Early explorations in the landscapes of Aelbert Cuyp, tortoises from Brazil, the first dedicated animal painter in Paulus Potter, and a concert of birds by Melchior d’Hondecoeter.
Potter
In 1579, 7 of the more northerly provinces in the Low Countries formed the Dutch Republic. That soon prospered from its international trade, and saw the creation of millions of paintings that changed European art.
From Dürer’s groundbreaking hare to the fable of the hare and the tortoise, a hidden hare in a well-known Turner and a white rabbit for the first of the month?
Fourteen major painters whose anniversaries I’ll celebrate or commemorate during this New Year, from George Bellows to Jacques-Louis David.
They drew carts and ploughs, in preference to horses where power rather than speed was needed. Also for milk, beef and their hides processed into leather.
In Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights, animals charmed by Orpheus, the story of Rebecca and Eliezer, and accompanying the three Magi to the Nativity.
From Hannibal crossing the Alps with his war elephants, through the temptation of St Anthony, to the circus and an imaginary India.
The fairy tale of the Frog Prince, the fable of The Frogs who Demand a King, frogs at the Fall of Man, and dangling from a kite tail above Strasbourg.
Odysseus and Circe, the prodigal son, Gadarene swine, Sant Anthony, and in portraits: everything to see about pigs and their swineherds.
The changing colours of trees and their leaves, celebrated in paintings from Paulus Potter in 1652 to Paul Signac in 1903.
