<A>
“Compare the horse's head from the Parthenon pediment with his horses' heads in the Battle of the Amazons, and the deep metaphysical contrast between the two conceptions of the same phenomenal element is felt at once.”
<B>
Corot (nymphs): *
Silenus, 1838, oil on canvas; In Greek & Roman mythology, Silenus, faithful friend & teacher of Dionysus, here the butt of a joke, awakening from his stupor to find his fellow revellers have tied him up with his own garlands & painted his face red with mulberries. He joins in the laughter, all is forgiven. This is an example of "historical landscape painting," in which mythological or Biblical scenes play out in idyllic settings; popularized by Poussin.
<C>
Boucher: *
Portrait of Marie-Louise O'Murphy, 1752, young model who posed for the Jeune Fille allongée (Reclining Girl), a painting famous for its eroticism, Boucher, at the height of his fame, had made a specialty of these deliberately licentious nudes, represented in lascivious poses outside a mythological context. La Jeune Fille allongée, also known as l'Odalisque blonde (the Blonde Odalisque), echoes the erotic Odalisque brune (Brown Odalisque), painted around 1745.
<D>
"Rubens's wife in a fur cloak.": *
A private work (one of his favourites) done simply for his own pleasure, never exhibited or sold. It is an outstanding painted depiction of nakedness. It could well be that Rubens modelled his depiction on the Venus Pudica (modest Venus). It is a truthful portrayal of his wife without idealization, she is a woman with a womanly figure and Rubens’ depiction of her is an honest portrayal of her and there can be no doubt that he found what he saw, very pleasurable.
<E>
Menzel (modern): *
At the Beer Garden, 1883
<F>
Botticelli (portraits): *
Portrait of a Man with a Medal of Cosimo the Elder, 1474, tempera painting, features a young man (whose identity is a mystery) displaying in triangled hands a medal stamped with the likeness of Cosimo de' Medici.
