Snakes at the Tate Britain Gallery

While snakes can make great animal drama in art,

it always fascinates me how artists choose to portray them.

The top piece, a detail of James Ward's
"Marengo and the Serpent"

from the early 19th cen

(Marengo I assume is the horrified-looking horse)

shows a very fierce but not altogether realistic looking snake,
 in my mind.

The second is great in terms of realism:

Frederic Leighton's "Athlete Wrestling a Python", 1877,

is obviously meticulously researched.

He's got the python's head bones and mouth structure down,

no fangs but with the detachable jaw,

and it is obviously a very strong snake (pythons are.)

The last one is from a Temptation of Adam scene

(as so many of them are)

this one by William Strang, 1899,

and the snake looks python-esque. Kind of cute, in my mind,

and not nearly as sinister as earlier snakes.

English Family Portraits in Earlier Times

I was at the Tate Britain with my handy camera [photos were allowed, hooray!] and I found it fascinating how the development of family portraits has changed.
Here's a gem from ca. 1636, going to visit the new baby and mother:

And another, slightly earlier, on the same theme (notice how these two mothers are both impeccable and so are their children):

This eighteenth-century 'two for one' family portrait is also kind of fun (saves money by all clubbing up to pay the painter together, possibly?) I like how the lady in the family on the right seems to be spinning.

Coot grooming its feathers