Plague ravaged cities across Europe and much of the world, cholera came from contaminated water supplies, then there were influenza and tuberculosis.
Tintoretto
Parrots as extras in myths, witnessing Eve taking the apple from the serpent, and as companions to a succession of beautiful women.
From the way of the cross, ascending Calvary, to the Crucifixion, descent from the cross, pietà, and entombment.
From Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem, through the Last Supper, to his trials and crowning with thorns.
From Dürer’s groundbreaking hare to the fable of the hare and the tortoise, a hidden hare in a well-known Turner and a white rabbit for the first of the month?
Jupiter’s bundle of thunderbolts that have survived into computer technology, lightning in great floods, in the destruction of Tyre, and the three witches in Macbeth.
One for sorrow, two for joy, according to the rhyme. Magpies play cameo roles in several major paintings, as shown here.
Told by an oracle she shouldn’t marry, she challenges any man to a running race to win her hand in marriage. When Hippomenes succeeds, things go wrong for the couple.
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.
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.
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