The model for Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, this couple committed suicide when each presumed they had brought the death of the other.
Ovid
Byron, no stranger to forbidden love, swam across the Dardanelles in 1810, retracing the strokes of the legendary Leander who died trying to reach his lover Hero.
A senior in three generations of German painters, who is notable for his paintings of the victorious Arminius, or ‘Hermann the German’.
Fishing with rod and line plays a significant part in the myth of Daedalus, and adds calm and timelessness to many landscapes.
Paintings of this popular story from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, by Tintoretto, Jan Brueghel the Elder, and the unknown Gabriel Guay.
From Ovid’s Metamorphoses to Goethe’s Faust, here are eight classic works of literature accompanied by superb paintings and illustrations. All free.
Moreau defined painting as “this language of symbol, myth and sign”, and this is his greatest expression of that.
We give presents at Christmas after the 3 kings. So what is myrrh, and what are its origins in paintings? A grim story of incest, deceit and metamorphosis.
After painting portraits of the Pope during his second visit to Italy, he returns to paint the king’s niece and new bride, Las Meninas, and his last myth.
With the exception of his early history paintings and a few portraits of men, his entire career was devoted to painting beautiful women.