Heracles unwittingly sets up his later death when he thinks the centaur Nessus is trying to abduct his wife Deianira, and shoots him in the back with one of his arrows poisoned with the blood of the Lernean hydra.
Tiepolo
A classic legend of self-sacrifice, in which a single Roman soldier defended a bridge against a whole army until it was demolished, and Rome was saved from the Etruscans.
King of Ithaca, he first feigns madness to dodge going to war against Troy, but then uses his cunning and ingenuity to design the Trojan Horse and conquer the city. Runs into trouble with Polyphemus during the return journey to Ithaca.
Achilles, leading his Myrmidons, is key to the Greek successes in capturing the Troad outside the city of Troy. But when Agamemnon takes his concubine, Achilles is angry and withdraws from the fighting.
The devil’s darning needles have had a bad press, and appear in just a few paintings. Here’s a vanitas still life, a meal for chaffinches, and some stranger associations.
A brief overview of the plot of Tasso’s epic, complete with links to all the articles, and a selection of the best of paintings.
Charles and Ubaldo show Rinaldo how he has become a woman’s dandy, and get him to return to the crusade with them, leaving Armida seeking her vengeance.
Charles and Ubaldo fly across the Mediterranean in a ship, reach the island where Armida is holding Rinaldo captive in her garden, and ascend its mountain to rescue him.
The crusaders can’t replace their siege towers because the nearby wood is bewitched. Godfrey dispatches a party to retrieve Rinaldo, but he has been abducted by Armida.
Greatest master in Ancient Greece, but all his works are lost. Several views of him painting Alexander the Great’s former mistress Campaspe, and an elaborate allegory of Calumny by Botticelli.
