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Jason
J. M. W. Turner·1802
Historical Context
Jason, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1802, depicts the Greek hero who led the Argonauts in quest of the Golden Fleece, here shown confronting the dragon that guarded it. The painting was among Turner's earliest ambitious mythological subjects and demonstrated his aspiration to compete with the tradition of history painting dominated by Benjamin West and James Barry. The dramatic confrontation between hero and monster allowed Turner to explore the dynamic lighting effects and heroic figure composition that he was developing alongside his landscape work. Now in the National Gallery, Jason represents the beginning of Turner's lifelong engagement with classical mythology as a vehicle for pictorial drama.
Technical Analysis
The dark, atmospheric landscape creates a menacing setting for the mythological combat. Turner's rendering of the serpent and the heroic figure demonstrates his ability to handle figure painting within a dramatically lit landscape setting.
Look Closer
- ◆Look for the dragon in the right foreground — the serpentine creature that guards the Golden Fleece, rendered with dark, sinuous forms that contrast with the heroic brightness surrounding Jason.
- ◆Notice Jason himself at the composition's center, confronting the dragon in a dark, rocky landscape that Turner makes deliberately threatening and claustrophobic.
- ◆Observe the dark, atmospheric quality of the scene — this is one of Turner's early forays into mythological subject matter, still more conventionally dramatic than his later atmospheric treatments.
- ◆Find the Golden Fleece itself, visible as a bright object within the surrounding darkness — the goal of the Argonauts' quest rendered as a literal point of light within the threatening landscape.
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