page_title: Cultural depictions of Alfred the Great
section_title: Art and sculpture
hierarchical_section_title: Cultural depictions of Alfred the Great / Art and sculpture
caption_attribution_description: English: A cropped version of File:Alfred in the Isle of Athelney, receiving News of a Victory over the Danes.jpg.
context_page_description: Alfred the Great was an Anglo-Saxon king of Wessex an Anglo-Saxon kingdom, that existed from 519 to 927 south of the river Thames in England. In the late 9th century, the Vikings had overrun most of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms that constituted England at the time. Alfred's reign has become regarded as pivotal in the eventual unification of England, after he famously defended Wessex and southern England against the overwhelming Vikings invasions, winning a decisive victory at the Battle of Edington in 878.
  Most of what we know about the historical Alfred comes his biography Life of King Alfred written, during Alfred reign by his direction, in 893 by a welsh monk Asser. It was not until the English Reformation in the sixteenth century, that Alfred was first given the epithet "the Great" when he was seen as the ideal Christian sovereign. Over 600 years after his life, that Alfred began to inspired many artistic and cultural works from the sixteenth century onwards, with a height in the Victorian Period.
  The cult of Alfred developed into a significant cultural force in literature, the visual arts, and national consciousness.
context_section_description: There are no surviving images of Alfred from his reign, except on his coins. 
  Artistic images of King Alfred began to flourish mainly from 18th to the early 20th century. In 1734–1735 Alfred’s bust was included as one of the Whig historical champions in ‘The Temple of British Worthies’, in the English landscape gardens of Stowe House created by William Kent. Representations of Alfred proliferated, with Alfred often depicted as the archetypical symbol of the English nation: as a heroic military commander, a wise scholar and upholder of justice. Those who could not own sculpture or high art could possess a decorative image of 'England's Darling' in the fashionable genre of History painting, amongst which the most common examples were Alfred disguised in the Danish camp and Alfred burning the peasant woman's cakes.
caption: Alfred in the Isle of Athelney, receiving News of a Victory over the Danes (a 1751 print, after Nicholas Blakey).
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