 Etty felt that his approach to the work illustrated a moral warning about the pursuit of pleasure , but his approach was not entirely successful . The Bard was about a supposed curse on the House of Plantagenet placed by a Welsh bard following Edward I of England 's attempts to eradicate Welsh culture , and critics felt that Etty had somewhat misunderstood the point of Gray 's poem . Some reviewers greatly praised the piece , and in particular Etty 's technical abilities , but audiences of the time found it hard to understand the purpose of Etty 's painting , and his use of nude figures led some critics to consider the work <unk> and offensive . 
