A selection of these precursors to modern comic books from about 1263 to 1700. Some are based on rectangles, but others are arranged in the round.
narrative
Heracles unwittingly sets up his later death when he thinks the centaur Nessus is trying to abduct his wife Deianira, and shoots him in the back with one of his arrows poisoned with the blood of the Lernean hydra.
Revived in the 19th century, stories painted by JMW Turner, Camille Corot, Edward Burne-Jones, Ford Madox Brown, Lovis Corinth, Aksel Johannessen and Thomas Hart Benton.
After rescuing Hesione from a sea monster, he wrestled with Achelous for the hand of Deianira in marriage, and created the cornucopia.
Twenty-three scenes integrated into Memling’s Passion, nine into Tintoretto’s huge Crucifixion, and three into Poussin’s Gathering the Manna.
Heracles pays the penalty for multiple murders, as he is subjugated, stripped of his lion-skin and club, dressed in women’s clothing, and forced to serve Queen Omphale.
Winner of the Prix de Rome in 1866, he showed great promise as a history painter until he was killed in the Franco-Prussian War in 1871.
Masaccio’s Tribute Money deciphered, and examples from masters including Duccio, Jacopo da Sellaio, Botticelli, Fra Bartolomeo and the Carraccis.
He has to steal the belt of the Queen of the Amazons, then steal the cattle of the monster Geryon. As a bonus, he gets two extra tasks, to steal the golden apples of the Hesperides, and finally to fetch Cerberus, guardian of the gates to the underworld.
Stories told in series of separate paintings by Francisco Goya in 1806, Augustus Egg in 1858, Louis Janmot in 34 images around 1850, and Edward Burne-Jones’ ill-fated Perseus Series of 1875-88.
