#winged figures

[artandthebible]

The Seven Archangels

Artist: Massimo Stanzione (Italian, 1585-1656)

Date: 1620

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: The National Heritage of Spain, Madrid, Spain

[artemlegere]

Rinaldo and Armida

Artist: Gerard Hoet (Dutch, 1648–1733)

Date: 17th century or 18th century

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Private Collection

[allegorypaintings]

Time Unveiling Truth

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

Date: 1740-1745

Medium: Oil on canvas

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

[preraphaelitepaintings]

Wings of the Morning

Artist: Edward Robert Hughes (British, 1851-1914)

Date: n. d.

Medium: Watercolour with gum arabic heightened with touches of bodycolour and gold, on paper

Collection: Important International Collection

[mythologypaintings]

The Fall of Phaeton

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

Date: c. 1604/1605, probably reworked c. 1606/1608

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, United States

Description

Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640), one of the greatest masters of the 17th century, painted this masterpiece as a young artist in Rome. Rubens depicted a moment of high drama in this popular Greek myth that was famously recounted in Ovid's Metamorphoses (c. 8 AD). Phaeton, the Sun-god Apollo's son, had begged and begged his father to allow him to drive the Chariot of the Sun across the sky. After Apollo finally conceded, his worst fears were confirmed: the rash youth had neither the strength nor the experience to control the chariot and keep it on its regular course through the heavens. The horses bolted in an erratic pattern, so that Earth either froze because the Sun Chariot was too far away, or it was scorched by the Sun's heat. At left, the Horae, butterfly-winged female figures personifying the seasons, which represent the harmony and order of the universe, are reacting in terror as Earth below bursts into flame. Even the great astrological bands that arch through the heavens are disrupted. Outside the picture frame, Jupiter, the supreme god, has just unleashed a thunderbolt aimed at Phaeton in order to save the universe from complete destruction. As the chariot disintegrates and the horses tumble apart, Phaeton plunges to his death.

[galleryofart]

The Swan Maidens

Artist: Walter Crane (English, 1845-1915)

Date: 1894

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Private Collection

Description

The myth of the swan maidens has been found in folklore under many different guises and within cultures across the globe. Tales of swan maidens stretch back to antiquity in Europe. Whilst many interpretations of the tale abound, the story follows that a hunter went down to a lake in order to shoot ducks. Instead of finding ducks he instead stumbled upon seven swan maidens, who had all removed their swan skins in order to swim in the lake. The hunter then proceeds to steal the skin of the youngest and prettiest maiden, who he then leads back to his cabin to make his wife. Though versions of the tale differ considerably, in most iterations the swan maiden finds her skin and flies back to her sisters, sometimes being followed by her contrite husband. Here Crane depicts the early part of the tale, as the seven swan maidens are shown bathing and in various degrees of transformation.

[20thcenturyartgallery]

Tradition

Artist: Kenyon Cox (American, 1856–1919)

Date: 1916

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio, United States

[royalty-nobility]

Apotheosis of the Royal Family

Artist: British (English) School

Date: 19th century

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Royal Trust Collections, London, United Kingdom

Description

The figure of Britannia mourns at an inscribed tomb. On either side of which is a grieving lion and unicorn; in the sky the Apotheosis; in the background Windsor Castle.

In the lower portion of the painting: the figure of Britannia, dressed in a white chemise, and a blue cloak edged with red, her head in her arms, lies mourning over a stone tomb which has a drape on the top, which partially obscures the inscription carved on it; her trident and oval shield, painted with the union-jack, lies propped in front; the head of a grieving unicorn emerges from the back of the right side of the tomb, eyes closed, and a lion’s head from the back of the tomb on the left; in the background at the right is Windsor Castle seen in silhouette against the sky; at the top of the picture, in the cloudy heavens, are three angels playing harps, one on the left and two on the right, they look down on two groups of figures rising to the heavens, on the right hand is George III wearing an ermine cloak and holding in his arms two very young children wearing flowing robes, Prince Octavius and Prince Alfred; behind him to the right are the Dukes of York and Kent. In the left-hand group (reading clockwise from the top are) are Princess Amelia, Queen Charlotte, the still-born child of Princess Charlotte, Princess Charlotte who holds her child up to the King, Caroline of Brunswick and finally Charlotte Princess Royal. With the exception of the King and Queen, who are crowned, each figure has a star above its head.

The point of this very feeble painting is presumably to symbolise the lack of an heir to George IV [this is dubious – there were four of his brothers still alive, and Princess Victoria; the death of Princess Charlotte was too long in the past, and George IV seems peripheral to the scene] By 1829 all the figures depicted had died.

Depicted Subjects:

King George III (1738–1820) 

Queen Charlotte (of Mecklenburg-Strelitz) (1744-1818) 

Queen Caroline (1768 - 1821)

Prince Octavius (1779 – 1783) 

Prince Alfred (1780 - 1782) 

Prince Frederick Augustus, Duke of York and Albany (1763-1827)

Prince Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent (1767–1820) 

Princess Amelia (1783 - 1810) 

Princess Charlotte Augusta, Princess of Wales (1796-1817)