Suppressed by the Reformation, narrative painting didn’t really get going in Britain until the early 18th century, but made up for lost time.
narrative
This play, responsible for the burning down of the Globe Theatre, tells the story of Henry’s divorce from Queen Katherine and the birth of Queen Elizabeth I.
A traditional English farce, starring Sir John Falstaff, one of Shakespeare’s favourite characters, who sets out to seduce two married women.
Based on Plutarch’s Lives, this play contains some of the most memorable quotations in English, and has been painted quite frequently.
A story of jealousy, adultery, treachery and race, which resulted in an early professional actress in a lead, and the first major lead for a black actor.
Titania, Queen of the Fairies, falls in love with Bottom, whose head has been turned into that of an ass. All ends well, after a farcical play within a play/
His most popular comedy inspired a new sub-genre in painting, ‘faery painting’ in the 19th century. Here’s the first act and a bit, with paintings by Dadd and Paton.
The north wind, cold and harbinger of winter, who abducted an Athenian princess in so many paintings. Also one painting which could show Euros, the east wind.
The personification of the west wind, to the Greeks gentle and responsible for bringing the start of the growing season, and the abduction and rape of a nymph who became Flora.
As the tragedy moves relentlessly to the deaths of most of its characters, paintings by William Blake, Ford Madox Brown, and Benjamin West tells its story.
The Eclectic Light Company 