Ten domestic interiors, places we take for granted, but Vallotton makes them thoroughly unsettling, with oddities and open narratives.
painting
Played by warriors including Paris of Troy and Achilles, also by Saint Cecilia, angels, and a siren. And with only one string left, in Watts’ allegory of Hope.
In classical times, they were strummed like a guitar rather than plucked. Apollo, Orpheus and lyric poets from Raphael, Rubens, Waterhouse and others.
By the end of the 18th century, remains of Pompeii were being excavated and inspired painters to re-imagine life and death in the city.
When Pompeii was buried by debris from the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 CE, many fine Roman paintings were preserved. Here’s a selection.
Mountain paintings by JMW Turner, John Ruskin, John Brett, and Georg Janny.
Best-known for his watercolours of Venice, he was a Post-Impressionist, and an early promoter of the art of Cézanne and Matisse in the US.
An early Rembrandt, chiaroscuro lighting, one of Adam Elsheimer’s oil on copper paintings, above Frederick the Great, and adorning Goya’s painting hat.
Candles in Candlemas, as votives, at pardons and funerals, and snuffed out as part of excommunication. Used in sorcery, allegory, and Vanitas.
Jupiter wants Io, but after raping her turns her into a cow for safe-keeping. Juno suspects, though, and puts the cow under the watchful hundred eyes of Argus.
The Eclectic Light Company 