Oil paint on canvas
Tate Britain
Tate Collection
Works with images
Works on display
Joseph Mallord William Turner
Turner Bequest
Oil paintings
Collection
Turner owned by Tate
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/joseph-mallord-william-turner-558" aria-label="More by Joseph Mallord William Turner" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Joseph Mallord William Turner</a>
Mercury Sent to Admonish Aeneas
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
abstraction
actions: expressive
adults
Aeneas
beach
classical myths: gods and heroes
coast
Eros / Cupid
figure
fleeing
from recognisable sources
group
groups
landscape
Mercury / Hermes
people
religion and belief
sea
seascapes and coasts
ship - non-specific
society
sunshine
transport: water
weather
<p>In 1850 Turner exhibited at the Royal Academy for the final time. Revisiting a subject that had inspired him as a young artist, these last exhibits told the story of Trojan hero Aeneas, by Roman poet Virgil. Wearing a helmet and cloak, Aeneas stands on the left with Cupid, the Roman god of love. The winged messenger, Mercury, may have already flown away. Virgil describes him melting into the air. Turner paints a veil of mist glittering in the rising sun. Critics were both impressed and puzzled. One declared that Turner had swapped the ‘dignity’ of old age for the ‘effervescence of youth’.</p><p><em>Gallery label, October 2023</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
15 July 2002 – 21 May 2007
2007-05-21
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2002-07-15
Exhibiting Turner
Collection based display
21 September 2009 – 19 September 2010
2010-09-19
21 September 2009 – 24 January 2010
2010-01-24
2009-09-21
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
22 February 2010 – 23 May 2010
2010-05-23
2010-02-22
Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais (Paris, France)
2009-09-21
Turner and the Masters
Exhibition
22 February 2010 – 19 September 2010
2010-09-19
21 September 2009 – 3 January 2010
2010-01-03
2009-09-21
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
22 February 2010 – 23 May 2010
2010-05-23
2010-02-22
Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais (Paris, France)
21 June 2010 – 19 September 2010
2010-09-19
2010-06-21
Museo Nacional del Prado (Madrid, Spain)
2010-02-22
Turner and the Masters
Loan-out
8 February 2013 – 13 April 2014
2014-04-13
8 February 2013 – 19 May 2013
2013-05-19
2013-02-08
Art Gallery of South Australia (Adelaide, Australia)
http://www.artgallery.sa.gov.au
4 June 2013 – 8 September 2013
2013-09-08
2013-06-04
National Gallery of Australia (Canberra, Australia)
2013-02-08
J.M.W. Turner: Makings of a Master
Loan-out
10 September 2014 – 20 September 2015
2015-09-20
10 September 2014 – 25 January 2015
2015-01-25
2014-09-10
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
24 February 2015 – 24 May 2015
2015-05-24
2015-02-24
J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles, USA)
20 June 2015 – 20 September 2015
2015-09-20
2015-06-20
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, de Young Museum (San Francisco, USA)
http://www.famsf.org
2014-09-10
Late Turner: Painting Set Free
Exhibition
24 February 2015 – 31 January 2016
2016-01-31
24 February 2015 – 24 May 2015
2015-05-24
2015-02-24
J. Paul Getty Museum (Los Angeles, USA)
20 June 2015 – 20 September 2015
2015-09-20
2015-06-20
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, de Young Museum
31 October 2015 – 31 January 2016
2016-01-31
2015-10-31
Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto, Canada)
http://www.ago.net
2015-02-24
Late Turner
Loan-out
1 August 2016 – 1 March 2020
2020-03-01
1 August 2016 – 1 March 2020
2020-03-01
2016-08-01
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2016-08-01
Clore 104 Turner exhibited
Collection based display
6 April 2020 – 27 November 2022
2022-11-27
6 April 2020
2020-04-06
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2020-04-06
Clore 104
Collection based display
13 March 2023
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2023-03-13
Gallery 104
Collection based display
Mercury Sent to Admonish Aeneas
support: 902 × 1206 mm
frame: 1297 × 1605 × 196 mm
Accepted by the nation as part of the <a href="/search?gid=999999781" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Turner Bequest</a> 1856
<div class="text">
<p>In 1850 Turner exhibited at the Royal Academy for the final time. Revisiting a subject that had inspired him as a young artist, these last exhibits told the story of Trojan hero Aeneas, by Roman poet Virgil. Wearing a helmet and cloak, Aeneas stands on the left with Cupid, the Roman god of love. The winged messenger, Mercury, may have already flown away. Virgil describes him melting into the air. Turner paints a veil of mist glittering in the rising sun. Critics were both impressed and puzzled. One declared that Turner had swapped the ‘dignity’ of old age for the ‘effervescence of youth’.</p>
</div>

Display caption
2023-10-25T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>429. </b>[<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-mercury-sent-to-admonish-aeneas-n00553" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00553</span></a>]<b> Mercury sent to admonish Æneas</b> Exh. 1850</p>
<p>THE TATE GALLERY, LONDON (553)</p>
<p>Canvas, 35 1/2 × 47 1/2 (90·5 × 121)</p>
<p><b>Coll.</b> Turner Bequest 1856 (30, ‘Mercury sent to admonish Æneas’ 4'0" × 3'0"); transferred to the Tate Gallery 1905.</p>
<p><b>Exh.</b> R.A. 1850 (174); New York 1966 (39, repr. in colour p. 49); Edinburgh 1968 (23); <i>From El Greco to Pollock: Early and Late Works by European and American Artists</i> Baltimore Museum of Art, October–December 1968 (88, repr.); R.A. 1974–5 (528).</p>
<p><b>Lit.</b> Archer 1862, p. 166 (1981, p. 36); Thornbury 1862, i, p. 349; 1877, p. 467; Hamerton 1879, pp. 297–8; Bell 1901, pp. 158–9 no. 265; Armstrong 1902, p. 255; MacColl 1920, p. 26; Davies 1946, p. 186; Finberg 1961, pp. 427, 511 no. 586; Rothenstein and Butlin 1964, p. 73; Ziff 1964, pp. 24–7, pl. 1; Gowing 1966, pp. 38, 53, repr. in colour p. 49; Gage 1969, pp. 98, 187, 244 n. 105; Reynolds 1969, pp. 204–5; Wilton 1979, p. 233; Gage 1980, p. 223.</p>
<p>Exhibited with the verses:</p>
<p>‘Beneath the morning mist,
<br/>Mercury waited to tell him of his neglected fleet.’</p>
<p align="right">—<i>MS Fallacies of Hope</i>.</p>
<p>It is difficult to identify Mercury with his wand and winged feet among the figures in this picture. The standing figure on the left seems to be Æneas in his cloak of Tyrian purple, working on the foundations of the citadel; with him stands Cupid, whom Venus had substituted for Æneas' son Ascanius. Perhaps Mercury has already melted into thin air, as Virgil describes him doing after he delivers his message. Æneas' fleet is suggested on the right.</p>
<p>This is the first of four pictures on the theme of Æneas' stay at Carthage, tempted by love for Dido to resist the destiny that summoned him to Italy; for the others see Nos. 430–432 [<span>N00552</span>,<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-the-visit-to-the-tomb-n00555" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00555</span></a>, <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-the-departure-of-the-fleet-n00554" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00554</span></a>]. Several critics looked back regretfully at Turner's earlier style. For <i>The Times</i>, 4 May 1850, ‘it would seem as if Mr. Turner had possessed in youth all the dignity of age to exchange it in age for the effervescence of youth. But to the more practical eyes which still trace through these eccentricities the hand of a great master and a matchless command over the materials of <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>, careless of <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/f/form" title="Glossary definition for 'Form'"><span>form</span></a> and prodigal of light, these four pictures are not deficient in beauty and interest’. This picture and <i>The Departure of the Fleet</i>, No. 432 [<span>N00554</span>], were distinguished for having ‘the coolness of dawn, or twilight thrown, as it were, through the radiance of a southern sun, which gives the glow and the iridescence of the opal’. The <i>Athenaeum</i> for 18 May tried to steer a middle way between the extremes of enthusiasm and disparagement: ‘Mr. Turner's works, amid their eccentricity of manner, exhibit the creative quality of Art, the suggestive powers of the artist, in as high a degree as the works of any painter who ever wielded <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/g/graphite" title="Glossary definition for 'Graphite'"><span>pencil</span></a>’. These four pictures ‘are, each, full of combinations of forms of richest fancy and of colours of most dazzling hue’. They must be looked at from a distance for ‘the general effect’ and ‘as great pictorial <i>schemes</i>
abounding in rich stores of Nature and deductions from Art’. <i>Mercury sent to admonish Æneas</i> was described as ‘exquisite for delicacy and refinement’. The <i>Illustrated London News</i> of 1 June was more uncompromisingly critical, talking of ‘an excess of deviation from all everyday and anyday examination of nature’. Taking up the <i>Athenaeum's</i> point about looking at the pictures from a distance, the critic went on, ‘How far is this distance to be carried? till they are almost out of sight?’ The critic of the <i>Spectator</i>, 4 May, only seems to have noticed three of the pictures: ‘a splendid perplexity, respecting which the name would convey no information to the reader; with a companion, equally brilliant to the eye and dark to the understanding’, and ‘another picture from his “Fallacies of Hope”,—the said fallacy being any hope of understanding what the picture means’.</p>
<p>Turner may have been consoled by a letter from his old friend George Jones, of 14 April, sent from the Royal <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/academy" title="Glossary definition for 'Academy'"><span>Academy</span></a>, in which Jones writes, ‘I saw your picture this morning for the first time, and more glorious effusions of mind have never appeared—<i>your</i> intellect defies time to injure it, and I really believe that you never conceived more beautiful, more graceful, or more enchanting compositions, than these you have sent for exhibition’.</p>
<p>According to 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/e/engraving" title="Glossary definition for 'Engraving'"><span>engraver</span></a> and <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/w/watercolour" title="Glossary definition for 'Watercolour'"><span>watercolourist</span></a> J. W. Archer, who visted Mrs Booth at Cheyne Walk shortly after Turner's death, Turner had painted there ‘the last three pictures which he exhibited at the Royal Academy’ (the reference to three paintings only may be a mistake; alternatively, one of the last four Carthage pictures may have been painted elsewhere). ‘These pictures were set in a row and he went from one to the other, first painting upon one, touching on the next, and so on, in rotation’.</p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Martin Butlin and Evelyn Joll, <i>The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner</i>, revised ed., New Haven and London 1984
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-23T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
abstraction actions: expressive adults Aeneas beach classical myths: gods and heroes coast Eros / Cupid figure fleeing from recognisable sources group groups landscape Mercury / Hermes people religion and belief sea seascapes and coasts ship - non-specific society sunshine transport: water weather