Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
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The Watts Gift
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<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/george-frederic-watts-586" aria-label="More by George Frederic Watts" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">George Frederic Watts</a>
Minotaur
Presented by the artist 1897
actions: processes and functions
classical myths: creatures
crime and punishment: Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1885
desire
emotional states and conditions
emotions and human qualities
emotions, concepts and ideas
history
innocence - bird
looking / watching
Minotaur
morality
people
politics and society
religion and belief
sacrifice
sea
seascapes and coasts
social comment
society
symbols and personifications
universal religious imagery
<p>In Greek mythology the Minotaur, half-man, half-bull, was appeased by the annual sacrifice of virgins brought from mainland Athens to Crete. Watts shows the creature gazing out to sea in eager anticipation of his prey; the small bird crushed by his mighty fist symbolises the purity and vulnerability of youth.</p><p>The painting was inspired by a lurid exposure of the traffic in child prostitution by a journalist named WT Stead. The article, called ‘The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon’ and published in the Pall Mall Gazette in July 1885, was intended as an indictment of male lust.</p><p><em>Gallery label, September 2004</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
18 February 2004 – 23 May 2004
2004-05-23
12 February 2004 – 23 May 2004
2004-05-23
2004-02-12
Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (Barcelona, Spain)
http://www.cccb.org/cat/cccb.htm
2004-02-18
The European Savage
Loan-out
1 March 2011 – 31 December 2011
2011-12-31
1 March 2011 – 31 December 2011
2011-12-31
2011-03-01
Watts Gallery - Artists’ Village (Compton, UK)
http://www.wattsgallery.org.uk
2011-03-01
Watts Gallery Re-Opening
Loan-out
5 November 2012 – 20 July 2014
2014-07-20
5 November 2012 – 20 July 2014
2014-07-20
2012-11-05
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2012-11-05
Gallery 9
Collection based display
28 July 2014
28 July 2014
2014-07-28
Watts Gallery - Artists’ Village (Compton, UK)
http://www.wattsgallery.org.uk
2014-07-28
Long loan to Watts Gallery
Loan-out
7 August 2014 – 24 July 2022
2022-07-24
7 August 2014
2014-08-07
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2014-08-07
Gallery 9
Collection based display
9 November 2020 – 18 July 2021
2021-07-18
9 November 2020 – 18 July 2021
2021-07-18
2020-11-09
Musée d’Orsay (Paris, France)
2020-11-09
The Origins. The rise and fall of Nature at the age of Darwin
Loan-out
The Minotaur
support: 1181 × 945 mm
frame: 1485 × 1254 × 97 mm
Presented by <a href="/search?gid=999999783" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">the artist</a> 1897
<p>In Greek mythology the Minotaur, half-man, half-bull, was appeased by annual human sacrifices. Every year, seven youths and seven virgins were shipped from mainland Athens to the Island of Crete to be devoured by the monster. In Watts's <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a>, the Minotaur leans out across the sea from a high parapet in anticipation of the ship's arrival. The yellow sunlight of the breaking dawn glints off the shoulder of the beast, accentuating his powerful body and catching the hairs of the tail that flicks out behind him. On the parapet, the Minotaur's large, hoof-like fist has crushed a small bird, a recognised symbol of the innocence and purity of youth. 

</p><p>Watts, an <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/a/allegory" title="Glossary definition for 'Allegory'"><span>allegorical</span></a> painter who employed art to convey moral messages, uses the character of the Minotaur to signify man's bestiality and especially male lust. The making and meaning of <i>The Minotaur </i>can be traced to the social purity crusades against child prostitution, which led in 1885 to the passing of the Criminal Law Amendment Act and the raising of the age of consent from thirteen to sixteen. In the forefront of these crusades was the figure of W.T. Stead (1849-1912), whose series of articles on the London trade in child prostitution were published in the <i>Pall Mall Gazette</i> in July 1885 under the title 'The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon'. Stead's explicit references to the Greek myth of the Minotaur throughout his exposé reputedly inspired the subject of Watts's painting: 'The appetite of the minotaur of London is insatiable', wrote Stead ; 'If the daughters of the people must be served up as dainty morsels to minister to the passions of the rich, let them at least attain an age when they can understand the nature of the sacrifice which they are asked to make' (quoted in Mathews, p.339). Watt's close friend Mrs Russell Barrington records how <i>The Minotaur</i> was painted with unusual rapidity early one morning in response to 'a painful subject' that 'had filled one of the evening papers' ; almost certainly  the <i>Pall Mall Gazette</i> (Barrington, pp.38-9). When <i>The Minotaur</i> was first shown, at the Liverpool Autumn exhibition of 1885, Watts explained that his aim in painting it had been 'to hold up to detestation the bestial and brutal' (quoted in <i>Art Journal</i>, 1885, p.322). <i>The Minotaur</i> was among those works that Watts dedicated to the British Nation in 1897 and which are now held in the Tate collection. <i>Mammon</i> (Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/watts-mammon-n01630" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N01630</span></a>), a moralising invective against the evils of material greed, is another.  

</p><p>Further reading:<br/>Patricia Mathews, 'The Minotaur of London', <i>Apollo</i>, May 1986, pp.338-41, reproduced p.338.<br/>Andrew Wilton and Robert Upstone (eds), <i>The Age of Rossetti, Burne-Jones &amp; Watts: Symbolism in Britain 1860-1910</i>, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1997.<br/>Mrs Russell Barrington, <i>Reminiscences of G.F. Watts</i>, London 1905, pp.38-9. 

</p><p>Rebecca Virag<br/>March 2001</p>
Summary
2005-09-15T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<div class="pbodytext">
<span class="text6">In Greek mythology the Minotaur,  half-man, half-bull,      was appeased by  the annual sacrifice of virgins brought from mainland      Athens to Crete. Watts shows the creature gazing out to sea in eager      anticipation of his prey; the small bird crushed by his mighty fist      symbolises the purity and vulnerability of youth. </span>
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<span class="text6">
<br/> </span>
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<span class="text6">The <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a> was inspired by a  lurid exposure of the      traffic in child prostitution by a journalist named WT Stead. The article,      called ‘The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon’ and published in      the </span><span class="text14">Pall Mall Gazette</span><span class="text6"> in July 1885, was intended as an indictment of male lust. </span>
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Display caption
2004-09-10T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
actions: processes and functions classical myths: creatures crime and punishment: Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1885 desire emotional states and conditions emotions and human qualities emotions, concepts and ideas history innocence - bird looking / watching Minotaur morality people politics and society religion and belief sacrifice sea seascapes and coasts social comment society symbols and personifications universal religious imagery