Venus born surrounded by colourful fish, in the element water, in a feeding frenzy by Turner’s Slave Ship, with mermaids, and brought ashore ready to eat.
painting
How Dutch painters studying in Italy came to be influenced by Caravaggio, and took his style back to Utrecht, where they became known as Utrecht Caravaggists.
Composition and effects of different types of varnish, with its visual effects, and how it can make a painting unreadable when it contains accumulated dirt.
How Dante meets up with Virgil, and is guided by him down to the deepest circle of Hell. About the other two books, covering Purgatory and Paradise.
The Monets and Sisley’s moved on in 1878, leaving only Renoir to visit and paint in the summer. Then in 1881, Gustave Caillebotte got a property nearby, and continued to paint the river here.
Claude Monet and family rented a house there, and were joined by Alfred Sisley and his family. Renoir came to visit, and the three painted the river and its bridges together.
Half a millennium later, a British artist paints the interior of Botticelli’s studio, with members of the de’ Medici family. How accurate could that be?
They tried to lure Odysseus and his crew to their deaths, and the same with Jason and his Argonauts. With the head of a beautiful woman and the legs of a bird, their singing was alluring to sailors.
With much of the Dutch Republic close to water, views of the coast became marines, those of cities showed boats busy nearby, and the countryside was overrun by rivers.
To the depths of Hell, to see the giant triple-headed Lucifer eating Judas Iscariot, Brutus and Cassius. Then as dawn draws near, back to the world above.
The Eclectic Light Company 