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''The Combat: Woman Pleading for the Vanquished'' is a large oil painting on canvas by English artist William Etty, first exhibited in 1825 and now in the National Gallery of Scotland. Inspired by the Elgin Marbles and intended by the artist to provide a moral lesson on "the beauty of mercy", it shows a near-nude warrior whose sword has broken, forced to his knees in front of another near-nude soldier who prepares to inflict a killing blow. A woman, also near-nude, clutches the victorious warrior to beg him for mercy. Very unusually for a history painting of the period, ''The Combat'' does not depict a scene from history, literature or religion and is not based on an existing artwork, but is instead a scene from the artist's own imagination. When it was shown at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition of 1825, it attracted near-universal praise from critics for its technical excellence, its fusion of the styles of different schools of painting, and its subject matter. Nevertheless, it failed to find a buyer at the Summer Exhibition, and was instead bought by fellow artist John Martin. The painting proved too large for Martin's house, and in 1831 he sold it on to the Royal Scottish Academy. It was transferred in 1910 to the National Gallery of Scotland, where it remains. ==Background== William Etty was born in 1787, the son of a York baker and miller. He began as an apprentice printer in Hull. On completing his seven-year apprenticeship he moved at the age of 18 to London "with a few pieces of chalk crayons", with the intention of becoming a history painter in the tradition of the Old Masters. Strongly influenced by the works of Titian and Rubens, he submitted paintings to the Royal Academy of Arts and the British Institution, all of which were either rejected or received scant attention when exhibited. In 1821 the Royal Academy accepted and exhibited one of Etty's works, ''The Arrival of Cleopatra in Cilicia'' (also known as ''The Triumph of Cleopatra''). The painting was extremely well received, and many of Etty's fellow artists greatly admired him. Following the praise for ''Cleopatra'', Etty tried to replicate its success by painting nude figures in biblical, literary and mythological settings,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=About the artist )〕 most notably ''A Sketch from One of Gray's Odes (Youth on the Prow)'' in 1822, and the controversial ''Pandora Crowned by the Seasons'' in 1824. Etty had travelled extensively in Italy in 1823, and painted ''Pandora'' hastily on his return as a "testimonial of recent progress" he had made while studying paintings in Italian collections. Critical opinion of ''Pandora'' was highly divided, with some critics greatly praising it as a technical accomplishment, while others saw it as a rushed pastiche of Titian and Rubens. ''Pandora Crowned by the Seasons'' sold for 300 guineas (about £ in terms), and secured Etty the position of Associate at the Royal Academy of Arts. While some nudes by foreign artists were held in private English collections, the country had no tradition of nude painting and the display and distribution of nude material to the public had been suppressed since the 1787 Proclamation for the Discouragement of Vice. Etty was the first British artist to specialise in the nude, and the reaction of the lower classes to these paintings caused concern throughout the 19th century. Many critics condemned his repeated depictions of female nudity as indecent, although his portraits of male nudes were generally well received. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Combat: Woman Pleading for the Vanquished」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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