Two delightful and gently humorous stories, with superb paintings by Domenichino, Poussin, de Clerck (a real jewel), and Émile Lévy.
myth
From very humble beginnings in the British colonies in America, he rose to become a leading history painter, friend and painter to the King, and President of the Royal Academy. How?
After he lost Eurydice, Orpheus scorned the company of women. For this, a frenzied mob of Bacchantes overwhelm him, and tear him apart, for which Bacchus is not pleased.
Venus had been terrified of Adonis going hunting, and cautioned him about going near savage beasts. But he wasn’t to be put off. Superb paintings by Veronese, Titian, Rubens, and others.
The man beats the woman quite unfairly, then on the way home they stop off to make love in a temple. Their misbehaviour is punished. More superb narrative paintings.
A dark tale of a wicked nurse, incest, transformation, the origin of the precious resin myrrh, and obstetrics in the arboretum. And a possible very early Titian.
An unusual transformation, from statue to person, which has been widely retold. A superb series from Burne-Jones, more from Gérôme, and Regnault – fine paintings.
Struck by a ricocheting discus, the young man’s blood is transformed into hyacinth flowers.
The story of how a young man inadvertently killed his pet stag, and was turned into a cypress for his grief – and that of others.
One of Ovid’s most painted stories, still popular, with some of the finest depictions by Poussin, Rubens, Corot, Watts, Scheffer, and others.
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