The ultimately disastrous wedding feast ends with its guests killing one another in a series of pitched battles, after one guest tried to abduct the bride.
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Far from continuing to paint ‘modern history’, he embarked on major projects for religious paintings, some of which are superb.
Greek and Trojan forces join battle, with casualties on both sides. Two stories, one of a defeated warrior changing into a swan, the other of a woman changing into a man.
Telling stories visually is necessarily explicit. How then do you tell the story of a serial murderer who hangs the bodies of his victims in a cupboard, to young children?
Code name for the invasion of Russia in WW2, Barbarossa was one of the most powerful rulers in Europe. Here’s his life in paintings, and his death by drowning in shallow water.
The ‘thousand ships’ of the Greek forces are gathered at Aulis, waiting for fair winds. A sign tells them how long the war against Troy will last, but they have to do something horrific first.
In the 8 years after painting the Death of Wolfe, he attempted a few more ‘modern history’ paintings, with varying success.
How a half-brother of Hector blamed himself for the death of Hesperia, who died of a snakebite, flung himself from a cliff, and was transformed into a diver.
Chione, who had been raped by Mercury and Apollo, is silenced by Diana’s arrow. Her father is transformed into a hawk, and King Ceyx and his grieving widow are changed into kingfishers.
The painting by which West is best known, it was claimed to have started a revolution in art, and to be the first modern history painting. Is there any truth?
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