Paintings by David Teniers the Younger, Domenicus van Wijnen, Tiepolo, Fantin-Latour, CĂ©zanne, FĂ©licien Rops and Lovis Corinth.
van Wijnen
Popularly intended to transform base metals like lead into gold, alchemy relied on special glassware like alembics, and is included with other ‘dark arts’ in paintings.
Classical Greek and Roman altars, a witches’ altar from a sabbath, the altar to Bel or Baal, a mysterious sacred grove, and a Greek mathematician kidnapped and killed by a Christian mob.
Jason’s father was too old to celebrate his son’s success in getting the Golden Fleece, so his wife Medea uses sorcery to wind the clock back and make him young again.
Largely restricted among Classical deities to Hermes, Cupid, and personifications of winds, heavenly bodies, and events, the gift of flight extends to angels and even saints.
Waved by Circe and Medea, later in Tasso’s ‘Jerusalem Delivered’, and by Morgan le Fay in Arthurian legend. Paintings by Poussin, Waterhouse and others.
She agrees to help Jason complete his three tasks and take possession of the Golden Fleece, in return for which Jason will marry her.
Found in Celtic and Germanic folklore, they first become popular in Shakespeare’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream”, and established a sub-genre in the 19th century.
Interest in paintings of witchcraft grew in the Age of Enlightenment, with a series painted by Goya for the Duchess of Osuna.
Domenicus van Wijnen’s paintings are radically original, quite unlike other works before him, and not matched for more than a century after. Why don’t we know him and these paintings better?
The Eclectic Light Company 