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Paintings of writing 1
A couple of weeks ago I looked at paintings of reading. Progressing through ‘the three rs’ of reading, (w)riting and (a)rithmetic, this weekend I show paintings of people writing. Although reading and...
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Paintings of writing 2
In yesterday’s opening article about paintings of people writing, I showed how these changed during the Dutch Golden Age to reflect the introduction of education. What had been a skill confined to a...
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Can you trust QuickLook in Big Sur?
Big Sur’s new look is growing on me. Some of its changes definitely make life more difficult: one which keeps tripping me up is how hard it can be to find a section of window bar which I can use for...
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God of the Week: Phaethon
Phaethon (Greek Φαέθων) is the son of the sun god Helios or Phoebus, and Clymene, an Oceanid, making him a minor deity. In older times, he was represented by what later became the planet Jupiter, but...
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A History of Rome in Paintings: 18 Four Emperors in a Year
As with the assassination of Julius Caesar, Nero’s death in 68 CE did little to solve Rome’s problems. First to seize power was Servius Galba Caesar Augustus, who lasted just over seven months as...
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The Faerie Queene 17: The Temple of Venus, and Florimell released
In the previous episode, Prince Arthur had freed the young squire Amyas from the monster Corflambo’s dungeon, allowing him to marry Aemylia. His close friend Placida and the monster’s daugher Poeana...
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Paintings of 1920: Narrative and figurative
Following my survey of portraits painted in 1920, this article gathers together some of the year’s best narrative and figurative paintings. The Great War – that war to end all wars – had only ended two...
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In Serbian Country: the paintings of Sava Šumanović
This year, we commemorated the centenary of the early death of Amedeo Modigliani. Among those who knew him during the last months of his life was the Serbian painter Sava Šumanović (Сава Шумановић,...
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Palm Saturday: Palm trees in paintings 1
This weekend we go in search of warmer climes again, this time through paintings of palm trees, a reliable indication of better temperatures. After all, what tropical paradise or sun-drenched beach...
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Palm Sunday: Palm trees in paintings 2
In yesterday’s article, I showed how the palm tree came to flourish in landscape paintings of the Mediterranean coast, and in the conservatories of the upper middle class. Today I turn to their...
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Nymph and mortal of the week: Echo and Narcissus
Although Echo isn’t a goddess as such, she’s an immortal nymph, an Oread or mountain nymph to be precise. Her claim to fame, and the reason for her appearance in some famous paintings, is her love...
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A History of Rome in Paintings: 19 More martyrs
Two years after Pompeii and Herculaneum had been destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, the emperor Titus died of natural causes, at the age of just 41. His successor Domitian wasn’t as...
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The Faerie Queene 18: Sir Artegall’s quest, and the fate of a horse thief
The last episode completed The Legend of Cambel and Telamond, or Of Friendship, so reaching the end of the fourth book of The Faerie Queene. This episode starts the fifth book, which is The Legend of...
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Paintings of 1920: Genre and landscapes 1
This week’s look back at paintings from exactly a century ago moves on from the narrative and figurative works I showed last week to a selection of genre paintings, and makes a start on the many...
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The Art in Painting: 1 art and craft
Over the last week and more, I’ve been looking at the use of Augmented Reality (AR) as a means of learning to draw. You can read more about that in a future issue of the print magazine MacFormat, but...
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The Art in Painting: 2 Classical Methods
In the first article in this series, I looked in detail at the processes involved in the production of Masaccio’s huge fresco The Holy Trinity, which were dominated by crafts and craftsmanship rather...
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The Art in Painting: 3 Cameras
The previous two articles in this series have looked at the creative and artistic elements within classical methods of painting, first in the production of a large fresco, then in the development...
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Goddess of the Week: Hebe
It’s perhaps reassuring to know that Zeus and Hera had children of their own, in addition to those of Zeus’s many rapes, seductions and affairs. Hebe (Greek ἥβη), known to the Romans as Iuventas...
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A History of Rome in Paintings: 20 The Capitoline Hill and Tarpeian Rock
Having outlined the history of ancient Rome in paintings in chronological order, I now turn to the histories of some of its landmarks. This article looks at depictions of what was the centre of the...
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The Faerie Queene 19: Defeat and slavery
In the last episode, all the knights of the land had met for a tournament as part of the wedding celebrations of Florimell and Marinell. Artegall emerged its victor, after he had freed Marinell from a...
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