- Artist
- Joseph Mallord William Turner 1775–1851
- Medium
- Graphite, watercolour and gouache on paper
- Dimensions
- Support: 382 × 588 mm
frame: 670 × 875 × 95 mm - Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Accepted by HM Government in lieu of tax and allocated to the Tate Gallery 1999
- Reference
- T07561
Display caption
Byron wrote in Don Juan about the temple of Poseidon. It was his ideal final resting place, where he had ‘dream’d that Greece might yet be free’ from Ottoman domination. The poem recalls the destruction of the Persian fleet at Salamis. Turner includes a distant ship foundering in the waves. It is watched by wolves or jackals standing in front of a relief depicting Triton, Poseidon’s son. The sinking ship may also allude to the recent Battle of Navarino (1827) when the Ottoman fleet was defeated by allied forces from Britain, France, and Russia. Turner’s image links victory over Persia in 480 BCE with the Greeks’ successful battle for independence in his own age.
Gallery label, November 2022
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