#verdant landscape

[artandthebible]

Madonna and Child

Artist: Unidentified Artist

Date: Last quarter of 15th century

Medium: Oil and tempera (?) with gold leaf on panel

Collection: Barnes Foundation Art Institute, Philadelphia, PA, United States

[preraphaelitepaintings]

The Garden of Pan

Artist: Edward Burne-Jones (English, 1833-1898)

Date: 1886-1887

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia

[20thcenturyartgallery]

May (Springtime, Welcome Sweet Springtime)

Artist: Thomas Wilmer Dewing (1American, 851–1938)

Date: Before 1921

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York City, NY, United States

[artemlegere]

Amyntas Rewarded by the Dryad for Saving the Oak

Artist: Francesco Caucig (Slovenian, 1755-1828)

Date: c. 1809

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, New York, NY, United States

Description

This painting represents a scene from Idyllen (1756) by Swiss author Salomon Gessner. These pastoral tales, loosely based on the poetry of Theocritus, tell the stories of shepherds and shepherdess in a distant, simpler past ruled by the gods of Greek mythology.

One concerns the shepherd Amyntas, who, while working in the forest, notices that the earth around the base of an oak tree has eroded. To secure its safety, he builds a protective dam and covers the roots.

Depicted in this work is the moment when the dryad, a guardian nymph residing in the tree, emerges to thank him for his kindness. She offers a reward and, taken aback, Amyntas asks only for the good health of his neighbor Palemon. She fulfills his wish and, impressed with his virtue, grants his flocks, trees, and fields permanent good fortune.

[impressionim-paintings]

Spring, Navesink Highlands

Artist: Childe Hassam (American, 1859-1935)

Date: 1908

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC, United States

[portrait-paintings]

Portrait of Sarah Harrop (Mrs. Bates) as a Muse

Artist: Angelica Kauffmann (Swiss, 1741–1807)

Date: 1780-1781

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, New Jersey, United States

Description

This portrait of the renowned English soprano Sarah Harrop depicts her in a setting that alludes to Mount Parnassus, home of the ancient muses. The lyre that she holds is an attribute of Erato, muse of lyric poetry, but her sheet music is more modern: it is an aria from George Frideric Handel’s opera Rodelinda, Queen of the Lombards (1725). Harrop was famous for her performances of Handel’s operas and oratorios; this picture dates from the time of her marriage to Joah Bates, who revived and promoted Handel’s works. The aria Harrop holds is sung not by her character, Rodelinda, but by her husband’s, Bertarido, suggesting that this may have been a marriage portrait.

[mythologypaintings]

Landscape with Phaeton's Petition to Apollo

Artist: Richard Wilson (Welsh, 1714-1782)

Date: c. 1763-1767

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, England

Description

In his poem 'Metamorphoses', the Roman poet Ovid retold the story of Phaeton, who petitioned his father Apollo, the Sun God, to let him drive his chariot across the sky for one day. As Apollo feared, Phaeton was unable to control the chariot, and in order to save the world Jupiter was forced to destroy him with a thunderbolt.

[landscapeandmarine]

Monadnock Mountain, New Hampshire

Artist William Trost Richards (American, 1833-1905)

Date: 1883

Medium: Watercolor and Chinese white on paper

Collection: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA, United States