Absent from Classical art, she first appears in Apuleius’ ‘The Golden Ass’, which was written in the 2nd century. Wonderful paintings, particularly from women artists, of this novel.
Poynter
Paintings from 1885 onwards, looking at women from Ovid’s ‘Heroides’, his ‘Metamorphoses’, women of Troy, and this unusual time series across the canvas.
One of the most prolific and accomplished narrative painters, of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in Europe and North America.
Bad girls whose beautiful voices lured sailors to their deaths, so that the women could eat them. Paintings by Etty, Moreau, Waterhouse, Rae, Nash and others.
From Gustave Doré and Winslow Homer, to Vincent van Gogh and Odilon Redon – modern paintings of butterflies.
Hosting Lord Byron’s Alpine Witch, as the birth canal for Thomas Cole’s ‘Voyage of Life’, and an attempt by Courbet to return to the womb? The versatility of caves.
Until 1880, varnishing oil paintings was standard practice, but three completely different types of varnish were used. A journey through names like sandarac and colophony.
A common convention in paintings of classical myth, the river god was a bearded old man with a put pouring forth water, often seen with a Naiad, his daughter.
One of Ovid’s most painted stories, still popular, with some of the finest depictions by Poussin, Rubens, Corot, Watts, Scheffer, and others.
From Richard Parkes Bonington, through AW Hunt, John Brett, Edward Poynter, Delacroix, Rosa Bonheur, Daumier, Gustave Moreau, and Winslow Homer.
