A series to examine visual development of figures within narrative paintings, according to their type of plot. The fall of Icarus used as an example.
Rubens
Miniature landscape views embedded in more conventional paintings were not uncommon during the Renaissance, before landscape was established as a genre.
Marking 300 years since the woefully early death of the master of the Rococo. Early paintings show the development of the fête galante, and its zenith in ‘Embarkation for Cythera’.
Palaces of Albert VII, Rubens’ own Het Steen, an imposing Swiss castle, Wivenhoe Park in hiding, and an Australian pastoral station.
From Apelles, in around 330 BCE, the personification of Truth has had particular importance to painters, in the faithfulness and accuracy of their work. Here she is.
Seashells appear in Turner’s myths, Dyce’s fresco for Queen Victoria, twice in Elihu Vedder’s work, and in Odilon Redon’s. And a story from Rubens about seashells and colour.
Huge clam shells were a common feature in paintings of the birth of Venus, and other classical myths. They also feature in many ‘vanitas’ paintings.
An offshoot of still life paintings of food, it was never very popular, and most of these are decidedly odd. From Jan Brueghel the elder to
Bishop’s crosier, monarch’s sceptre, field-marshal’s baton, or just another fashion accessory?
From Aphrodite to Vesta, a reference summary of all the major Classical goddesses, with links to individual accounts.
