Allegories using classical deities, by Tintoretto and Rubens. Accounts of how the Sabine women brought peace to Rome, and peace treaties of Charlemagne and Barbarossa.
Rubens
Stories of the origin of the Italian pine and cypress trees, and a far more dubious account of Jupiter’s abduction that’s found in an advert for beer.
Many wonderful paintings of the opening scene of this short story, but none even hints at its real plot involving three abductions and two murders.
Newly wed Eurydice is bitten by a snake and dies. Orpheus rescues her from the Underworld, but on their way back he looks back to check on her. All in magnificent paintings.
Juno won’t let the labour of Hercules’ mother progress, so one of maids tricks Lucina into allowing the infant’s delivery, for which the maid is turned into a weasel.
When the centaur Nessus tried to abduct Hercules’ wife, he was impaled by an arrow. He set up the later death of the hero, who was destroyed by poison in his own arrow.
Wedding paintings by Rubens, Watteau, Delacroix, Frith, and Naturalists from the time that photography was creating a new market.
Pitched battles at the weddings of Hippodame and Pirithous, and Andromeda and Perseus. The Trojan War resulting from the wedding of Thetis and Peleus, and turning water into wine with Veronese.
How Hercules and Achelous came to fight one another over the hand of Deianira, resulting in one of the river god’s horns being wrenched off to become the Horn of Plenty.
A poor couple entertained two men as well as they could in their humble cottage. Their guests turned out to be Jupiter and Mercury, who rewarded them for their hospitality.
The Eclectic Light Company 