Venus had been terrified of Adonis going hunting, and cautioned him about going near savage beasts. But he wasn’t to be put off. Superb paintings by Veronese, Titian, Rubens, and others.
Titian
A dark tale of a wicked nurse, incest, transformation, the origin of the precious resin myrrh, and obstetrics in the arboretum. And a possible very early Titian.
One king trusts his daughter into the care of his son-in-law, another king. What happens next is horrific, and shown brilliantly by Artemisia Gentileschi and Rubens.
Some of the key paintings telling the story of the grisly death of the satyr Marsyas, who lost his musical contest against Apollo.
An ingenious telling of the story of Perseus rescuing Andromeda from the jaws of a sea monster results in many superb paintings.
With no diplomatic mission to accomplish, and an open commission, Rubens was free to express his experience of war.
When you’re a great narrative painter and a diplomat, one painting might be all that is needed to secure a peace treaty.
The grandson of the founder of Thebes suffers a grisly fate when he stumbles across the goddess Diana bathing naked.
Less than 30 lines of the book are devoted to the abduction of Europa, which has become its best-known and most-often painted story.
Rape, ejection from society, transformation into a bear, then into a constellation: poor Callisto, but some superb narrative paintings.
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