A collection of paintings with strange incongruities that can make them impossible to read, from Masaccio to Gérôme.
narrative
Zeus, disguised as a gander, raped Nemesis, who laid Helen as an egg. She became step-sister of Castor and Polydeuces, and went on to be abducted by Paris as Aphrodite’s bribe.
Inscriptions in paintings that reveal the story, or quote from its literary source, from Rembrandt to the Pre-Raphaelites.
Signatures written on scraps of paper, or in books, with comments, dedications in graffiti, and an apocalyptic vision of Botticelli.
Paris, Prince of Troy, is the perfect pawn in Zeus’s plan for war. He develops a taste for beautiful women, then accepts Aphrodite’s bribe in the beauty contest of the three goddesses.
Covering the Norns, Dagr, Nótt, Ægir, Gefjon, Bragi, Iðunn, Hervör, and the Wild Hunt or Åsgårdsreien.
Covering Thor, Odin, Valhalla, Valkyries, Freyja, Loki, and Baldr in paintings.
Zeus comes up with a plan to reduce the number of mortals, and completes one of the first two steps, marrying Thetis to a mortal. And what a wedding feast, thanks to Eris.
Examples of painted fables from the 19th century, from Landseer, Millet, Moreau, Klimt, Morisot, Hodler, and Pierre Bonnard.
Without a title and the story in a fable, paintings can be hard to identify, and even harder to read. Examples from 1500-1751.
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