Dante, the most mythical poet of the 13th century, was exiled by the Church for his opposition to the Pope for his assertion of freedom. But he became the beginning of the transition from the feudal Middle Ages to modern capitalism.

Virgil was an ancient Roman poet (70-19 BC) and is widely regarded as "one of Rome's greatest poets", and of his three major works, the first two are pastoral poetry collections, the Eclogues and the Georgics, and the third is that after Octavian defeated all his enemies and became the first "Augustus" in Rome, Virgil decided to write a monumental narrative poem that eulogized the history of the Roman Empire: the epic Aeneid. This is another version of the birth of Rome: in the Trojan War, the Greeks defeated the Trojans, and the Trojan prince Aeneid escaped, wandered around with great hardships, and finally settled in Rome, leading a group of surviving Trojans who became the ancestors of later Romans. This version is just as famous as "two children raised by she-wolves to create Rome". Dante and him were separated by 1300 years, but Dante regarded him as a teacher.

William Adolf Bougreau, a master of the Aestheticist school, depicts allegory, mythology, and love, and likes to express it in terms of tranquility and the idealization of happiness.

However, this painting is a change from Bougreau's painting convention, and uses fierce and vivid colors to represent the seven deadly sins of hell - arrogance, jealousy, anger, laziness, greed, gluttony, and lust. In the very center of the picture are two sinners fighting each other, one of whom grabs the other by the flank and bites his throat, which is a sign of rage. Immediately after them was a man lying on the ground who was powerless, ignoring what was happening in front of him, which was laziness. And farther afield, the crowd depicts arrogance, jealousy, greed, gluttony, and lust.

Bougreau's "Dante and Virgil in Hell" has changed the previous soft human body, drawing the muscles in great detail and the movements quite exaggerated, which is one of the most tense pictures in Bougreau's career. The sinners in hell, with their expressions of anguish and hideous, atone for the sins they committed in their lifetimes, while Dante and Virgil watched silently, and Virgil stood in front of Dante with one hand, meaning not to interfere with them. Bougreau ranked the seven deadly sins in his heart in this way, the most taboo being anger, and then laziness, which is also in line with Bougreau's character. Approach life with a calm mind and art with a diligent mindset. So in most of his works, the themes tend to be light-hearted and natural, serene and cheerful. If Bouguereau's life is a painting, then the painting "Dante and Virgil in Hell" is the most important contrasting color of Bougreau's life, which is both Bougero and anti-Bougero.

The Seven Deadly Sins of Hell – Arrogance, Envy, Anger, Laziness, Greed, Gluttony, and Lust. Therefore, hell is hidden in your heart, do you open the gates of hell? The initiative is in your own hands! Do you indulge the devil to come out and pull you into hell? The initiative is also in your own hands! Treat life with a calm mind, and treat your career with a diligent attitude......

Next Zhang Feng saw the decadent Romans, made in 1847

The author is Thomas Couttier

In the majestic, well-ordered buildings built by the ancestors of Rome, the men and women of Rome began to live a life of indulgence. Marble statues of the sages stand among the huge Roman columns, and in the center is Germaniculas, who represents a time when morality was once emphasized. A drunk man in the upper right corner even climbs the statue and tries to get the stone to party with him. In the lower right corner, two Germans from afar watch the decadent spectacle of the Roman Empire's demise at the hands of the Germans. History is indeed like this, and the decline of the Roman Empire did not stem from the early recklessness of the army, but from the later prosperity and stability that led to the multiplicity of evil and moral decay.

The impression of academic works on Zhang Feng is a bit like Chinese New Year paintings, they are everywhere, there are too many characters on the scene, and it is dizzying to watch. Most of them still have some stories in them. It is no wonder that from the Middle Ages onwards those paintings were made for religious reasons. And what everyone thinks of as a master is just a pretend in the eyes of the Pope = Emperor.

Continuing to walk, Zhang Feng came to a painting of a boy playing piccolo.

Édouard Manet (23.01.1832 - 30.04.1883) was one of the founders of Impressionism in the 19th century, born in Paris, France, in 1832. He never participated in an Impressionist exhibition, but his innovative attitude to art deeply influenced the emerging painters of Monet, Cézanne, Van Gogh, and then brought painting to the road of modernism. Influenced by Japanese ukiyo-e and Spanish painting styles, Manet boldly adopted bright colors, abandoning the intermediate tones of traditional painting, liberating painting from the traditional shackles of pursuing three-dimensional space, and taking a revolutionary step towards dualistic two-dimensional creation.

Manet was born in Paris, where his father was chief justice officer of the Ministry of the Interior. Parents want their son to study law or become a naval officer. At the age of 16, Manet worked as a trainee sailor on a ship bound for Brazil, where the charm of nature sparked his passion for depicting the beauty of nature with color and line. At the age of 18, he resolutely entered the studio of the Parisian classicist painter Thomas Cuchère to study painting. He studied here for 6 years, received strict training in the basic skills of painting, and acquired solid modeling skills, but he was dissatisfied with classicism. During this period, he often visited the Louvre to observe the works of the masters, and traveled to Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Belgium, and obtained a truly fresh and solid artistic accomplishment that is difficult to obtain in the studio with independent opinions.

Manet was well educated, developed a gentlemanly style, self-esteem, enthusiastic and unrestrained, pursued independence and freedom, opposed conservatism, sympathized with progress, defended republicanism, and had a spontaneous revolutionary consciousness. At the age of 19, he participated in the revolutionary insurrection, and also participated in the National Guard with Degas and Baziyi, and the young painter Baziyi was killed in battle. He sympathized with the uprising of the Paris Commune and was elected a member of the Commune Artists' Union, which was the result of his loyalty to freedom and romantic passion. When he turned all his life and passion for freedom to art, he opened up a new era in painting. At the age of 29, Manet made his mark on the Parisian painting scene by exhibiting Spanish guitarist at the Salon. His paintings have the foundation of classical modeling, and the overall expression of brightness and brightness, light and color, still maintains the realism of the image.