Why is the Virgin Mary standing on a snake with a part-eaten apple in its mouth? And which painting of her was banned from display in Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome?
narrative
Snakes and serpents in myth, legend and religion are thoroughly sinister and bad, with one curious exception. A journey across centuries of images.
For 20 years, Boydell’s Shakespeare Gallery tried to establish an English School of History Painting. Or was it just a ploy to make money from prints?
Thought to be his first play, it hasn’t been painted much, but those who have are notable, including William Holman Hunt’s masterpiece.
How West failed in his aim of bringing a revolution to history painting by depicting ‘modern history’, and was repeatedly upstaged by others.
Although not popular on stage, a classical tragedy that attracted paintings by Waterhouse, Delacroix and others.
A visual history tracing wings back to their origins in messengers of the gods and messenger-gods of the dawn of civilisation, 4 millennia ago.
His early ambition was to be a history painter. After studying in Rome, when he was on his way back to the US, he stopped off in London. For nearly sixty years.
Twin brother and sister are shipwrecked. She disguises herself as a eunuch, and has a noblewoman fall in love with her. Then it gets even more confusing. Great comedy.
A senior in three generations of German painters, who is notable for his paintings of the victorious Arminius, or ‘Hermann the German’.
The Eclectic Light Company 