#classic columns

[allegorypaintings]

Mercury Crowning Philosophy, the Mother of the Arts

Artist: Pompeo Girolamo Batoni (Italian, 1708-1787)

Date: 1747

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: The State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia

[galleryofart]

The Course of Empire: The Consummation of Empire

Artist: Thomas Cole (American, 1801–1848)

Date: 1835–1836

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: The New York Historical Museum, New York City, NY, United States

[royalty-nobility]

The Family of Crown Prince and Crown Princess Frederick William of Prussia

Artist: Franz Xaver Winterhalter (German, 1805-1873)

Date: 1862

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Royal Collection Trust, London, United Kingdom

Description

Frederick William I (German: Friedrich Wilhelm I.; 14 August 1688 – 31 May 1740), known as the Soldier King was King in Prussia and Elector of Brandenburg from 1713 until his death in 1740, as well as Prince of Neuchâtel.

In 1858 Princess Victoria, Queen Victoria's eldest daughter, had married Prince Frederick William of Prussia. This is a portrait of them and their two eldest children.

[mythologypaintings]

Achilles Discovered among the Daughters of Lycomedes

Artist: Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577-1640)

Date: 1630-1635

Medium: Oil on panel

Collection: Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, Spain

Disguised as a woman, Achilles lived on Scyros among the daughters of King Lycomedes until the Greeks discovered his whereabouts and sent Odysseus and Diomedes to the island to fetch him. The two presented themselves as pedlars and placed a collection of trinkets before the young women.

[portrait-paintings]

Frederick Sleigh Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts

Artist: John Singer Sargent (American, 1856-1925)

Date: 1906

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: National Portrait Gallery, London, United Kingdom

Sitter:

Frederick Sleigh Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts (1832-1914), Field Marshal.

[artemlegere]

A Scene from Milton's "Comus"

Artist: Charles Robert Leslie (American, 1794–1859)

Date: Exhibited 1844

Medium: Oil paint on canvas

Collection: Tate Britain, London, United Kingdom

Milton's Comus

Comus (A Masque Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634) is a masque in honour of chastity written by John Milton. It was first presented on Michaelmas 1634 before John Egerton, 1st Earl of Bridgewater at Ludlow Castle in celebration of the Earl's new post as Lord President of Wales.

The plot concerns two brothers and their sister, simply called "the Lady", lost in a journey through the woods. The Lady becomes fatigued, and the brothers wander off in search of sustenance.

[paintingsandhistory]

Virgil Reading the 'Aeneid' to Augustus, Octavia and Livia

Artist: Jean Baptiste Joseph Wicar (French, 1762–1834)

Date: 1790-1793

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States

Description

In the late 18th century, the French Academy promoted a severely Classical approach to history painting as a means to regenerate art -and in contrast to the perceived decadence of the Rococo style. Jacques-Louis David and his students were leading exponents of this Neoclassical approach, treating antique subjects as moral exemplars for contemporary audiences. Here, David’s student Jean-Baptiste Wicar depicted the response of the Roman emperor Augustus and his family to Virgil’s reading of his epic poem the Aeneid, which tells the story of Aeneas, the Trojan prince who settled in Latium after many adventures and was viewed as an ancestor of Augustus. The emotionally charged gestures of Augustus and his sister Octavia suggest that they identify their own family drama with the heroic events recounted by Virgil.

[artandthebible]

St. Peter and St. John at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple (after Raphael)

Artist: Sam Heathcote (1656–1708)

Collection: Royal Collection Trust, London, United Kingdom

Description

"St. Peter and St. John at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple (after Raphael)" refers to a biblical scene, depicted in the Acts of the Apostles, where Peter and John heal a lame man at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple, a scene often illustrated in art.

The scene is described in Acts 3:1-10, where a man, lame from birth, begs for alms at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple in Jerusalem.