#flying figures

Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s poem 'The Deserted House' likens a corpse to an empty house which Life and Thought have deserted for the ‘great and distant city’ of immortality. Here, the male figure is Life and the female figure is Thought. The symbolism includes the peacock, the doves, the butterfly and the carved snakeson the tomb. All are traditional symbols of life after death. The angels will lead Life and Thought to the city on the horizon, representing Heaven or immortality.

The subject of this painting was perhaps inspired by the signing of the Treaty of Westminster on 9 February 1674, ending the Third Anglo-Dutch War. This was considered a victory for Britain, the Dutch having conceded the supremacy of the seas.The portrait of the King does not seem to be taken from life and was probably worked up by Verrio from a miniature by Samuel Cooper.

The theme is taken from Book X of the Aeneid: Pallas, beloved son of Evander, king of the Arcadians and ally of Aeneas, is killed in battle by Turnus who stabs him and strips him of his precious belt as a trophy. This will later unleash Aeneas's revenge against Turnus. The touching and pathos-filled episode ("… life and blood come forth in one path"), symmetrical to the death of Patroclus, represents an exception in the career of Swiss painter Jacques Sablet, who rarely tackled historical themes.

― Richard Powers, Bewilderment

Collection: Groeningemuseum Museum, Bruges, Belgium

Collection: The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, United States

This composition was designed to decorate a ceiling, which would explain the strong foreshortening in which its various figures have been drawn. The central figure is a matron wearing a helmet and holding a caduceus and ears of wheat, symbols of commerce and the fertility of the fields. Lust, Theft, Treachery, and Resentment flee before her presence.

Allegorie de la Reddition d'Ulm; General Karl Mack (1752-1828) surrendering to Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821); capitulation of Austrian army to French.