development of fully-rigged sailing ships in the paintings of Caspar David Friedrich and JC Dahl.
The Eclectic Light Company 