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Joseph Mallord William Turner (English, 1775–1851)
Regulus, exhibited 1828, reworked and exhibited 1837
Oil on canvas; 35 1/4 x 48 3/4 in. (89.5 x 123.8 cm)
Tate, London, Turner Bequest, 1856
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In this work, begun in Rome in 1828, Turner returns to the theme of Carthage. Here, he recounts the fate of Marcus Atilius Regulus (d. 250 B.C.), the Roman general whose eyelids were cut off by his captors before he was exposed to the blinding rays of the sun (Regulus is the man in white in the lower right corner). Turner emphasized the narrative significance of light while reworking the canvas on the eve of the opening of the 1837 British Institution exhibition. A witness described its transformation: "The picture gradually became wonderfully effective, just the effect of brilliant sunshine absorbing everything and throwing a misty haze over every object. Standing sideways of the canvas, I saw that the sun was a lump of white standing out like the boss of a shield."
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