The Golden Fleece

The Golden Fleece, painted by Herbert James Draper in 1904 and held at Cartwright Hall Art Gallery in Bradford, depicts the mythological quest of Jason and the Argonauts — one of the foundational narratives of Greek heroic tradition. The Golden Fleece, the magical pelt of a flying ram, was hung in the sacred grove of Ares in Colchis and guarded by a sleepless dragon; its retrieval was the goal of Jason's voyage with the Argonauts aboard the ship Argo. The myth had attracted painters from antiquity through the Renaissance and beyond, and in the Victorian and Edwardian periods it appealed as a story of heroic adventure and exotic geography. Draper's treatment likely focuses on a dramatic moment in the myth — the retrieval of the fleece or the involvement of the sorceress Medea, who enchanted the dragon to enable Jason's success. Cartwright Hall, opened in Bradford in 1904 — the same year as this painting — was actively collecting significant contemporary British art, and Draper's mythological subjects were among the most critically respected in this mode.

The Golden Fleece demands a treatment of luminosity — the fleece itself would be a source of warm, golden light within the composition. Draper's handling of figure and landscape in a nocturnal or dramatic setting creates the mood of mythological adventure that the subject requires.