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Chinese Narrative Painting: The Nymph of the Luo River
I have long wondered whether some East Asian handscroll paintings have been narrative, rather than just showing wondrous landscapes. When I came across the Japanese Night Attack on the Sanjō Palace I...
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Changing Stories: Ovid’s Metamorphoses on canvas, 18 – Athamas and Ino
With the daughters of Minyas transformed into bats and no longer able to tell their tales, Ovid returns to his chronicle of the fall of the house of Cadmus. At this stage, Cadmus, the founder-king of...
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Edvard Munch: The Frieze of Life 1, Berlin, 1895
Edvard Munch seems to have started thinking about assembling his paintings into series during the 1880s, but it was not until the early 1890s that he crystallised this in his personal notebooks. He...
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Sorcery Seldom Succeeds: Painting Medea
There are some mythological subjects which painters would do best to avoid, whilst others almost guarantee success. Medea, sorceress and jilted wife of Jason of Golden Fleece and Argonauts fame, is...
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Chinese Narrative Painting: The Second Ode to the Red Cliff
My second example of Chinese narrative painting, drawn from Cédric Laurent’s study, is, at first sight, another exquisitely beautiful handscroll painting of a landscape, with its forests, rugged hill...
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Edvard Munch: The Frieze of Life 2, Seeds of Love
Edvard Munch appeared pleased with his first series The Frieze of Life. Not only was it exhibited in Berlin in 1895, but it was shown again in Oslo later that year, and in Paris in 1897. He then left...
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Changing Stories: Ovid’s Metamorphoses on canvas, 19 – Cadmus and Harmonia
With the disposal of Athamas, Ino, and their children, the house of Cadmus, founder-king of Thebes, is finished. Ovid rounds it off with a short but touching myth which sees an end to Cadmus’ dynasty....
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Edvard Munch: The Frieze of Life 3, Flowering and Passing of Love
The first six paintings in Edvard Munch’s Frieze: Cycle of Moments from Life, exhibited in Berlin in 1902, covered the Seeds of Love, and ended with Madonna (1894). That provided the transition to the...
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Rubens’ Peace and War: 1 Fighting the peace
Seventeenth century Europe was ravaged by war. Between 1618 and 1648, much of what is now Germany suffered the Thirty Years’ War, with widespread famines, epidemic disease, and the fighting itself....
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Rubens’ Peace and War: 2 The cost of war
In the previous article, I looked at Peter Paul Rubens’ (1577–1640) masterpiece Peace and War (1629-30) which he gave to King Charles I of England at the end of his diplomatic mission in London. Rubens...
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Chinese Narrative Painting: Shanglin Park
The third and final example of narrative painting on a Chinese handscroll is, I think, the most beautiful. It is attributed to Qiu Ying 仇英 (1494–1552) during the Ming dynasty, although there is some...
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Edvard Munch: The Frieze of Life 4, Life Anxiety
Munch had concluded the second section of his Frieze of Life, Flowering and Passing of Love, with Melancholy (1894-96), showing the melancholy resulting from failed love. In its third section he moves...
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Changing Stories: Ovid’s Metamorphoses on canvas, 20 – Perseus and Andromeda
As he nears the end of Book 4 of Metamorphoses, Ovid has completed his account of the myths of the Theban cycle, with the transformation of Cadmus and Harmonia into snakes. His switch to start telling...
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Edvard Munch: The Frieze of Life 5, Death
The final section in Munch’s 1902 version of the Frieze of Life was almost entirely new from his earlier exhibition. He led into it with his famous painting of The Scream, and it is with that infinite...
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Fake News 1: Did Horatius Cocles Save Rome?
If there is one phrase which epitomises the last year or so, it is fake news. It’s easy to get the impression that, until last year, everything which appeared in news media, the press, indeed...
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Fake News 2: Did the Horatii kill the Curiatii?
Publius Horatius Cocles, the lone defender of the bridge, came from one of the great families that made up the original Romans: the Horatiuses, or in Latin Horatii. By far the most famous of the...
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Chinese Narrative Painting: Conclusions
Over the last three weeks, with the help of Cédric Laurent’s excellent new book, I have looked at three superb Chinese handscroll paintings: The Nymph of the Luo River, The Second Ode to the Red Cliff,...
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Changing Stories: Ovid’s Metamorphoses on canvas, 21 – Perseus and Medusa
Having rescued Andromeda from the sea-monster Cetus, Perseus makes offerings to the gods, and prepares for his wedding to his newly-won bride. It is then, at his wedding feast, that Ovid has Perseus...
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Edvard Munch: The Frieze of Life 6, Conclusions and indexes
I hope that you have enjoyed this series, which began by looking very briefly at Edvard Munch’s extraordinary life, career as an artist, and paintings. As I explained, my main interest was in trying to...
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Figures in a Landscape: 2 Figures, narrative, ground
Few landscape paintings are made so far from the landscape that figures could not be seen in that view. John Brett (1831–1902), Florence from Bellosguardo (1863), oil on canvas, 60 x 101.3 cm, The Tate...
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