From Spenser's Fairy Queen (Liber Studiorum, part VII, plate 36)
Not on view
Turner distilled his ideas about landscape In "Liber Studiorum" (Latin for Book of Studies), a series of seventy prints plus a frontispiece published between 1807 and 1819. To establish the compositions, he made brown watercolor drawings, then etched outlines onto copper plates. Professional engravers usually developed the tone under Turner's direction, and Hodgetts here added mezzotint to detail a subject inspired by Spenser's epic poem "The Faerie Queene" (1590-96). An armored figure, whose shield identifies him as the Redcrosse Knight, sits dejecteded on a rocky mountainside ledge near blasted trees. The image likely relates to lines in Book I where the knight succumbs briefly to the influence of Despayre (Despair) after being abandoned by a companion. The letter "H" in the upper margin places the work within Turner's category of Historical landscape, and the dark moody vista echoes Salvator Rosa.
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