01 Paintings and tales of Mermaids, with Footnotes, 6a

 Gioacchino Pagliei

The Naiads, c. 1881

Oil on Canvas

In Greek mythology, the Naiads were a type of female water nymph who presided over fountains, wells, springs, streams, brooks and other bodies of fresh water. 

Naiads were associated with fresh water, as the Oceanids, the sea nymphs who were the three thousand daughters of the Titans Oceanus and Tethys, were with saltwater, and the Nereids specifically with the Mediterranean.

A popular Greek legend turned Alexander the Great's sister, Thessalonike, into a mermaid after her death. Living in the Aegean, she would ask the sailors on any ship she would encounter only one question: "Is King Alexander alive?", to which the correct answer was: "He lives and reigns and conquers the world". This answer would please her, and she would accordingly calm the waters and bid the ship farewell. Any other answer would enrage her, and she would stir up a terrible storm, dooming the ship and every sailor on board.

Gioacchino Pagliei (born 1852 in Subiaco, Lazio, died 1896 in Rome) was an Italian painter who worked in the Neo-Pompeian genre. He studied in Rome at the Accademia di San Luca, where in 1871 he won an award for a drawing and essay. In 1875, he won the Stanziani competition.

A follower of F. Grandi, he worked on the decoration of the church of San Lorenzo in Damaso. He also worked at the Palazzo del Quirinale and the Villino Gamberini.

His oil painting style followed the Neo-Pompeian genre.

He was introduced to the Società degli Amatori e Cultori delle Belle Arti in the 1880s where he exhibited A Costume of the Empire, 1882; The Embarrassment, 1884; and Nella scala, 1895-1896. More on Gioacchino Pagliei

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01 Works, RELIGIOUS ART - Interpretation of the Bile, With Footnotes - 99

Juan Carreño De Miranda

Saint Sebastian, c. 1656.
Oil on canvas,
171 x 113 cm.
Museo Nacional del Prado

This work is a superb example of Carreño's Venetian devotion in his early years. The general silhouette is very similar to Orrente's canvas in the Cathedral of Valencia, representing the same Saint. Probably the existence of a common source explains the close resemblance.

Carreño is based on Titian, and seems to have been directly inspired, for the way of trimming the nude over the bluish distances, in the Adam and Eve of Titian, today in the Prado, which in 1628 Rubens had copied. More on this painting

Saint Sebastian (died c. 288 AD) was an early Christian saint and martyr. Sebastian had prudently concealed his faith, but in 286 was detected. Diocletian reproached him for his betrayal, and he commanded him to be led to a field and there to be bound to a stake so that archers from Mauritania would shoot arrows at him. "And the archers shot at him till he was as full of arrows as an urchin is full of pricks, and thus left him there for dead." Miraculously, the arrows did not kill him.

Sebastian later stood by a staircase where the emperor was to pass and harangued Diocletian for his cruelties against Christians. This freedom of speech, and from a person whom he supposed to have been dead, greatly astonished the emperor; but, recovering from his surprise, he gave orders for his being seized and beat to death with cudgels, and his body thrown into the common sewer. A pious lady, called Lucina, admonished by the martyr in a vision, got it privately removed, and buried it in the catacombs at the entrance of the cemetery of Calixtus, where now stands the Basilica of St. Sebastian. More St. Sebastian

Juan Carreño de Miranda (25 March 1614 — 3 October 1685) was a Spanish painter of the Baroque period.

Born in Avilés in Asturias. His family moved to Madrid in 1623, where he trained in Madrid during the late 1620s as an apprentice to Pedro de las Cuevas and Bartolomé Román. He came to the notice of Velázquez for his work in the cloister of Doña María de Aragón and in the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary, La Joyosa. In 1658 Carreño was hired as an assistant on a royal commission to paint frescoes in the Alcázar of Madrid; later destroyed in a fire in 1734. In 1671. Upon the death of Sebastián de Herrera, he was appointed court painter to the queen and began to paint primarily portraits. He refused to be knighted in the order of Santiago, saying Painting needs no honors. 

Noble by descent, he had an understanding of the workings and psychology of the royal court as no painter before him, making his portraits of the Spanish royal family in an unprecedented documentary fashion. More on Juan Carreño de Miranda

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01 Works, RELIGIOUS ART - Interpretation of Russian mythology, With Footnotes - 101

Ryzhenko Pavel Viktorovich

Peresvet victory, c. 2005

Oil on canvas 

170x210 cm

Private collection

Alexander Peresvet was a Russian Orthodox Christian monk who fought in a single combat with the Tatar champion Temir-murza at the opening of the Battle of Kulikovo (8 September 1380), where they killed each other.

He is believed to have hailed from the Bryansk area and took the monastic habit at the Rostov Monastery of Saints Boris and Gleb. Alexander and his friend Rodion Oslyabya joined Russian troops approaching to fight against Mamai invasion.

The battle of Kulikovo was opened by single combat between the two champions. The Russian champion was Alexander Peresvet. The Horde champion was Temir-murza. The champions killed each other in the first run, though according to a Russian legend, Peresvet did not fall from the saddle, while Temir-murza did.


Peresvet's body, together with that of his brother-in-arms Oslyabya, were brought to Moscow, where they lie buried at the 15th-century Theotokos Church in Simonovo. More on Alexander Peresvet

Ryzhenko Pavel Viktorovich was born in 1970 in the Northwestern Russian city of Kaluga. He served in the Soviet then later Russian military 1988-1990, as part of an elite guards airborne unit. At age 20 he entered the Russian Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture for a six year course of study that left him a professor of art. Starting in 1997 he taught at the academy focusing on architecture, restoration and composition.


However, he soon took to painting historical military scenes, typically Russian in origin.

In poor health at just age 44, he donated all of his paintings to the Russian government before he died of a stroke in the summer of 2014. He is criticized by some as being a revisionist of the Monarchist era history of the Old Russian Empire. More on Ryzhenko Pavel Viktorovich

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01 Works, RELIGIOUS ART - Interpretation of the Bible!, With Footnotes - 97

Antwerp School, circa 1540

The Lamentation of Christ, circa 1540

Oil on panel

37 x 27 cm

Private collection

The Lamentation of Christ is a very common subject in Christian art from the High Middle Ages to the Baroque. After Jesus was crucified, his body was removed from the cross and his friends mourned over his body. This event has been depicted by many different artists.

Lamentation works are very often included in cycles of the Life of Christ, and also form the subject of many individual works. One specific type of Lamentation depicts only Jesus' mother Mary cradling his body. These are known as Pietà (Italian for "pity") More The Lamentation of Christ

The Antwerp School is a term for the artists active in Antwerp, first during the 16th century when the city was the economic center of the Low Countries, and then during the 17th century when it became the artistic stronghold of the Flemish Baroque under Peter Paul Rubens.

Antwerp took over from Bruges as the main trading and commercial center of the Low Countries around 1500. Painters, artists and craftsmen joined the Guild of Saint Luke, which educated apprentices and guaranteed quality.  More Ecole Anversoise

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01 Works, RELIGIOUS ART - Interpretation of Hindu mythology, Raja Ravi Varma's Untitled (Tillottama), With Footnotes - 01

Raja Ravi Varma, 1848 -1906

Untitled (Tillottama), c. 1896

Oil on canvas

20 x 13¼ in. (50.8 x 33.5 cm.)

Private collection

Tilottama is a Apsaras, celestial nymphs, from Hindu mythology. In the epic Mahabharata, Tilottama was created at Brahma's request by using the best possible assets to create an almost perfect being. Her purpose was to bring about the destruction of the two Asuras (demons) named Sunda and Upasunda who were brothers and could not be destroyed by anyone except themselves. As their atrocities grew, the God Indra sent Tilottama to them. So captivated were they by her beauty that the jealous brothers fought over her and ended up killing each other. This painting portrays her descent through the skies down to earth, most likely after her creation.

Raja Ravi Varma (29 April 1848 – 2 October 1906) was a celebrated Indian painter and artist. He is considered among the greatest painters in the history of Indian art for a number of aesthetic and broader social reasons. Firstly, his works are held to be among the best examples of the fusion of European techniques with a purely Indian sensibility. While continuing the tradition and aesthetics of Indian art, his paintings employed the latest European academic art techniques of the day. Secondly, he was notable for making affordable lithographs of his paintings available to the public, which greatly enhanced his reach and influence as a painter and public figure. His lithographs increased the involvement of common people with fine arts and defined artistic tastes among common people for several decades. In particular, his depictions of Hindu deities and episodes from the epics and Puranas have received profound acceptance from the public. More on Raja Ravi Varma

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