Five of the best stories and finest paintings from the first half of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, from the tragic lovers Pyramus and Thisbe, to the Calydonian boar hunt.
Veronese
One of Ovid’s best stories of a tragic end to a blissful marriage, with superb paintings by Veronese, Poussin, Rubens, and others.
An ingenious telling of the story of Perseus rescuing Andromeda from the jaws of a sea monster results in many superb paintings.
Two turned to stone: Battus for betraying Mercury, and Aglauros for obstructing Mercury’s courting of Herse, and her jealousy.
Some stories sound plausible, but are problematic when you try to paint or photograph them. Here’s a good example, with attempted solutions by Reni, Rubens, Moreau, and others.
His later paintings, after 1858, are quite different from those he made when a member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. How?
The advent of wet-in-wet, canvas supports, fewer layers, impasto, and visible brushstrokes.
What influence did Bosch’s Temptation of St Anthony triptych have on later paintings? Their history traced from 1430 to 1560.
Despite difficulties over attribution and other mysteries, he was key to the development of the Venetian style.
Veronese used a narrative form which only works in paintings and other visual media, and is still used in popular children’s books.
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