Sapiens Verbum — Art History Explained

In February 1814, with Napoleon's armies retreating and a king about to reclaim his throne, Spain's provisional government asked an aging court painter to immortalize the day ordinary Madrileños first said no to an empire. Francisco de Goya delivered one of the most devastating images of war ever painted. Then the government whose victory it was supposed to celebrate put it in storage — and left it there for most of the century. Quick facts Artist: Francisco de Goya (1746–1828) Date: 1814 Medium: Oil on canvas (268 × 347 cm) Collection: Museo del Prado, Madrid Notable fact: Commissioned by Spain's provisional government to honor the 1808 uprising against Napoleon — then kept out of public view for roughly three decades, uncatalogued by the Prado until 1872. Francisco de Goya, The Third of May 1808 , 1814. Oil on canvas, 268 × 347 cm. Museo del Prado, Madrid. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Madrid Says No On May 2, 1808, Madrid rioted. Napoleon ...

Francisco de Goya had painted for kings. Then he bought a house outside Madrid, went deaf to the court, and covered the walls with images he never meant for a salon. The Quinta del Sordo — the House of the Deaf Man — is where the Black Paintings begin: Saturn in the dining room, a witches’ sabbath in the gloom, and a painter who stopped decorating power and started painting what power left behind. Quick facts Artist: Francisco de Goya (1746–1828) Theme: The Quinta del Sordo and the Black Paintings Key works in this guide: Saturn Devouring His Son (c. 1820–23); Witches’ Sabbath / related witch scenes; earlier Witches’ Flight (1798) Collection today: Museo del Prado, Madrid (transferred from the house walls) Notable fact: Painted in oil directly on the plaster of his own home, then later transferred to canvas Francisco de Goya, Saturn Devouring His Son (c. 1820–23). Museo del Prado, Madrid — once on the walls of the Q...

Look once for the black dog on the wall. Look again for the sun that is trying to erase the river. If you only know J.M.W. Turner from storms and wrecks, Mortlake Terrace (1827) is where you meet the other Turner: the one who treats light as the main character and everything else as its supporting cast. Quick facts Artist: Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851) Date: 1827 Medium: Oil on canvas (92.1 × 122.2 cm) Collection: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (Andrew W. Mellon Collection) Notable fact: Painted for William Moffatt at The Limes, Mortlake; evening companion to the Frick Collection’s Mortlake Terrace: Early Summer Morning (1826) J.M.W. Turner, Mortlake Terrace , 1827. Oil on canvas. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. What Is at Stake Most people scroll past a “pretty Thames sunset” in three seconds. That is the trap. If you leave this painting as decoration, you miss the argument Turner is making: a view can ...

John William Waterhouse kept returning to the same kind of woman: the one who looks, opens, pours, or steps past the rule that was meant to keep her safe. Circe offers the cup. Circe tips poison into the pool. Psyche lifts the golden lid. The Lady of Shalott turns from the mirror to the window. A sorceress draws a ring of fire on the ground. Five paintings, one habit of mind - and five essays already on this site. Quick facts Artist: John William Waterhouse (1849-1917) Theme: Forbidden looking, pouring, and opening Paintings in this guide: Circe Offering the Cup to Odysseus (1891), Circe Invidiosa (1892), Psyche Opening the Golden Box (1903), The Lady of Shalott (1888), The Magic Circle (1886) Notable fact: These are late Pre-Raphaelite canvases that treat myth and Tennyson as modern drama - one figure, one decisive gesture, almost no crowd John William Waterhouse, Circe Invidiosa , 1892. The pour is the whole plot. Why the Rule Breaks on Purpose Waterhouse rarely...

She is not diving yet. In Harold Williamson's Spray (1939), a swimmer sits on a rocky ledge with her back to us, rust-orange swimsuit tied at the nape, white cap catching the light, one hand lifted as if to shield her eyes from sun or salt. Below her the sea boils white against stone. The title names the weather; the painting names the pause before she goes in. Quick facts Artist: Harold Williamson (1898-1972) Date: 1939 Medium: Oil on canvas (60.5 × 85.8 cm) Collection: Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum, Bournemouth Notable fact: Shown at the Royal Academy; bought from the artist in 1940 by Norman Silvester for £50, a local purchase while Williamson was painting master at Bournemouth College of Art Harold Williamson, Spray , 1939. Oil on canvas. Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum, Bournemouth. A Vertiginous View Williamson drops us from above and slightly behind. The rocks occupy the lower left like a stage; the rest of the canvas is water in mot...

She has already been warned. In John William Waterhouse's Psyche Opening the Golden Box (1903), the mortal beauty sits on a rock ledge in a dark wood, pink dress slipped from one shoulder, bare feet on stone, and lifts the lid of a small golden casket. A thin blue vapour rises toward her face. The myth says Proserpine's box held sleep, not beauty. Curiosity does the rest. Quick facts Artist: John William Waterhouse (1849-1917) Date: 1903 Medium: Oil on canvas (117 × 74 cm) Collection: Private collection Notable fact: Exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1903; one of Waterhouse's several Psyche subjects from the early 1900s John William Waterhouse, Psyche Opening the Golden Box , 1903. Oil on canvas. Private collection. The Last Impossible Task Venus, jealous of Psyche's beauty, sends her through trials. The fourth is a descent to the underworld for a dose of Proserpine's beauty, sealed in a golden box she must not open. Waterhouse freezes the moment ...

Dusk is a job, not a metaphor. In Erik Henningsen's The Lamplighter (c. 1895), a man leans into a street lamp with a pole and a flame while the city keeps walking. Cobblestones, coats, and half-lit faces fill the middle distance; the lamp is the hinge between day and night. This is Copenhagen street life painted by a Social Realist who knew how to make ordinary labour look monumental without turning it into a sermon. Quick facts Artist: Erik Ludvig Henningsen (1855-1930) Date: c. 1895 Medium: Oil on canvas Collection: Private collection Notable fact: Henningsen made his name with Social Realist scenes of Copenhagen - workers, the poor, and the lighter textures of street life - around the same decade as this lamplighter Erik Henningsen, The Lamplighter (old street lamps at dusk), c. 1895. Oil on canvas. Private collection. The Man Who Turns the City On Before electric grids made night automatic, someone had to climb the dusk with a ladder of light. Henningsen...