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The Prime Minister’s Music Room, Perseus and Andromeda
On 11 July 1902, Lord Salisbury resigned as Prime Minister of the UK, and Arthur Balfour (1848-1930) immediately became his uncle’s successor, assuming office the following day. Although hardly a...
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Knight of Symbols: paintings of Jacek Malczewski 1
This week’s Symbolist painter is perhaps the greatest to have come from Poland, and one of my favourite artists: Jacek Malczewski (1854–1929). In case you’re wondering, this is pronounced ˈjat͡sɛk...
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Knight of Symbols: paintings of Jacek Malczewski 2
In the first article of these two about the paintings of Jacek Malczewski (1854–1929), I looked at his depictions of Polish exiles in Siberia, narratives such as the story of Tobias, and recurrent...
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The Sight of Music: Concerts in paintings 1
One of the things we’re all going to miss for some time to come is the concert. Whether it’s an ad hoc group of musicians performing in the street, a rock concert, or the Last Night of the Proms, it...
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The Sight of Music: Concerts in paintings 2
In the first of this pair of articles showing paintings of concerts, I looked at works from the Renaissance to the middle of the nineteenth century. Today I progress through the latter half of that...
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Goddess of the Week: Eris (discord)
The last of the children of Nyx, primordial goddess of night, who has any significant presence in art since the Renaissance is Eris, associated with either strife or discord, and known to the Romans as...
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Paradise Lost: Book 3 in paintings and illustrations
In the second book: Satan passes on his journey to Hell-gates, finds them shut, and who sat there to guard them, by whom at length they are opened, and discover to him the great gulf between Hell and...
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Patrons and painters: The consul, the connoisseur and Cleopatra
Many of Giovanni Battista Tiepolo’s paintings group into common themes. In the mid-1740s he had a run on an unusual motif showing Cleopatra dining with Mark Anthony, which he painted at least three...
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Symbolist painting at the time of the Salons de la Rose + Croix 1
The Salon de la Rose + Croix is often considered to be the apogee of the Symbolist Movement in France. A series of six exhibitions of paintings and sculptures, accompanied by music by Erik Satie, they...
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Symbolist painting at the time of the Salons de la Rose + Croix 2
By the middle of the 1890s, Joséphin Péladan’s annual Salons de la Rose + Croix were proving popular with the public, and had been quite well-supported by artists too. Edmond Aman-Jean (1858–1936),...
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Maids a-milking: Milkmaids in painting 2
In the first of these two articles showing a selection of paintings of milkmaids, I looked mainly at those from the Dutch Golden Age, and up to the late eighteenth century. In many of those – Vermeer’s...
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Goddesses of the Week: The Erinyes (Furies)
The sister goddesses no one wanted to come across were the Erinyes (Ἐρινύες, plural of the Greek Erinys Ἐρινύς), or to the Romans the Dirae – the Furies. Although some held that they were daughters of...
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Paradise Lost: Book 4 in paintings and illustrations
In the third book: [Satan] comes to the gate of Heaven, described ascending by stairs, and the waters above the firmament that flow about it: his passage thence to the orb of the sun; he finds there...
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How Tintoretto flourished by giving a painting away
In the middle of the sixteenth century, the city of Venice was at the height of its power and trade. Beside its crowded canals and alleys in its lagoon, a great many artisans produced the finest silks,...
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Finale: The Exposition Universelle of 1900, 1
In the late nineteenth century a series of world fairs, known in French as Expositions Universelles, were held in major cities across Europe, particularly in Paris. These started with The Great...
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Finale: The Exposition Universelle of 1900, 2
In the first of these two articles about artists who exhibited paintings at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1900, I looked at some of the major participants and their most acclaimed art. This...
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Visual illusions in paintings: Glare and Venus Effects
Painters understood a lot about human vision long before scientists even invented themselves. This weekend, I look at two recognised types of visual illusion which were both discovered by artists long...
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Visual illusions in paintings: Foreshortening
In yesterday’s article, I showed how painters were using two visual illusions in their work centuries before anyone knew what they really were. Today I turn to something which is less of an illusion...
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Goddess of the Week: Mnemosyne (memory)
The goddess Mnemosyne (Μνημοσύνη), or the Roman equivalent Moneta, is usually considered to be one of the early deities, the daughter of Uranus (Sky) and Gaia (Earth), making her one of the Titans, a...
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Paradise Lost: Book 5 in paintings and illustrations
In the fourth book: Night coming on, Adam and Eve discourse of going to their rest: their bower described; their evening worship. Gabriel drawing forth his bands of nightwatch to walk the round of...
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