Ulysses deriding Polyphemus
J. M. W. Turner·1829
Historical Context
Turner exhibited Ulysses deriding Polyphemus at the Royal Academy in 1829, a painting he reportedly considered among his finest. The scene depicts Ulysses' ship sailing away from the blinded Cyclops, whose massive form merges with the volcanic landscape of the island. Turner fills the sky with luminous, almost supernatural color — horses of the sun emerge from golden clouds in a blaze of mythological drama. The painting draws on Homer's Odyssey but transforms the literary source into a celebration of light, color, and atmospheric effect that transcends narrative illustration. Now in the National Gallery, it represents the transition between Turner's earlier classical compositions and the radical chromatic experiments of his later career.
Technical Analysis
The composition blazes with the golden light of a Mediterranean sunrise, with the sea and sky dissolving into fields of radiant color. Turner's mythological figures are almost subsumed by the overwhelming atmospheric effects, marking his transition from narrative painting to pure chromatic expression.
Look Closer
- ◆Notice the horses of the sun emerging from the clouds: Turner adds mythological inhabitants to the sky — Apollo's solar horses driving the dawn across the heavens — transforming the atmospheric light into divine theater.
- ◆Look at Ulysses' ship moving away from Polyphemus: the vessel is rendered as a dark form against the blazing light, carrying its crew to safety while the giant rages in the background.
- ◆Observe the blinded Cyclops merging with the volcanic landscape: Polyphemus is barely distinguishable from the mountain behind him, making the monster almost geological in scale.
- ◆Find the light source at the composition's center: Turner places the rising sun at the pictorial focal point, making the entire composition a radial field of expanding luminosity from this central source.
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