FOLLOWER OF JOSEPH MALLORD WILLIAM TURNER (LONDON 1775-1851)

FOLLOWER OF JOSEPH MALLORD WILLIAM TURNER (LONDON 1775-1851)
The Golden Bough
oil on canvas
70 x 91 cm

The original exhibited 1834, held by Tate Britain, London

A comparison between the present work reveals a well observed understanding of Turners handling and technique, with thin transparent glazes, scumbling and impasto, methods Turner pioneered. All these elements come together to convey a sense of movement and energy, through the use of swirling intense compositions that Turner uses to suggest the forces of nature.

This subject comes from Virgil’s poem, the Aeneid. The Trojan hero, Aeneas, has come to Cumae to consult the Sibyl, a prophetess. She tells him he can only enter the Underworld to meet the ghost of his father if he offers Proserpine a golden bough cut from a sacred tree.

Turner shows the Sibyl holding a sickle and the freshly cut bough,in front of Lake Avernus, the legendary gateway to the Underworld. The dancing figures are the Fates. Like the snake in the foreground, they hint at death and the mysteries of the Underworld, amidst the beauty of the landscape.