 The Bard was about the English destruction of Welsh culture and the subsequent decline of the House of Plantagenet and its replacement by the Welsh House of Tudor , and there was a general feeling among critics that Etty had misunderstood the point of the metaphors used by Gray . Etty claimed that his unusual interpretation of the text was intended to create " a general allegory of Human Life , its empty vain pleasures — if not founded on the laws of Him who is the Rock of Ages " , and that the painting served as a moral warning about the pursuit of empty pleasure . This explanation appears to have left critics unconvinced . Even those critics most favourable towards Etty 's technical accomplishments in creating the picture found it hard to ascertain what the painting was supposed to represent ; other critics were more openly hostile , with The Morning Chronicle condemning it as " indulgence of what we once hoped a classical , but which are now convinced , is a lascivious mind " . Purchased for a huge sum by Robert Vernon on its exhibition , Youth and Pleasure remained controversial long after Etty 's death , with Farr 's 1958 biography describing it as " singularly inept " . 
