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Reading Visual Art: 219 Police
Most urban societies have had some form of police, in addition to soldiers and armed guards. In the Roman Empire these were known as lictors, employed to act as bodyguards to magistrates, who could...
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Interiors by Design: Scullery and utility room
As I approach the end of this series looking at paintings of interiors, I reach the rooms well out of sight, those that weren’t talked about in polite company. They often used to be known as the...
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Changing Paintings: Summary and contents parts 55-74
This is the last of four articles providing brief summaries and contents for this series of paintings telling myths from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and covers parts 55-74, from the foundation of Troy to the...
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The poisonous permanence of vermilion
As a primary colour, red is essential to most palettes, but it has also proved technically challenging to find pigments that are both intense and lasting. This weekend I look at the history of two...
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The fleeting brilliance of crimson
For all its toxicity, vermilion proved an enduring red, unlike less dangerous pigments such as crimson, with its natural origin. People have dyed their clothes and other fabrics using vegetable...
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Modern Stories of Lovis Corinth: A life in self-portraits
From the start of his career, Lovis Corinth was a great admirer of the paintings of Rembrandt, and like him he painted a series of self-portraits reflecting changes in his life. This penultimate...
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Changing Paintings: Rubens’ Metamorphoses 1
Several Masters have specialised in painting myths told in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Although Nicolas Poussin painted many, perhaps the most prolific is Peter Paul Rubens, whose work has featured in nearly...
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Changing Paintings: Rubens’ Metamorphoses 2
This second article concludes my virtual exhibition of a selection of Peter Paul Rubens’ paintings of myths from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640), The Calydonian Boar Hunt (c...
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Modern Stories of Lovis Corinth: In memoriam
A century ago today, on 17 July 1925, the great German artist Lovis Corinth died. To complete this series commemorating his career and art, I show a selection of the best of his narrative paintings....
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Interiors by Design: Poverty
The overwhelming majority of paintings of interiors show rooms we might aspire to. In this last of the series, I show some we’d all hope to avoid, those of the poor and destitute. Although never really...
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