 Etty , writing in 1849 , described the purpose of The Combat as " to paint a great moral on the heart [ of ] the beauty of mercy . " Etty 's 1958 biographer Dennis Farr points out similarities in the composition of The Combat and John Flaxman 's drawing Heracles Killing a Man to whom a Woman Clings , but while Etty and Flaxman were contemporaries at the Royal Academy , it is not known if Etty was aware of this drawing . 
