Transformations of Lycian peasants into frogs, Pygmalion’s statute into Galatea, the pregnant Myrrha, silkworm moths, and autumn.
narrative
Transformations of Chloris into Flora, Daphne into a laurel tree, and Actaeon into a stag which is promptly killed by his own hunting dogs.
A summary history from 1700 to the 20th century, with examples of major paintings, and links to each of the detailed articles in this series.
The English king who sealed Magna Carta in 1215, this tells of the treachery of his nobles, changing allegiances, and a death from dysentery.
Barefoot and sometimes surprising, as Christ washes the disciples’ feet, and other feet are missing altogether. Barefoot means poverty too.
Only the gods wore sandals in the ancient world. Then the state of your footwear told much about you, with fashion opting for the outrageously impractical.
Two last Pre-Raphaelite artists, Evelyn De Morgan and Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale, brought narrative painting to a close in the twentieth century.
Before we masked up for Covid, covering the face had connotations. Here they’re explored, from the niqāb and widow’s veil to the aversion that makes us voyeur.
In the latter half of the 19th century, a new narrative form developed, primarily among British painters: the open narrative, or problem picture.
A glimpse inside Botticelli’s studio, an artist who foresaw his own death, an unusual Birth of Venus, the Ship Fools, and more painted stories from 1922.
The Eclectic Light Company 