Enormously popular across Europe, Cervantes’ ‘Don Quixote’ led to some fine narrative paintings, but why so few even in the 19th century?
narrative
Pitched battles at the weddings of Hippodame and Pirithous, and Andromeda and Perseus. The Trojan War resulting from the wedding of Thetis and Peleus, and turning water into wine with Veronese.
How Hercules and Achelous came to fight one another over the hand of Deianira, resulting in one of the river god’s horns being wrenched off to become the Horn of Plenty.
Views from the inside of balconies looking out and down, from German Romanticism, through Morisot and Caillebotte, to Corinth and Pierre Bonnard.
Views from outside looking up and in, including David and Bathsheba, Romeo and Juliet, an early plein air landscape, and Goya’s majas.
Stories of shape-shifters who could morph readily into animals and even inanimate objects. Includes Proteus, Erysichthon’s daughter, and leads on to Achelous himself.
Landscape and history painter who progressed from realist, through Barbizon to Impressionism, then his views caught fire. Spectacular landscapes indeed.
A poor couple entertained two men as well as they could in their humble cottage. Their guests turned out to be Jupiter and Mercury, who rewarded them for their hospitality.
Sargent’s hospital tent, Arab camps, Shoshone below Lander’s Peak, Sami in Lapland, clubs on Derby Day, the Big Top, and on holiday.
Their use by armies of the distant past, in the war against Troy, the sack of Rome, the Battle of Issus, by Alexander the Great, and in Crusades.
The Eclectic Light Company 