Ulysses Deriding Polyphemus

Greece to Paris, 530 BCE–1890

J. M. W. Turner

Ulysses Deriding Polyphemus

1829

Oil on canvas, 52 1/4 × 80 in. The National Gallery, London

J. M. W. Turner (British, 1775–1851). Look at the colour as light: the story is told by a sunrise of yellow, pink and blue, and the figures are hard to find.

Look at

  • The sun at right is the brightest point, and everything near it dissolves into pale yellow.
  • The giant is a shadowy brown-purple shape in the clouds at upper left, barely more solid than they are.
  • Thin, dry colour is dragged over the sky, so pinks and yellows sit on top of each other in layers.
  • The ship is the sharpest place in the picture: a gilded hull and crisp pale sails against the glare.
  • Ulysses, in red under a red banner, taunts the giant; sea nymphs glimmer at the bow.

Image: National Gallery, London image, via Wikimedia Commons · Public domain (faithful reproduction of a public-domain 2D work)

17 / 21