Tiepolo, Giambattista (1696-1770) Apollo insegue Dafne (Apollo Pursuing Daphne) c.1755–1760 Oil on canvas, 68.5 x 87 cm National Gallery of Art, Washington Throughout his career Tiepolo painted small pictures of mythological themes, which proved extremely popular. The subjects of these works…
Cézanne, Paul (1839-1906) Léda au cygne (Leda and the Swan) c.1880 (possibly later) Oil on canvas, 59.7 x 74.9 cm Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia This picture is unusual in Cézanne‘s oeuvre for its specific literary subject matter. It represents the story from Ovid‘s…
Rembrandt (1606-1669) Philemon and Baucis 1658 Oil on panel transferred to panel, 54.5 x 68.5 cm National Gallery of Art, Washington After learning the fundamentals of drawing and painting in his native Leiden, Rembrandt van Rijn went to Amsterdam in 1624 to study for six months with…
Lairesse, Gérard de (1641-1711) Bacchus and Ariadne c.1680 Oil on canvas, 175.2 x 92.5 cm Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (on loan from Mauritshuis, The Hague) Ovid described the following scene in his Metamorphoses: on the island of Naxos, Bacchus, the god of wine, chances upon…
Tiziano (c.1488-1576) Sisifo (Sisyphus) 1548–1549 Oil on canvas, 237 x 216 cm Museo del Prado, Madrid The literary source for the Furies is Ovid‘s Metamorphoses (IV, 447-464) and Virgil‘s Aeneid (VI, 457-8), which recounts the eternal sufferings in Hades of Tityus,…
Canova, Antonio (1757-1822) Teseo sul Minotauro (Theseus and the Minotaur) 1782 Marble, 145.4 x 158.7 x 91.4 cm Victoria and Albert Museum, London The legendary Greek hero Theseus sits astride the minotaur whom he has just killed. Coils of thread used…
(1757–1822) Marchese d’Ischia The artist’s works: Euridice 1775–1776 Museo Correr, Venezia Orfeo 1775–1776 Museo Correr, Venezia Dedalo e Icaro 1777–1779 Museo Correr, Venezia Orfeo 1777 Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg Teseo sul Minotauro 1782 Victoria and Albert Museum, London Amore e Psiche che si abbracciano 1787–1793…
(1599–1660) Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez The artist’s works: El almuerzo c.1617 Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg La educación de la Virgen c.1617–1618 Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven Almuerzo de campesinos c.1618–1619 Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest Bodegón 1618–1620 Art Institute of…
(1798–1863) Ferdinand-Victor-Eugène Delacroix The artist’s works: La Mise au tombeau d’après Titien 1820 Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon Un cheval attelé à un poteau c.1820 National Gallery of Art, Washington Dante et Virgile aux enfers 1822 Musée du Louvre, Paris Jeune orpheline au cimetière…
(1571–1610) Michelangelo Merisi The artist’s works: Ragazzo che monda un frutto 1592–1593 Fondazione Roberto Longhi, Firenze Ragazzo che monda un frutto c.1592–1593 Hampton Court Palace, London Ragazzo che monda un frutto c.1592–1593 Private collection Ragazzo morso da un ramarro c.1594–1595 National…