Regulus
J. M. W. Turner·1837
Historical Context
Regulus, originally exhibited in Rome in 1828 and reworked on the walls of the British Institution in 1837, depicts the Roman general Marcus Atilius Regulus, who according to legend had his eyelids removed by the Carthaginians before being forced to stare into the sun. Turner makes the viewer experience Regulus's torture — the blinding white disc of the sun at the painting's center radiates outward, dissolving the classical harbor architecture into dazzling light. The painting is as much about the act of seeing as about the ancient narrative. Now in the National Gallery, Regulus represents Turner's most powerful statement about light as a destructive as well as creative force.
Technical Analysis
The painting is dominated by a central explosion of white and golden light that overwhelms everything in its path. Turner's radical technique, with the blazing light dissolving all solid forms, makes this one of his most extreme experiments in pure luminous energy.
Look Closer
- ◆Look directly into the center of the composition — Turner creates an almost painful explosion of white and golden light that radiates outward, overwhelming everything around it as Regulus's blinded eyes experienced the sun.
- ◆Notice how the classical harbor scene — ships, buildings, figures — is arranged around this central explosion of light, the normal subject of a Claudian harbor painting made secondary to the overwhelming radiance.
- ◆Observe Turner's technique of scraping and glazing that he famously reworked on the gallery walls in 1837 — the surface shows an extreme manipulation of paint to create blinding luminosity.
- ◆Find the figures at the left and right who shield their eyes from the light — direct references to Regulus's fate and a visual instruction to the viewer about how to experience the painting.
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