They range in number from 3 to more than a dozen, have various names and roles, but in paintings are most commonly followers of the sun chariot.
myth
Key parts of the background of paintings of the story of the rape of the Sabine Women, this hill was originally a fortress, then the major temple to Jupiter.
Goddess of youth, and cupbearer to the Olympian deities, she was a popular guise for portraits, and shown in a few mythological paintings.
A saint banished to the island of Patmos, a history wound around a column, and a megalomaniac emperor strangled in his bath by a professional wrestler.
A nymph cursed by Hera to repeat the words just spoken to her, and a youth who falls in love with his own image. Together the result in some of the finest narrative paintings.
Claude Lorrain’s view of Delos, Leonardo’s Virgin of the Rocks, several versions of the Flight to Egypt, including one by William Blake, and more.
Paintings from a century ago by Fortescue-Brickdale, Franz von Stuck, George Bellows, and John Godward, who committed suicide because of Picasso’s success.
Emperors Galba, Otho, Vitellius, and finally Vespasian before stability was restored. Painted stories of the Batavians, final minutes of Vitellius, and the destruction of Pompeii.
Known in one spectacular myth, in which he brings the chariot of the sun crashing down to scorch the earth. Paintings by Poussin, Tintoretto, Rubens and Moreau.
Five years into Nero’s reign as emperor, he had his mother murdered. It was all downhill from there: Rome burned, and so did many Christians.
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