The Rape of Proserpine
J. M. W. Turner·1839
Historical Context
Turner's Rape of Proserpine (c. 1839) at the National Gallery of Art depicts the Ovidian myth of Pluto abducting Proserpine into the underworld — a subject that gave Turner the opportunity to explore extreme atmospheric effects of darkness and violent light. His late mythological paintings used classical subjects as occasions for experiments in color and atmosphere that had no documentary function, the narrative merely providing a framework for the study of light in extreme conditions — whether fire, storm, or the supernatural darkness of the underworld. The combination of the myth's violent darkness with his late style's luminous coloring creates a characteristic paradox: the darkness of the myth rendered in brilliance.
Technical Analysis
The mythological scene is rendered with Turner's characteristic late-period dissolution of form into color and light. Figures are suggested rather than defined, and the landscape becomes an atmospheric field of warm, radiant color.
Look Closer
- ◆Notice the mythological subject serving as pretext for extreme atmospheric experiment: Turner uses the underworld's darkness as justification for the dramatic chiaroscuro and color effects that interested him most.
- ◆Look at how light and dark are distributed: the warm, glowing passages that illuminate parts of the composition suggest supernatural illumination of a world where normal daylight cannot reach.
- ◆Observe the figures dissolved into the surrounding atmosphere: Proserpine and Pluto are barely distinguishable from the landscape they inhabit, making the myth atmospheric rather than narrative.
- ◆Find the compositional vortex: Turner's characteristic swirling movement organizes even this mythological darkness into the dynamic spiral that appears across his late work.
Provenance
Possibly William Wethered [d. 1863], King's Lynn, Norfolk, and, by 1849, London.[1] John Chapman [1810-1877], Hill End, Cheshire, and Carlecotes, Yorkshire, by 1852;[2] by descent to his son, Edward Chapman [1839-1906]. (Arthur J. Sulley & Co.), London, in joint ownership with (Thos. Agnew & Co.), London; purchased 1912 from (Arthur J. Sulley & Co.), New York, by Watson B. Dickerman [1846-1923]; passed to his wife, Florence E. Dickerman, New York; gift to NGA, 1951. [1] The evidence for Wethered's possible ownership of the picture is discussed in Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, _The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner_, 2d rev. ed., 2 vols., (New Haven and London, 1984), I: 232. [2] According to a note in the copy of the Royal Academy catalogue of 1839, in Agnew's library (Butlin and Joll, per note 1 above).
.jpg&width=600)