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Evelyn De Morgan - “Medea“ 1889 

Pre-Raphaelite movement 

Displayed at:  Williamson Art Gallery and Museum

Music: Arcana - Medea

Medea is a figure from the Greek mythology. She was a highly skilled magician and a daughter of King  Aeëtes of Colchis - the guardian of the  Golden Fleece. Medea fell in love with Jason and used her magic to help him and the Argonauts get the fleece, betraying her father, killing her own brother and escaping with Jason who marries her. The story of the two is a tragedy. Getting back to the kingdom of Iolkos, Jason takes back the throne from his uncle who stole his birth right. Jason rulles as king with Medea and has 2 sons from her. Years later Jason goes to Corinth where he takes another wife. Full of grief, jealousy and fury, Medea sends a wedding gift - clothes dipped in poison. The new wife of Jason gets infected and dies a painful death. At the same time Medea kills the children she had with Jason as an act of vengeance thus breaking his line. Jason dies out of grief on his ship “Argo” or according to another sources, he commits suicide. 

The Greek poet Euripides dedicates the play “Medea” to the myth of Medea and Jason. 

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Dimitar Gyudzhenov - “Oborishte 1876” / “Оборище 1876” - 1952; Military art 

Displayed at: Private collection 

Music: “Boyat nastana instrumental”

Poem by: Иван Вазов - "Панагюрските въстаници”

Commemorating 142th anniversary of the  Bulgarian April Uprising  

The Bulgarians have been incorporated in the Ottoman Empire since 14/15th century when the 2nd Bulgarian Tsarsdom was conquered by the Muslim Ottomans. After centuries of repression and enslavement the Bulgarians along with other Balkan nations strive for their independence. The April uprising 1876 marks the biggest in a series of uprisings and guerrilla movements in the previous centuries. The rebellion is severely crushed with tens of thousands being brutally murdered, raped and tortured. The public outcry in 19th century Europe against the massacre is massive and leads to further debate on the so called  Eastern Question related to the fate of the Christian nations within the Ottoman Empire. The subsequent 10th Russo-Turkish war 1877-1878 leads to the re-establishment of the Bulgarian statehood after almost 5 centuries of Ottoman rule. 

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John William Waterhouse - “The Lady of Shalott“ 1888

Pre-Raphaelite

Displayed at: Tate Britain, London 

Music:  Loreena McKennitt -  The Lady of Shalott  

Poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson

The story of Elaine the Fair - the Lady of Shalott is part of the medieval Arthurian legends.  Elaine the Fair  is isolated in a tower on an unnamed river that flows to Camelot. She is under a spell and spends her days weaving images in front of a mirror that shows her what is happening in the world, literally watching as life passes her by. The curse prevents her from taking part in life beyond her tower.  Through this window  Elaine sees sir Lancelot riding by the tower. Without exchanging a single word with Elaine, she falls in love with him. Her curse comes to fruition when she abandons her work and attempts to look beyond the mirror, out a window, to follow where he is going.  In doing so, her death is imminent, and she takes to the river in a boat, where she dies before reaching Camelot and sir Lancelot.  

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Henry Fuseli - “Teiresias foretells the future of Odysseus (lat.Ulysses)“

Romanticism 

Displayed at:  National Museum Wales, National Museum Cardiff

Music: Blind Guardian - Lionheart

The painting depicts the journey of the Greek hero Odysseus (Ulysses) to the Underworld (Hades) after the siege of Troy that has lasted for 10 years. Odysseus seeks counsel, about the future and his way back home to Ithaca, with the blind prophet Teiresias of Thebes. Teiresias warns  Odysseus that his journey is going to be burdensome since Odysseus provoked the fury of the God Posseidon, for blinding his son the cyclops Polyphemus. Moreover, Teiresias predicts that Odysseus might have to put a fight to regain his kingdom. During his long absence many nobles started vying for his crown for the hand of his wife Penelope. 

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Herbert James Draper - “The Lament for Icarus“ - 1898; 

Neoclassicism

Displayed at: Tate Britain, London

Music: Ivan Torrent “ Icarus”

Icarus is the son of the master craftsman Daedalus. His father is the creator of the Labyrinth where both him and his son Icarus were locked since they knew all its secrets. Icarus and his father attempted to escape from the Labyrinth of Crete by means of wings that his father constructed from feathers and wax. Icarus' father warned him first of complacency and then of hubris, asking that Icarus doesnt fly neither too low nor too high. If he flew too low, the sea's dampness would clog his wings and if he flew too high the sun's heat would melt his wings. Icarus ignored his father's warning not to fly too close to the sun. When the wax in his wings melted he tumbled out of the sky and fell to his death, sparking the idiom "don't fly too close to the sun".

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Caspar David Friedrich - “Wanderer above the Sea of Fog“/ ‘‘Der Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer‘‘- 1818; German Romanticism 

Displayed at:  Kunsthalle Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

Music: Emily van Evera - ‘Vision / The Music Of Hildegard Von Bingen’