Two birds associated with myth: Zeus’s eagle, often used to indicate his presence in disguise, and the symbol of night and wisdom, the owl.
Moreau
The complicated story of Medea, who provided Jason with intelligence and potions to enable him to steal the Golden Fleece. A femme very fatale.
From Venus covering herself with her hair, to combing through the hair for nits and lice. Artists include Botticelli, Rossetti and Degas.
Maternal love, Oedipus and the Sphinx, and a naked courtesan unveiled before a court of men, all demonstrate how important is gaze.
The north wind, cold and harbinger of winter, who abducted an Athenian princess in so many paintings. Also one painting which could show Euros, the east wind.
Does analysis of literary plots offer anything to the understanding of visual narrative in painting? A journey through some of the best painted stories in quest of the answer.
Do Booker’s Seven Basic Plots reduce to a series of events leading to a change in fortune (reversal, peripeteia), and establishing the outcome?
One of the famous painted narratives, Oedipus and the Sphinx proves an exception to all rules, but is glossed over in discussion of the literary narrative.
Having murdered his own mother in revenge for her murder of Agamemnon, Orestes is hounded down and driven mad by the Furies.
The fourth ‘basic plot’ is the story of voyage and return, for which we turn to Ovid’s account of this couple, and a dozen superb paintings. But does the model fit?
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