How repoussoir originated in figurative painting, and came to become a popular compositional technique for landscapes from Giorgione to Turner.
Velázquez
Jupiter wants Io, but after raping her turns her into a cow for safe-keeping. Juno suspects, though, and puts the cow under the watchful hundred eyes of Argus.
How some landscape painters blurred the view to paint, while others have depicted motion blur, depth of field effects, or an edge hierarchy. Links to each article in the series.
Wielded by the Etruscan god of death Charun, Hephaistos or Vulcan, Jael as she killed Sisera, those who nailed Christ to the cross, and the Norse god Thor.
The only way to impart perception of motion of a spinning wheel is to blur it, which is what we naturally perceive. Examples of motion blur.
Loyal unto death, dogs as companions to knights, bored Venetian ladies, successful artists, royalty, nude women, and Marthe Bonnard.
Hands are rarely covered in paintings. Examples include outdoors in winter, armoured gloves for crossbows, a sommelier, and fashion.
As a Cyclops, Polyphemus had only one eye, whereas Juno’s servant Argus had a hundred or more. Here they are in paintings.
After being entertained by Demodocus’ tale of Venus and Mars, Odysseus is delivered in the dead of night, still asleep, to a hidden harbour on Ithaca.
Before photography, the only opportunity to see your face, painters took advantage of the Venus Effect to break optical rules and show faces that couldn’t have been seen in the mirror.
The Eclectic Light Company 