Six of the best stories and the finest paintings from the first half of Metamorphoses, from Daphne’s transformation into the laurel, to Echo and Narcissus.
painting
Many coasts are flat – a challenge to painters from the Netherlands and Belgium in particular. Here masters from the Golden Age, the Hague School, and others take on this challenge.
Later narrative paintings may have drawn on new detective fiction and the vogue for problems paintings, which invited the viewer to invent their own story.
For his first decade as a professional artist, he painted narrative works and portraits. Here are some of his little-known narrative paintings.
A group of popular mythical heroes set out to kill a fearsome wild boar sent by Diana in vengeance. It turns into farcical tragedy, and some superb paintings.
This takes us from Samuel Palmer and Peter De Wint, through Girtin and Cotman, to JMW Turner and William Blake.
The first in a series of 4, starts with Dürer’s brilliant paintings, looks at Raphael, Hans Bol, and the beginnings of the ‘English School’.
A succinct summary of the biography of Degas, told with the aid of 12 of his key works, from history painting to the late landscapes.
A brilliant Spanish master, who painted the early history of the Spanish nation, fine watercolours, and daring oil sketches.
More paintings of fishing boats and fish markets on the coast, by Turner, Bonington, Monet, Zorn, Sorolla, Signac, and Paul Nash.
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