page_title: The Combat: Woman Pleading for the Vanquished
section_title: Composition
hierarchical_section_title: The Combat: Woman Pleading for the Vanquished / Composition
caption_attribution_description: Ink sketches of the Elgin Marbles, including studies of figures, groups and horses from the frieze, metopes and pediment.
context_page_description: 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.
context_section_description: Etty was fascinated with classical artworks such as those he had seen during his recent travels in Italy, and in particular with the Elgin Marbles, a set of major Ancient Greek sculptures taken to London in controversial circumstances in the early 19th century.
  The Combat: Woman Pleading for the Vanquished is a large painting, 399 cm (13 ft 1 in) across. It depicts a defeated soldier, kneeling in front of another soldier. The defeated fighter strains to free himself from the grip of the victorious warrior, who stands, raising a sword. A kneeling woman clutches the waist of the victorious soldier, raising her face to him to beg him to spare his defeated foe. The defeated warrior has a stronger body, a face more in keeping with the conventions of attractiveness at the time, and a more sympathetic expression, while the victorious man is darker skinned and has an expression of blank fierceness. The vanquished soldier's sword has broken, and lies beside him on the ground.
  Etty did not base The Combat on any single incident from history or literature, or on any existing artwork, but on his own imagination; this was a highly unusual step to take regarding history paintings, which generally depicted themes from literature or religion. He had been considering the topic as early as 1821, and his plans took shape following his visit to Italy. During this visit Etty had met Antonio Canova and been very impressed by him; The Combat is clearly influenced by his work. As well as drawing inspiration from classical sculpture, he was also strongly influenced by the composition of Old Master works he had seen while in Italy. As with many of Etty's works, the models posed for him separately in his studio, rather than as a group.
  Etty, writing in 1849, described the purpose of The Combat as "to paint a great moral on the heart [of] the beauty of mercy." Etty's 1958 biographer Dennis Farr points out similarities in the composition of The Combat and John Flaxman's drawing Heracles Killing a Man to whom a Woman Clings, but while Etty and Flaxman were contemporaries at the Royal Academy, it is not known if Etty was aware of this drawing.
  In the initial oil study for the defeated warrior (York Art Gallery), Etty gave the character a more defiant appearance than seen in the finished version. In this preliminary sketch he is not on his knees, but thrusts his leg out to brace himself. He has an expression of defiance and determination, rather than the plea for mercy and posture of total defeat shown in the final work.
  The completed The Combat: Woman Pleading for the Vanquished was exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 1825.
caption: Sketch from the Elgin Marbles by William Etty. Etty was fascinated with the scenes of combat depicted by the Marbles, which had recently been put on display in London.
exif: {"Image Make": "Sinar AG", "Image Model": "Sinarback 44, Fuji GX 680", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop 7.0", "Image DateTime": "2014:11:14 14:16:18", "Image Artist": "SIGM G4 PHOTO", "Image ExifOffset": "228", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "496", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4510", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2014:11:14 14:15:02", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "846", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "700", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "945", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "945", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "360", "EXIF ImageUniqueID": "2903f61f81793c5b2c7d520d0c29e191"}