Painting
For centuries painters have given visible form to what escapes the eye: the planets and their influences, the gods of myth read as figures of the soul, witches, night demons, the visions of mystics. This section traces the history of esotericism in European painting through twenty fundamental works and artists. It begins in the Renaissance, with Dürer's Melencolia I, Botticelli's Neoplatonic allegories, Mantegna's painted sky, the enigma of Giorgione's Tempest and the illuminated cards of the Visconti-Sforza tarot. It then passes through the anxieties of Bosch, the alchemical laboratory for which Caravaggio worked, Goya's witches, Fuseli's Nightmare and the prophecies of William Blake. The last stretch of the journey leads from the Pre-Raphaelites and Waterhouse to the Symbolism of Moreau, Redon and the Salons de la Rose+Croix, and on to the spiritual abstraction of Hilma af Klint and Kandinsky and the alchemical Surrealism of Leonora Carrington. Each article carefully distinguishes documented facts from interpretations and legends.
Dürer's Melencolia I: Saturn, Genius and the Magic Square
Dürer's 1514 engraving between humoral theory, the magic square of Jupiter, Ficino and Agrippa: a guide to the symbols of Melencolia I.
3 min readI.02Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights: Heresy, Alchemy and Musical Hells
Hieronymus Bosch's triptych in the Prado: the three panels, the tree-man, Fraenger's theory and alchemical readings, from the Nassau court to El Escorial.
3 min readI.03Botticelli's Primavera and the Neoplatonism of Marsilio Ficino
Zephyr, Flora, the Graces and Mercury: how Botticelli's Primavera in the Uffizi reflects Ficino's philosophy, Poliziano's poetry and natural magic.
3 min readI.04Botticelli's Birth of Venus and Plato's Two Venuses
Hesiod, Poliziano and Ficino's De amore: the sources of Botticelli's Birth of Venus and the philosophical meaning of the heavenly Venus in the Uffizi.
3 min readI.05Giorgione's Tempest: the Most Debated Enigma of Venetian Painting
The soldier, the gypsy and the lightning: the story of Giorgione's Tempest, from Marcantonio Michiel's notes to X-rays and Hermetic interpretations.
3 min readI.06Caravaggio and Alchemy: Cardinal Del Monte's Ceiling
Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto in Rome's Casino Ludovisi: Caravaggio's only known mural, painted for Cardinal Del Monte's alchemical laboratory.
3 min readI.07Goya and the Witches: from the Osuna Sabbath to the Black Paintings
The he-goat, the Caprichos and the Quinta del Sordo: how Goya moved from Enlightenment satire on witchcraft to the tragic visions of the Black Paintings.
3 min readI.08Fuseli's Nightmare: the Night Demon that Conquered London
Henry Fuseli's 1781 painting, now in Detroit: the mare of folklore, the horse between the curtains and the fortune of a great Romantic icon.
3 min readI.09William Blake, the Visionary Who Invented His Own Mythology
Illuminated printing, Swedenborg, Urizen and the Ancient of Days: the visionary art of William Blake, from the angels of Peckham Rye to the Ghost of a Flea.
3 min readI.10Waterhouse's Magic Circle and the Enchantresses of Victorian Painting
The 1886 painting at Tate Britain, the protective circle of the magical tradition and Waterhouse's enchantresses, from Circe to the crystal ball.
3 min readI.11The Pre-Raphaelites: Visions, Arthurian Legends and Spiritualism
From Rossetti's Beata Beatrix to Burne-Jones's Beguiling of Merlin and Evelyn De Morgan's spiritualism: magic in Pre-Raphaelite painting.
3 min readI.12Gustave Moreau, the Painter Who Turned Myth into Enigma
Oedipus and the Sphinx, Salome and The Apparition, the Paris house-museum: the symbolic world of Gustave Moreau, teacher of Matisse and Rouault.
3 min readI.13Odilon Redon: from the «Noirs» of Dream to an Explosion of Colour
Balloon-eyes, Flaubert and the Temptation of Saint Anthony, pastels and flowers: the visionary art of Odilon Redon, a leading figure of Symbolism.
3 min readI.14Symbolism in Painting: Khnopff, Böcklin and the Art of the Idea
From Moréas's 1886 manifesto to Böcklin's Isle of the Dead, from Khnopff to Delville and von Stuck: how Symbolism transformed European painting.
3 min readI.15Péladan and the Salons de la Rose+Croix: When Art Became Initiation
Sâr Péladan, the Catholic Order of the Rose-Croix, the rules of the 1892-1897 Salons, Khnopff, Delville, Hodler and the music of Erik Satie.
3 min readI.16Hilma af Klint and the Paintings for the Temple: Abstraction and Spirits
The Five, the seances, the Ten Largest of 1907 and the meeting with Steiner: how Hilma af Klint arrived at abstraction before Kandinsky did.
3 min readI.17Kandinsky and Concerning the Spiritual in Art: Theosophy, Colour and Sound
The 1911 book, Theosophy, Thought-Forms, yellow as a trumpet and blue as an organ, the Blue Rider: the esoteric roots of abstract painting.
3 min readI.18Leonora Carrington, the Surrealist Who Painted Alchemy
From Lancashire to Mexico City: Celtic tales, Max Ernst, Remedios Varo and the alchemical kitchens in Leonora Carrington's visionary painting.
3 min readI.19The Visconti-Sforza Tarot: a Masterpiece of Lombard Miniature Painting
The 74 surviving cards in New York and Bergamo, Bonifacio Bembo, Petrarch's Triumphs and the late birth of the esoteric myth of the tarot.
3 min readI.20Mantegna and the Camera degli Sposi: the Painted Sky of the Gonzaga
The di sotto in su oculus, Ludovico Gonzaga's court, the Caesars and the myths of Orpheus and Arion: symbols and illusions of the Camera Picta in Mantua.
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