Like eyes and the rest of the face, hands are most usually seen uncovered in figurative paintings. These paintings show gloved hands which have special purposes and meaning.
Rops
Ever noticed how stern everyone looks in paintings? Here are some exceptions from Frans Hals, Murillo, Vermeer and others.
Mainly concentrating on the occult and erotic, his works can be hard to read, but never disappoint in originality or execution.
A close friend of Charles Baudelaire during his final years, Rops was an early adopter of mixed media and always original.
From Conté crayons to oil pastels, stick media have many advantages and are rightly popular today. Here are examples by Millet, Seurat, Redon, Schiele, Bonnard, and others.
More Western paintings of devils, from William Blake to Cézanne and Gustave Moreau. Devils become much more human, and dangerous.
Curious still lifes and more containing allegories about the emptiness and futility of life on earth, and its brevity. Even seen in Cézanne and Jacek Malczewski.
Wood nymphs, Dryads, and Hamadryads, painted by Evelyn De Morgan, Félicien Rops, Walter Crane, JW Waterhouse, and others. And who dresses up as wood nymphs today?
Why are there two tortoises in the foreground of Moreau’s ‘Orpheus’? After a journey through Zen Buddhism, fables, and political allegory, the answer may be more obvious.
For two centuries, Bosch’s innovative ideas and symbols were used in northern Europe. But after 1700, all changed again.
