Paintings of sorceresses, who combine dark arts and seduction. Circe with Odysseus and Scylla, Melissa, Armida, Morgan le Fay and others.
narrative
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.
Clown figures including Harlequin, Pulcinella and Pierrot are derived from the commedia dell’arte, a favourite of Watteau and other painters.
Unwittingly, and outside their manifesto, the Pre-Raphaelite Brethren developed a new British narrative painting.
A controversial story of a moneylender getting revenge when a borrower defaults, and demanding a pound of flesh.
From Venus covering herself with her hair, to combing through the hair for nits and lice. Artists include Botticelli, Rossetti and Degas.
The stories of Samson, whose prodigious strength depended on not having his hair cut, and Mary Magdalene, who dried Christ’s feet with her hair.
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