Much art has aimed to encourage virtue and warn against vice. But anger, hate and its relations – revenge, violence and war – are powerful features of ancient myths, religious stories, literature and indeed everyday life.
In Titian’s famous TheDeath of Actaeon, the goddess Diana turns Actaeon into a stag in revenge and has him devoured by his own hounds.
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In the Bible, Cain was angered at God’s favouritism for his brother Abel and killed him; few violent subjects are depicted more explicitly in art than Judith’s slaying of Holofernes.
Artworks
Peret Insulting the PriestRoger Westwood (b.1936)
Arts Council Collection, Southbank Centre
The Death of Actaeon Titian (c.1488–1576)
The National Gallery, London
Nine Angry Bulls British (English) School
Compton Verney
Returning from a Bad Market, Butter Only One and Nine British (English) School
Compton Verney
Idealogical ConflictAnthony Pilbro (b.1954)
Herbert Art Gallery & Museum
UntitledRuth Graham (b.1958)
Art & Heritage Collections, Robert Gordon University