In which Dante is terrified by three wild animals and meets the ghost of Virgil. Together they make their way to the gates of Hell.
narrative
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.
Two superb series of paintings of scenes from Goethe’s Faust Part One, by Ary Scheffer and James Tissot.
Joseph-Nicolas taught his son Tony, who like his father was an academic history painter with a taste for human disasters. He also taught at the Académie Julian in Paris.
This new series will travel with Dante and Virgil as they visit Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise, looking at the many masterworks inspired by the poem.
Is it just a quirky re-telling of the myth of Arachne and her weaving contest? What do the foreground and background have in common? A superb visual riddle, perhaps.
In 1660, he co-founded the Gobelins factory which became the leading maker of tapestries. He also set what became ‘Louis XIV Style’ in furniture.
His talent was spotted early, and he was taken to Rome to study under Poussin in his workshop. He returned to Paris and became the king’s ‘greatest French artist of all time’.
With the exception of his early history paintings and a few portraits of men, his entire career was devoted to painting beautiful women.
A sibyl, or an allegory of painting? Maybe the ‘maid of Corinth’ who legends says ‘invented’ painting. And are they spinners, or the story of Arachne?
