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“Cloud Ghosts” by Richard Riemerschmid (1897)

The phenomenon in which we humans recognize shapes in natural or artificial formations like clouds, buildings, rocks and the like is called Pareidolia. It is best exemplified in the Rorschach test.

It’s been theorized this ability was a result of natural selection favoring those with the ability to recognize emotions and identifying mental states, giving an individual the upper hand in combat or social settings.

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“The Tiger Hunt” by Peter Pauls Rubens (1615-1616)

One of four paintings commissioned by Maximilian I, Elector (a member of the electoral college who elected the ruler of the Holy Roman Empire) of Bavaria, for the old Scheleissheim Palace.

In modern times lions and tigers no longer share a common habitat in the wild, but they used to do so in Asia, including most of India and Anatolia (current day Turkey), this reduction of territory is unsurprisingly due human intervention.

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“Odysseus in front of Scylla and Charybdis” by Johann Heinrich Füssli (1974-1976)

Between Scylla and Charybdis is analogous to the fellow expressions between a rock and a hard place, between the hammer and the anvil, or between the devil and the deep blue sea. Essentially, to be on a difficult situation and having to choose between two unpleasant courses of action.

Scylla herself was once a naiad, a beautiful maiden who fell victim to the jealously of either Amphitrite (over Poseidon) or Circe (over Glaucus), she was transformed into a frightful being with the tail of a sea monster (known as kēto, the origin of the derived word cetacean) from whose thighs spring the heads of six dogs.

Charybdis is described either as a sea monster that swallowed huge amounts of water thrice a day (before belching it out again) to create whirlpools capable of dragging entire ships underwater, or as a whirlpool herself.

According to Aristotle, Aesop once teased a ferryman with Charybdis’ tale, claiming that her first gulp brought the mountains to view, the second made islands appear, but that the third is yet to come and will drain the entire sea, leaving the ferryman out of a job.

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“Timoclea Kills the Captain of Alexander the Great” by Elisabetta Sirani (1659)

[Trigger Warning: Sexual assault mentioned]

According to Plutarch, when thracian forces invaded Thebes their captain assaulted Timoclea in her own house, after the act he asked her if she knew where money could be located.

Timoclea claimed there was money in the well, and when the captain leaned over to see, she pushed him down into it, once he hit the bottom, she threw heavy rocks over him until he died.

She became a non-regular subject of the Power of Women Topos, also known as the artistic representations of historical female figures dominating wise or heroic men, popular exponents being Judith (over Holofernes), Delilah (over Samson), Salome and her mother Herodias (over the king Herod II and John the Baptist), among others.

Elisabetta Sirani died young and suddenly at only 27 years of age by a suspected peritonitis due a ruptured peptic ulcer (the stress of being the main breadwinner for her family thanks to her art’s success), however, not only was she amongst the first women artists of early modern Bologna, but established an academy for other female artists as well. A true real life example of the Power of Women Topos.

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“David och Saul” by Julius Kronberg (1885)

Also known as, in the words of @ja-khajay, “that one extremely homoerotic painting of a babylonian man listening to a babylonian twink playing babylonian harp”

In the painting I’ve heard there was a secret cord that David played, and it pleased the lord. More specifically, king Saul is being punished by god with an evil spirit that torments him, wanting a reprieve he asks for soothing music, he receives David, a skilled harpist and a good man of god who becomes part of his court, his champion against Goliath, and probably biggest regret of his life.

Tragically, the relationship between David and Saul is more violent and resentful than historically ambiguously fruity. In fact, there is at least 2 occasions in which king Saul threw a spear at David while he was playing the harp for him.

Although, Saul’s own son Jonathan "made a covenant with David, because he loved him as his own soul." this wasn’t meant to last, as Jonathan (along with his father) would die at the Battle of Gilboa in the war against the Philistines.

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“Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan on 16 November 1581” by Ilya Yefimovich Repin (1883-1885)

This was the first painting to be censored in the Russian Empire, and even after the ban was lifted and viewings were no longer forbidden (thanks to the intervention of the painter Alexey Bogolyubov), troubled times followed.

On 16 January 1913, the painting was slashed three times with a knife by a 29-year-old iconoclast (those who believe in the importance of destroying icons and monuments of relevance, mainly due political or religious reasons). This vandalism would prompt the curator of the Tretyakov gallery, Georgy Khruslov, to throw himself under a train.

The painting was attacked again in 2018 by a drunken man who broke the painting’s protective case with a metal bar.

The attacks upon the painting and multiple attempts to censor it seem to have been fueled by nationalistic intent, more specifically the belief the painting was inaccurate and part of a smear campaign against the portrayed Tsar.

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“Die Seelen am Acheron” (Souls on the Banks of the Acheron) by Adolf Hirémy-Hirschl (1898)

The painting portrays the shades of the deceased being guided by Hermes psychopompos (psyche meaning soul and pompos meaning guide) through the underworld, many of the dead plead for the god’s mercy, but he’s just a messenger.

The mythological Acheron is one of the five rivers of the underworld, sometimes known as the “River of woe” or “The painful”, its only sailing vessel is steered by Charon, the ferryman.

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“La Belle Dame sans Merci” (The Beautiful Lady Without Mercy) by Francis Bernard Dicksee (1901) illustrating the ballad of the same name written by the poet John Keats.

Contrary to what the painting might lead to believe, this poem’s fairy (La belle dame) is known as inspiration for the early femme fatale iconography examples of the 19th century! And the fate of her adoring knight can be foretold by the leaves grazing his arm, the only ones decaying in an otherwise healthy tree)

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“Dragon resting its head on the lap of a woman.” by Anton Robert Leinweber (1912)

As seen in the book “Kinder und Haus märchen gesammelt durch die Bruder Grimm : mit 4 Bildern in Farbendruck und 181 text illustrationen.” (Children and household’s fairytales collected by the brothers Grimm: with 4 pictures in color and 181 text illustrations, by the german editorial Stuttgard)

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“Samson and Delilah” by Sir Antoon van Dyck (1630) in the style of his former master Peter Paul Rubens.