The talaria fashioned from gold by Vulcan for Hermes as messenger of the gods, and lent to Perseus when he was sent to bring back the head of Medusa/
Mantegna
January is named after the Roman god of transitions, Janus, and is the first month of the New Year. Or is it? Classical civilisations more usually started their year in Spring, and what’s this about Juno?
Ancient paint made using glue as a binder loses chromatic intensity as it dries, fades readily over time, and forms a fragile paint layer. But it has been popular at times.
A dance to the music of time, the hours, Muses, sirens, winged putti, faeries, maidens fearing death, mid-summer feasts and folk dancing.
After an excellent education, she married the Duke of Mantua, and started collecting paintings, most commissioned in great detail for her private study.
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.
Paints using glue as their binder, instead of oil, were popular in the early Renaissance before being replaced by oils. William Blake revived them around 1800.
Major works from around 1500 by Giovanni Bellini, Mantegna, Botticelli, Perugino, Leonardo da Vinci, and Fra Bartolomeo.
How an architect, two great masters of painting, and the author of an early textbook on painting applied geometric optics to change painting.
The Eclectic Light Company 