#flying figures

[preraphaelitepaintings]

Life and Thought Emerging from the Tomb

Artist: Evelyn De Morgan (English, 1855-1919) 

Date: 1893

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, United Kingdom

Description

Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s poem 'The Deserted House' likens a corpse to an empty house which Life and Thought have deserted for the ‘great and distant city’ of immortality. Here, the male figure is Life and the female figure is Thought. The symbolism includes the peacock, the doves, the butterfly and the carved snakeson the tomb. All are traditional symbols of life after death. The angels will lead Life and Thought to the city on the horizon, representing Heaven or immortality.

[allegorypaintings]

The Sea Triumph of Charles II

Artist: Antonio Verrio (Italian, c. 1639-1707) baroque

Date: c. 1674

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Royal Collection Trust, London, United Kingdom

Description

The subject of this painting was perhaps inspired by the signing of the Treaty of Westminster on 9 February 1674, ending the Third Anglo-Dutch War. This was considered a victory for Britain, the Dutch having conceded the supremacy of the seas.The portrait of the King does not seem to be taken from life and was probably worked up by Verrio from a miniature by Samuel Cooper.

[artemlegere]

Death of Pallas

Artist: Jacques Sablet (Swiss-French, 1749-1803)

Date: 1778

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: National Gallery of Art / Pilotta Palace, Parma, Italy

Description

The theme is taken from Book X of the Aeneid: Pallas, beloved son of Evander, king of the Arcadians and ally of Aeneas, is killed in battle by Turnus who stabs him and strips him of his precious belt as a trophy. This will later unleash Aeneas's revenge against Turnus. The touching and pathos-filled episode ("… life and blood come forth in one path"), symmetrical to the death of Patroclus, represents an exception in the career of Swiss painter Jacques Sablet, who rarely tackled historical themes.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Pyotr Belenok (Russian, 1938-1991) Flying Figures, 1975

Gouache, mixed media with collage on paper, laid on board, 128 x 99 cm

[Guillaume Gris]

* * * *

“But then, everything on Earth was changing him. Every aggressive word from a friend over lunch, every click on his virtual farm, every species he painted, each minute of every online clip, all the stories he read at night and all the ones I told him: there was no “Robin,” no one pilgrim in this procession of selves for him ever to remain the same as. The whole kaleidoscopic pageant of them, parading through time and space, was itself a work in progress.”

― Richard Powers, Bewilderment

[allegorypaintings]

Allegory of the Peace in the Low Countries

Artist: Pieter Claeissens the Younger (Flemish, 1535-1623)

Date: 1577

Medium: Oil painting

Collection: Groeningemuseum Museum, Bruges, Belgium

[allegorypaintings]

Allegory on the End of the War of the Spanish Succession

Artist: Paolo de Matteis (Italian, 1662–1728)

Date: c. 1714

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, United States

[allegorypaintings]

'Prosperity or Virtue Driving Away Evils (La Prosperidad o la Virtud Ahuyentando los Males)

Artist: Domenico Tintoretto (Italian, 1560-1635)

Date: 16th century

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, Spain

Description

This composition was designed to decorate a ceiling, which would explain the strong foreshortening in which its various figures have been drawn. The central figure is a matron wearing a helmet and holding a caduceus and ears of wheat, symbols of commerce and the fertility of the fields. Lust, Theft, Treachery, and Resentment flee before her presence.

[allegorypaintings]

Allegory of the Surrender of Ulm, 20th October 1805

Artist: Antoine François Callet (French, 1741–1823)

Date: 1805

Medium: Oil painting

Collection: Private Collection

Description

Allegorie de la Reddition d'Ulm; General Karl Mack (1752-1828) surrendering to Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821); capitulation of Austrian army to French.