Ariadne’s Corona Borealis, a difficult reading from Tintoretto, celestial spheres, constellations of summer, and signs of the zodiac.
narrative
Ursa Major, often the only constellation people know today, the Milky Way, the Pleiades, and Sagittarius.
Jupiter rapes an Arcadian nymph and follower of Diana, who is then cast out, turned into a bear by Juno, and almost killed by her son.
Ten domestic interiors, places we take for granted, but Vallotton makes them thoroughly unsettling, with oddities and open narratives.
Played by warriors including Paris of Troy and Achilles, also by Saint Cecilia, angels, and a siren. And with only one string left, in Watts’ allegory of Hope.
In classical times, they were strummed like a guitar rather than plucked. Apollo, Orpheus and lyric poets from Raphael, Rubens, Waterhouse and others.
Young Phaëthon challenges the god of the sun, Phoebus, to prove he is his father, and takes his chariot on a ride to disaster and death.
An early Rembrandt, chiaroscuro lighting, one of Adam Elsheimer’s oil on copper paintings, above Frederick the Great, and adorning Goya’s painting hat.
Candles in Candlemas, as votives, at pardons and funerals, and snuffed out as part of excommunication. Used in sorcery, allegory, and Vanitas.
Jupiter wants Io, but after raping her turns her into a cow for safe-keeping. Juno suspects, though, and puts the cow under the watchful hundred eyes of Argus.
The Eclectic Light Company 