Weaving turned yarn into fabric ready to make into garments. Associations include industry, passing time, fidelity, and the myth of Arachne.
narrative
Spinning natural fibres like wool into yarn was “women’s work” and had several connotations, here explored in paintings, and the origin of the word ‘spinster’.
Two artists painted panoramas full of miniature stories, which assembled into broad summaries of contemporary society: Frith and Ford Madox Brown.
A merchant has a wife and identical twin sons, with identical twin servants. They are separated by a shipwreck. Years later, chaos ensues.
The complicated story of Medea, who provided Jason with intelligence and potions to enable him to steal the Golden Fleece. A femme very fatale.
Paintings of sorceresses, who combine dark arts and seduction. Circe with Odysseus and Scylla, Melissa, Armida, Morgan le Fay and others.
Two new narrative themes that became distinctive in the mid-19th century were contemporary English poetry, and the legends of King Arthur.
Describing himself as a Realist, normally avoiding painting landscapes, but concentrating on ballet dancers and ‘modern life’, he was the odd one out.
How a shunned bride consummates her marriage without her husband being aware, and tricks him out of the ring he insists he’d never give her.
Pierrot and Harlequin went on to be clowns in the circus, and Pulcinella became Mr Punch in popular Punch and Judy shows. And they live on still.
The Eclectic Light Company 