Paintings of knights in armour from Raphael in c 1502, through Ingres’ rescue of Angelica, to Arthurian legends and the Pre-Raphaelite movement.
narrative
Comedy is unusual in paintings, and where it occurs, it’s more usually a visual joke. But there are exceptions in a tale-within-a-tale from Homer.
Finding an empty boat on the bank of the Ebro, the pair drift out on a new adventure to rescue a knight or queen in distress. The result is disaster.
Don Quixote runs amok at a puppet show, destroying all the puppets, then has to beat a hasty retreat when Sancho brays out of turn.
The fourth ‘basic plot’ is the story of voyage and return, for which we turn to Ovid’s account of this couple, and a dozen superb paintings. But does the model fit?
How paintings of the Aeneid, Jason and the Golden Fleece, and Homer’s Odyssey match up with the basic plot of The Quest.
A mule loaded with weapons leads them to an inn, where they’re told the story of the villagers who were going to fight over their braying. Then a puppeteer arrives with a performing ape.
Odysseus finally arrives home, but has to decide what to do with more than 100 suitors to his wife Penelope.
Odysseus and his crew survive their encounter with the Sirens, but the hero has to endure 7 years with Calypso before he meets Nausicaä.
How Odysseus and his crew escaped the one-eyed giant Polyphemus, then became turned into pigs by the sorceress Circe.
