We give presents at Christmas after the 3 kings. So what is myrrh, and what are its origins in paintings? A grim story of incest, deceit and metamorphosis.
Metamorphoses
After painting portraits of the Pope during his second visit to Italy, he returns to paint the king’s niece and new bride, Las Meninas, and his last myth.
Review of paintings and related articles published here in the first half of 2018, starring Fuseli, Klimt, Liljefors, Sassoferrato, and Hodler.
In the first few years of his career, he was commissioned to paint a series showing stories from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. They are simply brilliant.
Another six of the best, from the battle of the Lapiths and Centaurs to the assassination of Julius Caesar, from Rubens to Turner.
Six of the best, from Nessus, Deianira and Hercules to the sacrifice of Iphigeia, painted by Tiepolo, Rubens, and others.
The final article in this series looks at Augustus and Cleopatra, the emperor’s patronage of Virgil, and how Ovid’s own legacy has been transformed in paintings.
The story of the assassination of the dictator, told by William Blake, Gérôme, von Piloty, and others.
After three brief tales of strange happenings in early Rome, Ovid gives an account of the bringing of the god Aesculapius to the city, to end an epidemic.
Paintings by Poussin and Claude give different accounts of the meeting and separation by death of King Numa and the nymph Egeria. Did she dictate to him the laws of Rome?
