Boy meets girl but has to swim a mile in treacherous waters to keep meeting her. When she tells him how she burns with passion, he pushes his luck in the sea.
Rubens
Used since Roman times, it was common in the dress of saints. Highly toxic, it was progressively replaced by cadmium red in the late 19th century.
He was remarkably successful, a truly self-made artist, who rose from nothing to international renown. But did he ‘occasion a revolution in the art’?
On 22 August 1911, he went to the Louvre to paint the Mona Lisa. It had gone missing, though, and didn’t show up for another 2 years.
A curious short tale of an unfortunate death, then the divine conspiracy which led to the death of its greatest warrior, Achilles, in the Trojan War. More Rubens…
Before the 19th century, his paintings were more popular than those of Velázquez. Why are they far less well known now? Take a look and see for yourself.
The ultimately disastrous wedding feast ends with its guests killing one another in a series of pitched battles, after one guest tried to abduct the bride.
Venus had been terrified of Adonis going hunting, and cautioned him about going near savage beasts. But he wasn’t to be put off. Superb paintings by Veronese, Titian, Rubens, and others.
Struck by a ricocheting discus, the young man’s blood is transformed into hyacinth flowers.
One of Ovid’s most painted stories, still popular, with some of the finest depictions by Poussin, Rubens, Corot, Watts, Scheffer, and others.
The Eclectic Light Company 