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Paintings of Eugène Delacroix: 14 Saint-Sulpice
Yesterday, 13 August, marked the 160th anniversary of the death of Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863), whose last major work was a set of three large paintings to decorate the Chapel of Saint-Anges in the...
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Trojan Epics: 25 Death of Odysseus
Agamemnon died at the hands of his wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus. After he had founded the city of Lavinium, precursor of Rome, Aeneas was deified as Jupiter Indiges. Meanwhile the last...
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Reading visual art: 69 Faces > 1
If it’s not enough to have Argus with his hundred eyes, some figures in classical mythology had to have more than one face. As the face is often equated with character, this enabled them to behave in...
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Paintings of Eugène Delacroix: 15 Final narratives
As Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863) was completing his paintings in the Church of Saint-Sulpice, he painted several unusual easel works. His other significant project in these final years of his career was...
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Trojan Epics: 0 Summary and contents
This series summarises the series of epics known as the Epic Cycle that tell of the events surrounding the Trojan War. Although only three – Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, and Virgil’s Aeneid – survive in...
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Reading visual art: 70 Ladder
Ladders are older than human history, although they relatively seldom rise to the occasion in paintings. When they do, as a way to ascend to heaven they may have deeper meaning. This brief survey shows...
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Paintings of Eugène Delacroix: 17 Masterworks
In the previous articles in this series I have shown a substantial selection of the paintings of Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863). It’s time to take stock of them, here in establishing which are his...
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Arthur: Introduction to a new series on paintings of Arthurian legends
Most peoples, cultures and nations have their own legends or mythology. Over the last six months, I explored those that dominated classical Mediterranean cultures from about 700 BCE in the epics of the...
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Reading visual art: 71 Skull
Attitudes to human remains like skulls have changed greatly over time. A few thousand years ago, in the towns and cities of early civilisations in the Fertile Crescent, our ancestors appeared quite...
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Susanna and the Elders 1
It’s time for a long weekend, and to help you enjoy it, I have three articles exploring paintings of one of the most popular narrative religious stories drawn from the Old Testament: Susanna and the...
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Susanna and the Elders 2
In the first of these three articles, I looked at paintings telling the story of Susanna and the Elders, from the Old Testament book of Daniel. I have focussed on those showing Susanna in her garden...
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Susanna and the Elders 3
In this third and final instalment of this series looking at paintings telling the story of Susanna and the Elders, from the Old Testament book of Daniel, I have reached the nineteenth century, a...
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Arthur: 1 The sword in the stone
The Duke of Tintagel had opposed Uther Pendragon, King of England, for many years. When the Duke and his wife Igraine attended the royal court, King Uther desired his wife, but she refused him, and the...
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Paintings of Eugène Delacroix: 18 The colourist
There has been a long-standing debate in European painting between those who place greater emphasis on form and ‘drawing’, and others who rank colour more highly. Although it has older origins, this...
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Reading visual art: 72 Thyrsus
In mythology, a thyrsus or thyrsos is a form of staff or even spear decorated with plant matter. In its strictest form, it should be a wand made from the giant fennel plant, decorated with ivy leaves...
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Arthur: 2 Excalibur and Guinevere
Arthur, son of Uther Pendragon, King of England, and Igraine, widow of the Duke of Tintagel, had been brought up by Sir Ector, and named by Uther as his successor just before the King’s death. Arthur...
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The bicentenary of Alexandre Cabanel: 1
In a fortnight’s time, on 28 September, we celebrate the bicentenary of the major French narrative artist and great teacher Alexandre Cabanel (1823–1889). In this, the first of three articles about his...
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Paintings of Sicily as a legendary land 1
The island of Sicily lies between the ‘toe’ of Italy and North Africa, and has evidence of human habitation going back long before recorded history. This weekend, in two articles, I look at paintings...
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Paintings of Sicily as a legendary land 2
In the first of these two articles showing paintings of the mythological, legendary and historical past of the Italian island of Sicily, I ended with the funeral of a great Greek general in about 337...
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Arthur: 3 Two dangerous women
With Arthur crowned King, married to Guinevere, and his 150 knights of the Round Table installed, Sir Thomas Malory’s account starts relating the first of many adventures of Arthur’s knights, Sir...
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