How a maidservant brings a protracted labour to a successful conclusion, the origin of the Milky Way, and an infant who strangles serpents for fun.
Tintoretto
A lighter and formerly very popular story brings to light some masterly paintings, including a superb work by Jan Brueghel the Elder.
Rich in wordplay, this story is almost unique to Ovid. It was oddly prescient of his own later banishment too.
Not an easy story to paint, Ovid’s clear account has been largely ignored. Because it is now too absurd to show?
Telling the complex story of how manna saved the Israelites, and starring the master of narrative painting, Poussin.
Despite difficulties over attribution and other mysteries, he was key to the development of the Venetian style.
