Popular in ancient times, those in Ravenna inspired Klimt. Luc-Olivier Merson and Elihu Vedder created their own, Sichulski imitated them, and Signac used similar patches of paint.
Merson
A man furtively making off with two loaves, Vermeer’s Milkmaid, baking bread in rural Sweden, a traditional baking oven, and glistening alongside mackerel and glassware.
Lycaon transformed into a wolf, the origin of later werewolves, the she-wolf who fed Romulus and Remus, a shepherd defending his flock, the wolf of Agubbio, the fable of the wolf and the lamb, and others.
The tragic story of Quasimodo, hunchback bell-ringer of the cathedral, and Esmeralda, a beautiful young dancer, and her pet goat Djali.
Mary Magdalene, Saint Paul, Saint Cecilia, Joan of Arc in paintings by Elisabetta Sirani, Artemisia Gentileschi, Raphael, Annie Swynnerton and others.
One for sorrow, two for joy, according to the rhyme. Magpies play cameo roles in several major paintings, as shown here.
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.
A little of the history of Egypt, from Books of the Dead in 1300 BCE, up to Napoleon’s campaign there between 1798-1801.
From Ondines, who kill men by their curse, to a frozen fountain in Agubbio, and parks in New York, Paris and Rome.
A staple product of many pro painters in western Europe for over half a millennium, and required by every church and chapel.
The Eclectic Light Company 