Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
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>
A Subject Runic Superstitions 
Accepted by the nation as part of the Turner Bequest 1856
2 Samuel, chapter 21
actions: expressive
actions: postures and motions
adults
animals: insects & lower animals
animals: reptiles
astronomy
Bible: Old Testament
body
corpse
emotions and human qualities
emotions, concepts and ideas
family
figure
grief
hill
insect
landscape
moon
mother
night
objects
people
pool
protecting
religion and belief
religious and ceremonial
Rizpah
shroud
sitting
snake
society
times of the day
water: inland
wooded
<p>The subject of this painting is obscure. It was exhibited, possibly unfinished, in 1808, when it was related to Runic, or Norse traditions. Such myths had frequently been painted by Henry Fuseli, Professor of Painting at the Royal Academy.</p><p>Emerging from the gloom, a seated woman raises her arm, as if to conjure up the terrifying apparition on the right. In 1812 Turner published a modified version of the image under the title ‘Rispah’. The name refers to Saul’s concubine, an Old Testament character, who protected the decaying bodies of her sons from nocturnal predators.</p><p><em>Gallery label, February 2010</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
5 March 2001 – 23 June 2002
2002-06-23
5 March 2001 – 23 June 2002
2002-06-23
2001-03-05
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2001-03-05
Painting Landscape and History [TB CL2002]
Collection based display
8 July 2002 – 21 May 2007
2007-05-21
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2002-07-08
Turner and Mythology
Collection based display
30 May 2008 – 7 September 2008
2008-09-07
30 May 2008 – 7 September 2008
2008-09-07
2008-05-30
Galerie Stihl Waiblingen (Waiblingen, Germany)
2008-05-30
Turner "Liber Studiorum"
Loan-out
12 August 2009 – 19 July 2010
2010-07-19
12 August 2009 – 19 July 2010
2010-07-19
2009-08-12
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2009-08-12
Among the Immortals
Collection based display
28 March 2012 – 14 October 2012
2012-10-14
28 March 2012 – 14 October 2012
2012-10-14
2012-03-28
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2012-03-28
Patrick Keiller
Collection based display
29 October 2024 – 30 September 2025
2025-09-30
30 October 2024 – 2 February 2025
2025-02-02
2024-10-30
Reggia di Venaria Reale (Turin, Italy)
1 September 2025 – 31 January 2026
2026-01-31
2025-09-01
Museum of Fine Arts (Budapest, Hungary)
1 March 2026 – 31 August 2026
2026-08-31
2026-03-01
External
2024-10-29
William Blake and the Age of Romantic Fantasy: British Art & Imagination
Loan-out
A Subject from the Runic Superstitions ...
support: 921 × 1219 mm
frame: 1195 × 1501 × 133 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
<p>The subject of this painting is obscure.  It was exhibited, possibly unfinished, in 1808, when it was related to Runic, or Norse traditions. Such myths had frequently been painted by Henry Fuseli, Professor of Painting at the Royal Academy. </p>
<blockquote></blockquote>
<p>Emerging from the gloom, a seated woman raises her arm, as if to conjure up the terrifying apparition on the right.  In 1812 Turner published a modified version of the image under the title ‘Rispah’. The name refers to Saul’s concubine, an Old Testament character, who protected the decaying bodies of her sons from nocturnal predators. 
<br/></p>

Display caption
2010-02-18T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>79. </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-a-subject-from-the-runic-superstitions-n00464" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00464</span></a>]<b> A Subject from the Runic Superstitions (?); Reworking of ‘Rispah watching the Bodies of her Sons’</b> Exh. 1808?
<br/>
<br/>THE TATE GALLERY, LONDON (464)
<br/>Canvas, 36 1/2 × 48 (91·5 × 122)</p>
<p><b>Coll.</b> Turner Bequest 1856 (82, ‘Rizpah’ 4'0" × 3'0"); transferred to the Tate Gallery 1910.</p>
<p><b>Exh:</b>? Turner's gallery 1808 (see text); Tate Gallery 1931 (12); R.A. 1974–5 (85).</p>
<p><b>Engr.</b> By R. Dunkarton for the <i>Liber Studiorum</i>, R.46, and published 23 April 1812; the preliminary pen and sepia drawing from the Vaughan Bequest is catalogued with the Turner Bequest as CXVII-U and repr. Finberg 1924, p. 182; the etching and engraving repr. pp. 182–3.</p>
<p><b>Lit.</b> Ruskin 1856, 1860 and 1857 (1903–12, v, p. 399; vi, p. 26; vii, p. 386; xiii, p. 119); Thornbury 1862, i, pp. 262, 277–8; ii, p. 332; 1877, pp. 418, 497, 530–31; Armstrong 1902, p. 228; MacColl 1920, p. 3; Finberg 1924, p. 183; Davies 1946, p. 187; Finberg 1961, pp. 142, 147; Gage 1969, p. 56, pl. 46; Wilton 1979, p. 196.</p>
<p></p>
<p>This picture seems originally to have shown ‘Rispah watching the Bodies of her Sons’ (2 Samuel xxi, 9–10) and was <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>engraved</span></a> under this title for the <i>Liber Studiorum</i>. In the engraving Rispah is shown protecting the bodies of her two sons by Saul from predatory birds and beasts ‘in the days of the harvest, in the first days, in the beginning of the barley harvest’ (see Plate 560).
<br/>
<br/>Subsequent to the preparation of the <i>Liber Studiorum</i> engraving, which could have been at least begun any time after the scheme was first mooted in 1806, Turner overpainted the oil <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>, replacing the bodies of Rispah's sons by enormous insects dragging off the bodies of other creatures, adding another female figure behind that of Rispah and introducing several spectral figures and a mysteriously glowing light on the right. The subject now seems to be a scene of incantation, possibly suggested by the encounter of Saul and the Witch of Endor during which the ghost of Samuel foretold the death of Saul and his sons (1 Samuel xxvii, 8–20). However, though one of the apparitions could well be Samuel, ‘covered with a mantle’, and the others include a soldier about to slay with a sword a child held by another, the putative Saul is a woman with bare breasts.
<br/>
<br/>What was almost certainly this picture was shown at Turner's gallery in 1808 when it was described in the <i>Review of Publications of Art</i> ii, pp. 166–7. The reviewer, who seems to have been John Landseer, was obviously baffled by the subject which had presumably already been altered by Turner: ‘Of an unfinished picture which hangs at the upper end of the room, the subject of which is taken from the Runic superstitions, and where the artist has conjured up mysterious spectres and chimeras dire, we forbear to speak at present.
<br/>
<br/>‘At the lower end of the room is a larger picture of two of the DANISH SHIPS which were seized at COPENHAGEN (see No. 80 [<a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-spithead-two-captured-danish-ships-entering-portsmouth-harbour-n00481" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N00481</span></a>]) ...’</p>
<p>
<br/><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
2004-09-22T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
2 Samuel, chapter 21 actions: expressive actions: postures and motions adults animals: insects & lower animals animals: reptiles astronomy Bible: Old Testament body corpse emotions and human qualities emotions, concepts and ideas family figure grief hill insect landscape moon mother night objects people pool protecting religion and belief religious and ceremonial Rizpah shroud sitting snake society times of the day water: inland wooded