Although painting and sculpture are closely allied, it’s curious to depict sculpture in painting. Examples range from early grisailles to ribald depictions of the Roman god Priapus.
Reynolds
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.
When he died 200 years ago today, he was honoured with burial in Saint Paul’s Cathedral, London. Not bad for an American painter.
With ‘modern history paintings’ long behind him, he turned to literary subjects and classical histories once more.
He took a break from ‘modern history’ painting in the 1780s, making religious works and even some landscapes, including some unknown gems.
A Pennsylvanian, he wanted to be a great history painter. When returning from a visit to Italy, he stopped off in London, and stayed there almost 60 years.
Controversial and an ardent anti-unionist, Frick was an eclectic collector of art. Three Vermeers, Rembrandt, Goya, Renoir, and Whistler are among its treasures.
Rembrandt’s late paintings created visual effects as much by surface textures, as by form or colour; his secret lies in how he was able to do this in his paint.
The final canto of the Inferno takes Dante to see Lucifer himself, after which Virgil guides him back to the surface of earth.
Count Ugolino was a leading and treacherous politician, who could only be trusted to betray others. He was left to die in prison of starvation.
