Parrots as extras in myths, witnessing Eve taking the apple from the serpent, and as companions to a succession of beautiful women.
Prinsep
Significant paintings based on The Sleeping Beauty, Mariana and Mariana in the South, and Break, Break, Break.
Gambling as a sure road to Hell, with Bosch, Caravaggio, Georges de la Tour, Hogarth, Géricault, Courbet, Rossetti, and others.
More paintings of music, from the Aesthetic watercolour of Marie Spartali Stillman to folk dance, and Vuillard’s friends playing in his apartment.
The enjoyment of being idle, indulgence of relaxation, and blissful laziness: that’s dolce far niente for you, in paintings to chill out with.
Almost banned in the 19th century, only one scene has been painted extensively, but that could refer instead to either of two of Tennyson’s poems.
Grisaille – grey underpainting used to set the tone for a finished work – is like underwear, waiting for richly coloured clothes to go on top. Not in these paintings, though.
Added to portraits to indicate the sagacity of the subject, owls were dear to the heart and brush of Hieronymus Bosch.
What’s the difference between a lute and a mandolin? Was Napoleon responsible for the early loss of popularity of mandolins?
The late 19th century took gambling upmarket into glitzy casinos. Seen in paintings by Courbet, Rossetti, Félix Vallotton, and others.
The Eclectic Light Company 