The Rape of Proserpine

Joseph Mallord William Turner

National Gallery of Art

About a dozen people, tiny in scale, flail their arms or huddle in small groups in a vast, mountainous landscape in this gold-toned, horizontal painting. A grassy expanse stretches across the bottom edge the canvas into the middle distance, where it meets steep hills separated by deep valleys. White water, falls or rivers, separate some of the mounds. Two tall branches of a sparse, V-shaped tree cut into the sky to our right. The horizon comes about halfway up the composition, and the landscape and people are painted loosely so details are difficult to make out. The people cluster in two groups in the landscape, which is painted with tones of eucalyptus and laurel green. To our left, a person runs from what appears to be a fire-lined opening in the ground. A basket, a set of pan pipes, perhaps a cloak, and maybe some tools are gathered near the tree to our right. A walled building complex high on a flat hilltop in the distance is warmed to peanut brown by the setting sun. A blanket of dark buttercup-yellow and rust-orange clouds mostly hides an icy blue sky.