At the start of the 15th century, Italian easel paintings used egg tempera. By the end, Leonardo da Vinci was pushing the technical boundaries using oil paint.
Piero
Atlas, who bears the heavens on his shoulders. Prometheus, who deceived Zeus and was bound by chains as punishment, an eagle eating his liver each day. Epimetheus, who married Pandora.
Scenes from Perseus and Andromeda, and Orlando Furioso, by Veronese, Moreau, Burne-Jones, Vallotton and others.
Was a primordial deity, attendant at Aphrodite’s birth, or her son by Ares/Mars? When did he get his bow and arrows? Answered in fine paintings.
The first caused war between centaurs and humans, in the second many were turned into stone, and the third caused the Trojan War
In the Renaissance, the unicorn wasn’t legendary at all, but had appeared in classical accounts of natural history. It was as real as a rhinoceros.
Like all the worst men, satyrs were addicted to music, wine and women. Paintings by Piero, Claude, Rubens, Vedder, Moreau and others.
Myrrh makes its appearance as one of the 3 gifts of the Magi, then as an attribute of Mary Magdalene. A history in paintings by Bosch and others.
The use of symbols in paintings from the Renaissance to the start of the nineteenth century, with van Eyck, Rubens, Girodet, and others.
The Judaeo-Christian tradition lacks any goddess, unlike its predecessors in Mediterranean cultures. Is there an equivalent among its saints, or the Virgin Mary? An exploration in paintings.
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