Can a single painting tell the viewer a story which they don’t already know? Examples from Holman Hunt, Degas, Orchardson, Collier and Chierici.
narrative
Until the 19th century, narrative paintings showed stories which the viewer already knew, ideally at the moment of change or transformation.
Don Quixote agrees to fly on a magic wooden horse on a mission to rid the duennas of their beards, but his squire is more reluctant. All most amusing for the Duke and Duchess.
Paintings by Joseph Wright of Derby, William Dyce, Walter Crane, JW Waterhouse, Velázquez and others with allusions to the thread of time.
Painting time as a concept is very difficult. Once solution is to show the Fates, as depicted by Rubens, Goya, Burne-Jones, Jacek Malczewski and others.
A series of motifs telling stories from classical mythology was completed with a breathtaking ceiling in the Sun King’s Royal Chapel at Versailles.
For the 200th anniversary of his death, a look back at paintings by this artist, a favourite of the Sun King. Here are mainly religious images.
The Dolorous Duenna tells the story of how she and her accompanying duennas sprouted beards as the result of the marriage of a knight and princess.
Back in the castle, the next trick is in hand. Sancho shows the Duchess a letter to his wife, and they’re about get involved with the Dolorous Duenna.
They go with the Duke and Duchess on a hunt, where Sancho panics and falls out of a tree. In the night Sancho has to agree to lash himself 3,300 times.
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