Britomart Redeems Faire Amoret
Britomart Redeems Faire Amoret is an oil painting on canvas by English artist William Etty, first exhibited in 1833. Intended to illustrate the virtues of honour and chastity, it depicts a scene from Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene. It shows the moment in which Busirane is interrupted by Britomart as he prepares to kill Amoret.
About Britomart Redeems Faire Amoret in brief
Britomart Redeems Faire Amoret is an oil painting on canvas by English artist William Etty, first exhibited in 1833. Intended to illustrate the virtues of honour and chastity, it depicts a scene from Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene. Despite being a depiction of an occult ritual, a violent death, a partly nude woman and strongly implied sexual torture, it was uncontroversial on its first exhibition. Sold by Etty to a private collector in 18 33, it passed through the hands of several more before entering the collection of the Lady Lever Art Gallery. It was acquired by the Tate Gallery in 1958, and it remains in the collection. It shows the moment in which Busirane is interrupted by Britomart as he prepares to kill Amoret. Amoret’s heart is still visible through the paint, with the weave still visible. In the original poem, Amoret has been tortured and mutilated by the time of her rescue, but Etty disliked the depiction of violence and portrayed her as unharmed. The painting was extremely well received, and many of Etty’s fellow artists greatly admired him.
He was elected a full Royal Academician in 1828, ahead of John Constable. Etty became the first English artist to treat nude studies as a serious art form in their own right. He became well respected for his ability to capture flesh tones accurately in painting and for his fascination with contrasts in skin tones. The supposed prurient reaction of the lower classes to his nude paintings caused concern throughout the 19th century. Many critics condemned his repeated depictions of female nudity as indecent, although his portraits of male nudes were generally well received. From 1832 onwards, needled by repeated attacks from the press, Etty remained a prominent painter of nudes but made conscious efforts to try to reflect moral lessons in his work. In 1821 the Royal Academy exhibited one of his works, The Arrival of Cleopatra in Cilicia, and all but one contained at least one nude figure.
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This page is based on the article Britomart Redeems Faire Amoret published in Wikipedia (as of Oct. 31, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
