The stories behind the paintings

A young general in a plumed silver helmet stands with his spear grounded, listening. An older man in a blue cloak leans forward from his seat and points, mid-argument. Alcibiades Being Taught by Socrates is a Neoclassical history painting by the French artist François-André Vincent, shown at the Paris Salon of 1777 and now in the Musée Fabre in Montpellier. It stages the most famous and most troubling friendship in Athenian history: the philosopher who tried to make a good man out of the most gifted, and most dangerous, politician of his age. François-André Vincent, Alcibiades Being Taught by Socrates, 1776–1777. Oil on canvas. Musée Fabre, Montpellier. Image via the Sapiens Verbum print shop. 🖼️ Get this painting as a print → Quick facts Artist: François-André Vincent (1746–1816) Date: 1776–1777 (exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1777) Medium: Oil on canvas, about 98 × 131 cm Collection: Musée Fabre, Montpellier (bequest of François-Xavier Fabre) Notable fact: Vincent s...

A young man with dark wings and a mane of red-brown hair lies on a rock, his body twisted, his arms crossed in front of his face. Only his eyes show above them, and they are full of anger. A single tear runs down from one of them. Behind him, in a pale blue sky, a procession of angels drifts away in a glow of light, leaving him behind. This is Lucifer after the fall, as the young Alexandre Cabanel imagined him in 1847. The Fallen Angel , now in the Musée Fabre in Montpellier, has become one of the most shared images of the devil in Western art. Alexandre Cabanel, The Fallen Angel, 1847. Oil on canvas. Musée Fabre, Montpellier. Image via the Sapiens Verbum print shop. 🖼️ Get this painting as a print → Quick facts Artist: Alexandre Cabanel (1823–1889) Date: 1847 Medium: Oil on canvas, 121 × 189.7 cm Collection: Musée Fabre, Montpellier, France Notable fact: Painted when Cabanel was only 24, as a student in Rome What does the painting show? Cabanel gives Lucifer the bod...