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Goddesses of the Week: The Fates
Among the most important of the children of Nyx, the goddess of the night, are three daughters, Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos, known collectively as the Moirai in Greek, or the Fatae (Fates) or Parcae...
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The first American Symbolist painter Elihu Vedder 1
If you’ve come across this week’s Symbolist, Elihu Vedder (1836–1923), it will either be from his fine illustrations for Edward FitzGerald’s translation of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, or his wall...
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Mother and baby in paintings 1
Last weekend, we attended so many weddings we had to keep going right the way through Monday too. This weekend I’m going to follow the happy couple through the birth of their first child, recognising...
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Mother and baby in paintings 2
Towards the end of the nineteenth century, the social Realist and Naturalist concerns of showing the poor struggling to raise their families were forgotten. Instead, artists came to give us more tender...
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The first American Symbolist painter Elihu Vedder 2
In the first article of this series, I looked at the early years of the art and career of Elihu Vedder (1836–1923), during which he painted landscapes in Europe and figurative works which became...
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Gods of the Week: Chronos and Aion (Time)
There’s a great deal of confusion over the classical god or gods of time. Some ancient authorities claim that time existed before Chaos and the ‘creation’ of the earliest gods. There’s a confusion of...
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Patrons and painters: Mantegna at the Mantuan court
The small city-state of Mantua in Northern Italy had been ruled by the Gonzaga family since the early fourteenth century. When the third of its rulers, Ludovico III Gonzaga (1412-1478), came to power...
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Paradise Lost: Invitation to a new series
Until the twentieth century, one of the books at the top of the reading list for every English speaker was Milton’s Paradise Lost, which is the next long read which I’m going to look at here. Although...
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The first American Symbolist painter Elihu Vedder 3
In the 1880s, the American artist Elihu Vedder (1836–1923) had concentrated largely on paintings showing unusual interpretations of classical myths. Elihu Vedder (1836–1923), Soul in Bondage (study)...
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River power: Paintings of watermills 1
Watermills in Europe originated with the Greeks, and by Roman times had become sophisticated sources of power for many different purposes, from grinding corn into flour to forging metal. They were...
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River power: Paintings of watermills 2
In the first of this pair of articles looking at a selection of paintings of European watermills, I ended with a painting by John Constable of a mill in Dorset, England. Later in the nineteenth...
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Goddesses of the Week: the Hesperides
Like the Fates, in some of the classical cosmogonies the Hesperides are daughters of Nyx, primordial goddess of the night. This is by no means agreed, and some claim that they were the issue of Atlas...
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Paradise Lost: Book 1 in paintings and illustrations
Rather than attempt my own summary of John Milton’s poem, I give selected excerpts from his original, with my comments given, where necessary, in italics. Excerpts given as prose are from Milton’s own...
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The short lives of Modigliani and his dealers
In 1977, the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris became the owner of one of the most valuable collections of modern art in Europe. This had already been on display there for eleven years, and it was only on...
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Odilon Redon’s Vision 1
If there’s one European artist who just had to be a Symbolist, surely it was Odilon Redon (1840–1916), many of whose drawings, prints and paintings are among the finest examples of the movement. In...
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Odilon Redon’s Vision 2
In the first of these two articles about the Symbolist draughtsman, print-maker and painter Odilon Redon (1840–1916), I showed a selection of his works up to the dawn of the twentieth century. This...
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Ribbit: Frogs and toads in paintings, 1 Lycians
Frogs and toads are small and humble creatures, hardly attractive themes for the artist. They’ve had their moments in paint though, through several myths and folk tales, in particular. In this...
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Ribbit: Frogs and toads in paintings, 2 Princesses
In my survey of paintings of frogs and toads, yesterday’s article considered the classical myth of Latona, who transformed the obstructive Lycians into frogs. Today I look at paintings of folk stories,...
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Goddess of the Week: Nemesis (retribution)
Another of the daughters of the primordial goddess Nyx (Night) is one of the few whose Greek name has entered the English language: Nemesis, also known as the Goddess of Rhamnous, or Rhamnousia. As the...
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Paradise Lost: Book 2 in paintings and illustrations
In the first book: To these Satan directs his speech, comforts them with hopes yet of regaining Heaven, but tells them lastly of a new world and new kind of creature to be created, according to an...
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