Cosmic fake news

But this is the good kind, which rises to the level of poetry.

In Joachim Patinir’s “Charon Crossing the Styx” (1520-4), the ferryman described in Virgil’s “Aeneid” occupies the painting’s central position. Charon leads a soul, who has chosen unwisely, toward the three-headed dog Cerberus, guardian of hell.

Madrid’s Prado Museum, which owns the picture, notes that the Flemish painter blended classical and Christian …