After an excellent education, she married the Duke of Mantua, and started collecting paintings, most commissioned in great detail for her private study.
Titian
The lover of Venus is gored in the groin by a wild boar, and dies in pools of blood to be transformed into red anemone flowers.
A dark tale of incest, transformation, and obstetrics in the arboretum, leading to the precious resin myrrh, and the birth of Adonis from a tree.
The satyr Marsyas became an outstanding player of the aulos, and played in a contest against the god Apollo. He can’t win, and ends up being flayed alive.
Pan pipes, in paintings by Mikhail Vrubel, Poussin, JW Waterhouse, Franz von Stuck, Titian, and others.
First Perseus turns Atlas to stone for his failure to offer him hospitality. He then flies on to rescue the beautiful Andromeda, who’s going to be the next meal for a sea-monster.
A small selection of favourites from its huge and eclectic collection, from Duccio in about 1310 to Joseph Wright of Derby and a gem from Thomas Jones.
The grandson of the founder of Thebes happens into Diana’s sacred wood when out hunting, and sees the goddess naked. She changes him into a stag, with fatal consequences.
Left as a cliffhanger ending to Book 2, Jupiter assumes the form of a white bull, and lures Europa to sit astride his back before whisking her away across the sea.
Readily an obsession, as with Titian, de la Tour, Murillo and others, she’s a penitent, while legends take her to France and even Finland.
The Eclectic Light Company 