3. in the Bible, spiritual meaning in the shape of a plague in the Exodus
in the Revelation associated with unclean spirits
to the Greeks and Romans, symbols of fertility, harmony, and licentiousness in association with Aphrodite
in the Christian Middle Ages associated with the dark arts, Satan or the heretics

4. portrayed as ugly, dark creatures
in the Middle Ages a symbol of sin, death, lust, and heretics, associated with evil, with the devil, witchcraft
and sorcery
recognized as useful in the garden, and defended by some poets, in particular Victor Hugo, its image improved
towards the end of the 19th century and during the 20th century

6. Frogs and toads are small and humble creatures, hardly attractive themes for the artist.
They’ve had their moments in paint though ...

7. Frogs and toads
in Western painting

9. multiple batrachians emerge from the pond: symbols of evil,
impurity, corruption, lust and sin …
two extravagant birds are fighting over a toad
a bird with a spatula-shaped beak gobbles up another toad
a soldier who is being devoured by rabid satanic dogs
lies on a banner with a toad, symbol of sin
the toad sitting on a woman's chest symbolizes impurity
(the toads on women's chests could be the indications
of their involvement in witchcraft or their crime of poisoning
other people)
Jheronimus Bosch
The Garden of Earthly Delights
Le jardin des délices
1490-1500
Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid

21. Toads are shown as servants of Satan ...
St. Anthony, tempted and seduced by demons is carried
away on the abdomen of a winged toad
an bird-like creature with a long straight bill, is swallowing
a whole frog
a devil-queen offers Anthony a glimpse of her infatuating
naked body
and
an old person pours liquid from a ewer into the bowl held
up by a toad
Jheronimus Bosch
Triptych of the Temptation of Saint Anthony
Triptyque de la Tentation de saint Antoine
1500-1510
Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisboa

26. an invasion of evil little creatures …
a fish with fangs is walking on the bank,
an inverted funnel with human legs and arms,
a cloaked creature with the bill of a spoonbill
and
a frog
Jheronimus Bosch
The Temptation of Saint Anthony
La Tentation de saint Antoine
c 1500-1510
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City

28. faces ugly and distorted,
a dense mass of mean-spirited soldiers
here there is only evil intent, as seen in the shield with the giant toad held
by the young man who leads Christ ...
Jheronimus Bosch
Christ Carrying the Cross
Le Portement de Croix
1490-1510
Gemäldegalerie, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

31. a big toad climbs up the shield held by the soldier on the right,
a symbol of evil, lust and depravity
Jheronimus Bosch
Ecce Homo
1475-1480
Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt

34. on the woman's lap sits a toad, the symbol of an evil spirit …
Jheronimus Bosch
The Haywain
Le Chariot de foin
1512-1515
Museo del Prado, Madrid

38. the myopic gaze of the thief,
the stupid amazement of the frog-spitting victim
and
the ironic relationship between the shiny eyes of the fool
and the white gleaming spots of the frog’s eyes on the table
Jheronimus Bosch, follower of, après 1525
The Conjurer
L'Escamoteur
1475-1480
Musée Municipal, Saint Germain-en-Laye

42. a well-known classical myth ...
Latona’s pregnancy was the result of another of Jupiter’s
extra-marital relationships and Latona she fled from Juno
to the countryside in Lycia ...
in a dense forest she finds a marsh with clean water
for a thirst quencher, but the local peasants aren’t having it
and they stomp up the mud
and …
Latona’s thirst was replaced by anger, and she cursed them
to remain in that pool forever, transforming them into frogs
Jan Brueghel the Elder, Jan Brueghel l'Ancien
Latona and the Lycian Peasants
Latone et les paysans lyciens
1595-1610
Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Amsterdam

45. a Greek goddess with peasant-into-frog-turning superpowers …
(a landscape looks like suburban Antwerp in 1640, not Lycia
thousands of years BC)
David Teniers the Younger, David Teniers le Jeune
Latone et les grenouilles, Latone change en grenouilles les paysans de
Lycie
Latona and the Frogs
1640-1650
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco

48. a noted sorceress from classical myth ...
preparing a magic potion …
all objects associated with magical rites are arranged in front of Medea:
strange roots,
dried sting ray,
a small Egyptian sculpture,
abalone shell
and
a copulating pair of foul toads
(I don’t know whether the toads offended the jury of the Royal Academy,
but this wonderful painting was rejected when Sandys submitted it for
exhibition ...)
Frederick Sandys
Medea
Médée
1866-1868
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham

51. old, young witches ...
cooking with strange ingredients,
praying to the devil,
reading in magic books,
applying on ointment made of flies on the back, to fly
at its foot the ingredients of this cooking session:
snakes, skulls, bones,
the head of the decapitated soldier wearing his helmet
and
a toad-like swollen winged pierced with an arrow
Frans Francken the Younger, Frans Francken le Jeune
The Witches' Kitchen
La cuisine des sorcières
1610
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

55. an unidentified young man ...
a prototype of the Christian Knight, the virtues of which are clearly referred
to in the motto "Malo mori quam foedari"- better dead than stained,
inscribed on the scroll to the left, above the ermine, a symbol of purity and integrity ...
next to the ermine three toads, symbols of lust and corruption
Vittore Carpaccio
Young Knight in a Landscape
Jeune chevalier dans un paysage
1505
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

58. the zoology of Bruegel’s The Fall of the Rebel Angels …
sea creatures, butterflies, poultry, slippery fish, shrimps,
fruit, lizards,
a bloated frog by decomposition,
a gutted frog with bird legs
Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Pieter Bruegel l'Ancien
The Fall of the Rebel Angels
La Chute des anges rebelles
1562
Musées Royaux des Beaux Arts de Belgique, Brussels

62. a wood with thick dark undergrowth ...
a hidden microcosm in which snakes,
lizards, frogs and toads, crowd
together fighting for their lives
under the thistles a lizard is hiding,
about to attack the toad
Otto Marseus van Schrieck
Still life with Insects and Amphibians
Nature morte avec insectes et aux
amphibiens
1662
Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum,
Braunschweig

64. Placed at the center of the stage is a man in a hat , a deformed dwarf
and a Pierrot with his costume decorated with the image of a red toad ...
(the red frog of the Pierrot can evoke this passage of the Apocalypse:
"And I saw from the mouth of the dragon, and from the mouth of the
beast, and from the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits
like frogs ...“
These three spirits can be incarnated here in the dwarf, the Pierrot
and the man in the hat ...
for a fee of 30 centimes climb the stairs and go behind the red curtain,
already opened by a mysterious hand. The show is about to begin …!)
Fernand Pelez
Grimaces et misères. Les Saltimbanques
Grimaces and Misery. The Entertainers
1888
Musée du Petit Palais, Paris

68. Did you notice them?
a red bullfinch in mid-flight
and
a small frog faces outwards
(Many believe that the bullfinch invites
the spectators to open their eyes as he hovers
over the scene.
And the frog on the other hand, refers to
a nickname given to 19th century prostitutes)
Édouard Manet
Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe
The Luncheon on the Grass
1863
Musée d'Orsay, Paris

71. painting by a German Gothic artist
a reminder of mortality ...
the Dead Lovers ...
putrefying cadavers, infested by insects such as flies and dragonflies, snakes, worms
and a toad
Artiste inconnu, Rhin supérieur ou Souabe
Unknown artist, Ulm or Upper Rhine
Amants trépassés
The Dead Lovers
1470
Musée de l'Œuvre Notre-Dame, Strasbourg

74. Baby Jesus, Madonna, Saint Ambrose, Saint Michael, two angels
the heretic Arius and Satan
victory and rout ...
the Madonna in the act of handing a palm to Saint Ambrose, for his victory over Arianism,
symbolized by the corpse of Arius at the foot of the Milanese prelate
on the right the Archangel Saint Michael, at his feet, symbol of defeated malignity,
a dead toad
Bramantino
Madonna of the towers or The Madonna Enthroned with Saint Ambrose and Saint Michael
La Vierge aux tours ou Vierge à l'enfant entre Saint Ambroise et Saint Michel
1520
Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, Milan

77. olga_oes
Frogs and toads in Western painting
Grenouilles et crapauds dans la peinture occidentale
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