 The Combat : Woman Pleading for the Vanquished is a large oil painting on canvas by English artist William Etty , first exhibited in 1825 and now in the National Gallery of Scotland . Inspired by the Elgin Marbles and intended by the artist to provide a moral lesson on " the beauty of mercy " , it shows a near @-@ nude warrior whose sword has broken , forced to his knees in front of another near @-@ nude soldier who prepares to inflict a killing blow . A woman , also near @-@ nude , clutches the victorious warrior to beg him for mercy . Very unusually for a history painting of the period , The Combat does not depict a scene from history , literature or religion and is not based on an existing artwork , but is instead a scene from the artist 's own imagination . 
