Daedalus and son Icarus try to escape the island of Crete by flying with artificial wings. Icarus flies too close to the sun, melting the wax holding his wings together, and drowns.
van Dyck
Before 1700, the myth of Vertumnus and Pomona was popular, as was Mary Magdalene’s mistaking of the resurrected Christ as a gardener.
Loyal unto death, dogs as companions to knights, bored Venetian ladies, successful artists, royalty, nude women, and Marthe Bonnard.
Summary of each episode in this 26-part series covering the Epic Cycle of Troy, from Zeus deciding to reduce the weight of people on the earth, to the death of Odysseus.
A symbol of the harvest with Ceres, a weapon for Bacchantes, the sign of the Divine Reaper Saturn, used by Iris to cut locks of hair, and for cutting the cereal crop.
With Greek defeat imminent, Patroclus dons Achilles’ armour and puts the Trojans to rout. He chases them to the city’s gate, where he’s killed by Hector.
Achilles had gone missing, hiding as a young woman in the royal court on Skyros, where Odysseus found him. And a master archer was bitten on the foot by a snake.
Blocked by church doctrine, cultural shortcomings, lack of training and a preference for hiring established artists from continental Europe, narrative painting started with James Thornhill.
The man in the background is the husband of Mrs Phelps Stokes, posing as a surrogate for a Great Dane. Note the Renaissance elbow.
A series to examine visual development of figures within narrative paintings, according to their type of plot. The fall of Icarus used as an example.
