Perseus and Andromeda
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- Place made
- London
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
-
152.2 x 229.0 cm
188.0 x 264.0 cm (frame) - Credit line
- Elder Bequest Fund 1902
- Accession number
- 0.329
- Signature and date
- Not signed. Not dated.
- Provenance
- The artist, bt by Harold Rathbone of Della Robbia Pottery, Birkenhead 1870s; acquired by AGSA from the above on the advice of H.P. Gill (Honorary Curator) 1902.
- Media category
- Painting
- Collection area
- British paintings
-
WALL LABEL: Radical Classical, collection display
In 1875 the up-and-coming politician and future prime minister A. J. Balfour commissioned a series of paintings by Burne-Jones for the music room of his London house. The subject chosen was William Morris’s epic poem The Earthly Paradise (1868-70), parts of which were based on various ancient Greek myths, including that of Perseus. The project kept Burne-Jones fully occupied until 1888, but, like this painting, was never finished.
The story of the rescue by Perseus of the Ethiopian princess Andromeda is here told in two parts. On the left, the warrior-deity Perseus, fresh from his victory over the Medusa, discovers and falls in love with the naked Andromeda, who had been chained to a rock to placate a gruesome sea-dragon. On the right, the helmeted Perseus slays the beast. Andromeda, now seen from behind, is thus set free. Later they married.
Tansy Curtin, Curator of International Art Pre-1980