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>
Vision Medea
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
actions: postures and motions
adults
animals: reptiles
arm / arms raised
bubble
classical
classical myths: gods and heroes
crime and punishment
Fates
group
groups
landscape
literature (not Shakespeare)
literature and fiction
magic and occultism
magic wand
Mayr, J.S., ‘Medea in Corinto’
Medea
murder
natural phenomena
objects
people
pool
putto
religion and belief
religious and ceremonial
Seneca, ‘Medea’
snake
society
spell
water: inland
witch
woman
wooded
<p>To ready this work for exhibition in Rome, Turner painted a length of rope yellow and nailed it around the edge as a makeshift frame. The painting’s subject is from Greek mythology. Rejected by Jason, leader of the Argonauts, Medea’s pain led her to kill the children she shared with him. Ingredients for the spell she is casting, including a snake and poisonous herbs, feature at lower left. Difficult to make out the detail, it was ridiculed. One reviewer said it may as well have been hung upside down. Another called it a ‘an agony of ochre’.</p><p><em>Gallery label, October 2023</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
13 August 2001 – 23 June 2002
2002-06-23
13 August 2001 – 23 June 2002
2002-06-23
2001-08-13
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2001-08-13
Painting Landscape and History
Collection based display
9 October 2003 – 30 May 2004
2004-05-30
9 October 2003 – 11 January 2004
2004-01-11
2003-10-09
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
15 February 2004 – 30 May 2004
2004-05-30
2004-02-15
Kimbell Art Museum (Fort Worth, USA)
http://www.kimbellart.org
2003-10-09
Turner and Venice
Exhibition
16 November 2008 – 7 June 2009
2009-06-07
23 November 2008 – 22 February 2009
2009-02-22
2008-11-23
Palazzo dei Diamanti (Ferrara, Italy)
23 March 2009 – 7 June 2009
2009-06-07
2009-03-23
National Galleries of Scotland (Edinburgh, UK)
15 July 2009 – 25 October 2009
2009-10-25
2009-07-15
Szépmüvészeti Múzeum (Budapest, Hungary)
http://www.szepmuveszeti.hu/
2008-11-16
Turner and Italy
Loan-out
28 April 2012 – 3 July 2016
2016-07-03
28 April 2012
2012-04-28
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2012-04-28
The Body
Collection based display
13 March 2023
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2023-03-13
Gallery 104
Collection based display
Vision of Medea
support: 1737 × 2489 mm
frame: 2210 × 2960 × 169 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>To ready this work for exhibition in Rome, Turner painted a length of rope yellow and nailed it around the edge as a makeshift frame. The painting’s subject is from Greek mythology. Rejected by Jason, leader of the Argonauts, Medea’s pain led her to kill the children she shared with him. Ingredients for the spell she is casting, including a snake and poisonous herbs, feature at lower left. Difficult to make out the detail, it was ridiculed. One reviewer said it may as well have been hung upside down. Another called it a ‘an agony of ochre’.</p>
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Display caption
2023-10-25T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p>[from]<b> Works Painted in Rome, 1828–9</b></p>
<p>TURNER went to Rome for the second time in 1828, leaving England in August and arriving in October; he stayed until early January 1829, and was back in England in February. Sir Charles Eastlake told Thornbury that they both stayed at 12 Piazza Mignanelli and that Turner ‘painted there the “View of Orvieto”, the “Regulus” and the “Medea” [Nos. 292 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-view-of-orvieto-painted-in-rome-n00511" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00511</span></a>], 294 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-regulus-n00519" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00519</span></a>] and 293 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-vision-of-medea-n00513" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00513</span></a>]]. Those pictures were exhibited in Rome in some rooms which Turner subsequently occupied at the Quattro Fontane. The foreign artists who went to see them could make nothing of them’. However, Eastlake reported a more mixed reception in a letter to England in February 1829: ‘More than a thousand persons went to see his works when exhibited, so you can imagine how astonished, enraged or delighted the different schools of artists were, at seeing things with methods so new, so daring and excellences so unequivocal. The angry critics have, I believe, talked most, and it is possible you may hear of <i>general</i> severity of judgment, but many did justice, and many more were fain to admire what they confessed they dared not imitate.’</p>
<p>Turner advertised in the <i>Diario di Roma</i> for 17 December 1828 that he was to exhibit ‘<i>due Paesaggi</i>’ for a week at the Palazzo Trulli. These John Gage identifies as <i>Orvieto</i> and <i>Regulus</i>, though it is known that <i>Medea</i> was on view on 17 December. In a letter of February 1829, Eastlake confirmed that Turner had exhibited these three works, as well as having begun ‘eight or ten pictures’ (for a later letter by Eastlake, see No. 328a).</p>
<p>A number 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>paintings</span></a> from the Turner Bequest are identical in their coarse <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/canvas" title="Glossary definition for 'Canvas'"><span>canvas</span></a>, the form of the original stretcher, and the way in which the canvas was fastened to the stretcher (with upholsterer's sprigs) to <i>Orvieto</i> and <i>Medea</i> (<i>Regulus</i> is on a similar canvas, but has lost its original stretcher and form of attachment). These are the three figure subjects, Nos. 296 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-reclining-venus-n05498" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05498</span></a>], 297 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-two-recumbent-nude-figures-n05517" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05517</span></a>] and 298 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-outline-of-a-venus-pudica-n05509" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05509</span></a>], and <i>Southern <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/l/landscape" title="Glossary definition for 'Landscape'"><span>Landscape</span></a></i>, No. 299 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-southern-landscape-n05510" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05510</span></a>]. Other works probably from the group are Nos. 300 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-southern-landscape-with-an-aqueduct-and-waterfall-n05506" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05506</span></a>] and 301 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-italian-landscape-probably-civita-di-bagnoregio-n05473" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05473</span></a>]. Other candidates for works begun in Rome are 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/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a> sketches on a similar though even rather coarser canvas, Nos. 302–17; see p. 160. These sketches, and one of the larger unfinished pictures (No. 300), shows signs of having been rolled, presumably for ease of despatch to London. Both types of coarse canvas would seem to be Italian in origin, presumably purchased in Rome. Probably also from this trip are the smaller sketches on millboard. Nos. 318–27.</p>
<p>Turner had in fact written from Paris on II August 1828 to Charles Eastlake, who was already in Rome, asking him to secure one or two canvases, 59 1/4 × 98 1/2 in., so that he could begin straight away on a landscape for Lord Egremont. This is generally held to be <i>Palestrina</i> (No. 295 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-palestrina-composition-n06283" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N06283</span></a>]), which measures 55 1/4 × 98 in. but is in fact on a fine canvas.</p>
<p>Turner himself reported his progress in a letter to Sir Francis Chantrey of 6 November 1828: ‘I have confined myself to the painting department...and having finished <i>one</i>, am about the second, and getting on with Lord E's [presumably <i>Palestrina</i>], which I began the very first touch at Rome; but as folk here talked that I would show them <i>not</i>, I finished a small three feet four to stop their gabbling’; this last was presumably <i>Orvieto</i>.</p>
<p>Eastlake's account in Thornbury goes on, ‘When those same works were packed to be sent to England, I advised him to have the cover covered with waxed cloth, as the pictures without it might be exposed to wet. Turner thanked me, and said the advice was important; “for”, he added, “if any wet gets to them, they will be destroyed.” This indicates his practice of preparing his pictures with a kind 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/t/tempera" title="Glossary definition for 'Tempera'"><span>tempera</span></a>, a method which, before the surface was varnished, was not waterproof [in fact analysis has not revealed any tempera, though Turner did quite often use <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>watercolour</span></a> on his oils and in at least one case, No. 300, a picture apparently from this group seems to have suffered losses to its water-soluble glazes]. The pictures referred to were in fact not finished; nor could any of his exhibited pictures be said to be finished till he had worked on them when they were on the walls of 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>’. This is supported by the review of <i>Orvieto</i> in the <i>Morning Chronicle</i> for 3 May 1830 quoted under <i>Pilate washing his Hands</i> (No. 332 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-pilate-washing-his-hands-n00510" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00510</span></a>]). Although Turner had hoped that his Rome paintings would reach London in time for the 1829 Exhibition, there were shipping delays and <i>Orvieto</i> and <i>Palestrina</i> were not exhibited until 1830, nor <i>Medea</i> until 1831; <i>Regulus</i> was not exhibited until 1837.</p>
<p><b>Lit.</b> Thornbury 1862, i, p. 221; 1877, p. 100; Finberg 1961, pp. 307–11; Gage 1968, pp. 679–80; Gage 1980, pp. 118–20, 125, 127, 132.</p>
<p><b>Nos. 292–5: Exhibited Pictures</b></p>
<p><b>293. </b>[<span>N00513</span>]<b> Vision of Medea</b> 1828</p>
<p>THE TATE GALLERY, LONDON (513)</p>
<p>Canvas, 68 3/8 × 98 (173·5 × 241)</p>
<p><b>Coll.</b> Turner Bequest 1856 (52, ‘Vision of Medea’ 8'2 1/2" × 5'8 1/8"); transferred to the Tate Gallery 1910.</p>
<p><b>Exh.</b> Rome 1828–9; R.A. 1831 (178); R.A. 1974–5 (473).</p>
<p><b>Lit.</b> Thornbury 1862, i, pp. 221, 319–20; 1877, p. 447; Bell 1901, p. 115 no. 172; Armstrong 1902, p. 225; Lord Broughton, <i>Recollections of a Long Life</i> 1910, iii, pp. 294–5; MacColl 1920, p. 16; R.B. Gotch, <i>Maria, Lady Callcott</i> 1937, pp. 279–80; Falk 1938, p. 130; Davies 1946, p. 186; Finberg 1961, pp. 310–11, 326–7, no. 358; Lindsay 1966<sup>2</sup>, p. 49; Gage 1968, pp. 679–80; Gage 1969, pp. 91, 104–5, 163, 187, 263 n. 128; Herrmann 1975, p. 232; Wilton 1979, pp. 196–7, pl. 209; Gage 1980, p. 120; Cecilia Powell, ‘“Infuriate in the wreck of hope”: Turner's “Vision of Medea”’, <i>Turner Studies</i> ii no. I Summer 1982, pp. 12–18, pls. I and, details, 6, 7 and 8; Jerrold Ziff, ‘But why “Medea” in Rome?’, <i>Turner Studies</i> ii no. I Summer 1982, p. 19.</p>
<p>This was one of the three pictures that Eastlake said Turner exhibited at Rome, telling Thornbury that ‘Turner's economy and ingenuity were apparent in his mode of framing those pictures. He nailed a rope around the edges of each, and painted it with yellow ochre in tempera.’ The present reconstruction of the rope frame is by Lawrence Gowing.</p>
<p>Lord Broughton, who was taken by 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/s/sculpture" title="Glossary definition for 'Sculpture'"><span>sculptor</span></a> Thomas Campbell to see Turner's exhibits on 17 December, noted in his diary that ‘The chief of these strange compositions, called the Vision of Medea, was a glaring, extravagant daub, which might be mistaken for a joke—and a bad joke too. Mr. Campbell told us that the Romans who had seen these pictures were filled with wonder and pity.’ The <i>Moderne Kunstchronik</i>, published in 1834 by J.A. Koch in collaboration with other German artists who were in Rome at the time, was equally scathing, perhaps in jealousy of the ‘large and vulgar crowd which had gathered to see the exhibition of the world-famous painter, Turner... The pictures were surrounded with ship's cable instead of gilt frames ... The composition purporting to show the Vision of Medea was remarkable enough. Suffice it to say whether you turned the picture on its side, or upside down, you could still recognise as much in it’ (Gage 1969, pp. 104–5).</p>
<p>At the R.A. in 1831 the picture was exhibited with the following lines:</p>
<p>‘Or Medea, who in the full tide of witchery
<br/>Had lured the dragon, gained her Jason's love,<br/>Had filled the spell-bound bowl with Æson's life,
<br/>Yet dashed it to the ground, and raised the poisonous snake
<br/>High in the jaundiced sky to writhe its murderous coil,
<br/>Infuriate in the wreck of hope, withdrew
<br/>And in the fired palace her twin offspring threw.’</p>
<p align="right"><i>MS Fallacies of Hope</i></p>
<p>This was number 1 on Turner's list of titles and verses for his R.A. exhibits of that year, now in the Tate Gallery archives: the spelling (e.g., ‘Eason’ for ‘Æson’) and punctuation differ slightly.</p>
<p>The picture shows Medea performing an incantation attended by the Fates. Above, on the left, she appears again leaving Corinth in a chariot drawn by dragons, throwing down the bodies of her children, slain by herself to spite Jason. Cecilia Powell suggests that this rare scene was known to Turner from the opera <i>Medea in Corinto</i> by J.S. Mayr, performed a number of times at the King's Theatre, Haymarket in the years 1826–8. However, as Cecilia Powell also points out, certain details—the hurling of Medea's children from the chariot and the heaps of snakes, poisonous herbs and other noisome ingredients for her spell in the lower left-hand corner of the picture—suggest a knowledge of Seneca's <i>Medea</i> as well.</p>
<p>Ziff suggests that Turner's choice of Medea as a subject for his exhibition in Rome was based on his reading of Pliny's <i>Natural History</i> which quotes, as an example of an artist's fame, Julius Caesar's purchase of two paintings, of Ajax and Medea, by Timomachus and his presentation of these at the Temple of Venus Genetrix in Rome.</p>
<p>The critic of the <i>Athenaeum</i> for 14 May 1831 started off from the verses for his attack on the picture: ‘The painting is of a piece with the poetry. Here we have, indeed, the Sister Arts-and precious sisters they are! Mr. Turner, doubtless, smeared the lines off with his brush, after a strong fit of yellow insanity ... The snakes, and the flowers, and the spirits, and the sun, and the sky, and the trees, are all in an agony of ochre!’ The artist had achieved ‘a gambouge phrenzy worthy of the Bedlam lines ... “Jaundiced sky!” - “a good phrase — a good phrase”.’ But the other critics, though deploring the main figures, found something to praise, albeit sometimes rather grudgingly. ‘Colour! colour! colour!’ exclaimed the <i>Literary Gazette</i> for 7 May; ‘Still there is something so enchanting in the prismatic effect which Mr. Turner has produced, that we soon lose sight of the extravagance, in contemplating the magical results of his combinations’. For <i>La Belle Assemblée</i> for June 1831, ‘as a combination of colour, the work is truly wonderful’.</p>
<p>Until the painting was relined in 1967 the original canvas was attached to the back of the stretcher by long bent-over sprigs.</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/>
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-22T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: postures and motions adults animals: reptiles arm / arms raised bubble classical classical myths: gods and heroes crime and punishment Fates group groups landscape literature and fiction literature (not Shakespeare) magic and occultism magic wand Mayr, J.S., ‘Medea in Corinto’ Medea murder natural phenomena objects people pool putto religion and belief religious and ceremonial Seneca, ‘Medea’ snake society spell water: inland witch woman wooded