The modified myth of Pandora remained popular well into the 20th century, when it must have seemed even more appropriate with war and pandemic.
myth
The original Greek myth was almost unknown in paintings until the mid-19th century, then, slightly changed, it became one of the most popular myths in paintings.
Achilles acquires himself a concubine, as does his commander Agamemnon. When the latter is forced to return his, and takes Briseis from Achilles, there’s trouble.
Achilles had gone missing, hiding as a young woman in the royal court on Skyros, where Odysseus found him. And a master archer was bitten on the foot by a snake.
Covering the Norns, Dagr, Nótt, Ægir, Gefjon, Bragi, Iðunn, Hervör, and the Wild Hunt or Åsgårdsreien.
Covering Thor, Odin, Valhalla, Valkyries, Freyja, Loki, and Baldr in paintings.
The myth of Deucalion and Pyrrha, and others, painted by Rubens, Poussin, John Martin, and real floods by Alfred Sisley.
Painted accounts of the great flood from Genesis, by Michelangelo, Elsheimer, Thomas Cole, JMW Turner and others.
His later years brought one of the few paintings of Nemesis, an influence on GĂ©ricault’s ‘Raft of the Medusa’, and a portrait of the infant King of Rome.
An unconventional portrait of an Empress, who reclines on a stone bench beneath dark trees. She looks pensive if not slightly wistful, and not Imperial in the least.
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