From dice shooters in a rough tavern, through Bastien-Lepage’s Little Chimneysweep, to poverty in Catania, and destitution in Paris.
Teniers
Milkmaids milking cows in the shed, a farmer threshing and winnowing grain, churning butter, and a young couple courting by the back-ends of cows.
Their use by armies of the distant past, in the war against Troy, the sack of Rome, the Battle of Issus, by Alexander the Great, and in Crusades.
Myths of Perseus and Atlas, Philemon and Baucis, and the peasants of Lycia teach the ancient code of hospitality to strangers.
Just monkeying about in the Dutch Golden Age, with cats in a barbershop, as a sculptor, and the amazing paintings of Gabriel von Max.
Goddess Latona gives birth to twins Apollo and Diana, but local peasants refuse to let her drink from their lake, so they’re turned into frogs.
The Lycians turned into frogs when they refused the goddess Latona a drink of water, and the sorceress Medea accompanied by toads.
Gambling as a sure road to Hell, with Bosch, Caravaggio, Georges de la Tour, Hogarth, Géricault, Courbet, Rossetti, and others.
Although not featured in classical myths, cats have several symbolic associations and their own fables. From a kept woman to a harem, and basking in the sunshine.
Transformations of Lycian peasants into frogs, Pygmalion’s statute into Galatea, the pregnant Myrrha, silkworm moths, and autumn.
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