Dante’s beloved Beatrice seen in paintings by Washington Allston, William Blake, William Dyce, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and others.
Rossetti
A strange ancient Greek myth of the creation of woman was hardly ever painted until the 19th century. Even then, only one depicted the crux of the story until it became popular late in the century.
Pre-Raphaelite models, muses and partners, including Effie Gray, ex-wife of John Ruskin, Lizzie Siddal, Annie Miller, Fanny Cornforth, Alexa Wilding, Jane Morris and Maria Zambaco.
Innovative interpretations from Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Henry Ossawa Tanner, Vittorio Corcos, Oleksandr Murashko, JW Waterhouse, and Jacek Malczewski.
Composition and effects of different types of varnish, with its visual effects, and how it can make a painting unreadable when it contains accumulated dirt.
Guards throwing dice in the Crucifixion, gambling in Bosch’s vision of Hell, in a dingy tavern, losing an entire estate, and being played by young street urchins.
Passing Minos, who directs the dead to the right circle for their sins, they enter the circle for those guilty of lust. There they hear the story of Paolo and Francesca and their violent deaths.
If there’s one book every head of state and leader should read, it’s Dante’s Inferno. Introduction to a new series showing paintings of this first part of his Divine Comedy.
More painted friezes from Gustav Klimt, Ferdinand Hodler, Evelyn De Morgan, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and others.
Ultramarine blue for Mary’s cloak, red for the Passion, cardinals and the scarlet woman. Other colour codes, including their importance in multiplex narrative.
The Eclectic Light Company 