Description:
Carbon Carglass, daughter of Torcul Tormo, is being held prisoner by King Stamo, her father's murderer and Fingal's deadly enemy. Fingal finds her by moonlight.
Label Text:
Fingal glimpses, glittering in the moonlight, the white arms of the grieving Carbon Carglass; she has been imprisoned in a cave by her father’s murderer and Fingal’s enemy, King Starno. Runciman’s hasty, urgent lines convey the drama of the encounter. The muscular hero grimaces as he strides across the windswept landscape, his contorted pose exaggerated by the width of his shield and cloak. The captive stands erect, and turns her face to reveal an elegant profile. Her clasped hands, arms, and billowing drapery trace a perfect oval, interrupted by bursts of streaming hair. The contrast speaks volumes about the era’s expectations of gender: whereas he is revealed, forceful, and open, she is covered, contained, and closed.
Runciman’s dramatic etching records a lost ceiling painting from a celebrated commission: “Ossian Hall” at Penicuik House, near Edinburgh (executed in 1772, and destroyed by fire in 1899). The murals featured scenes from James MacPherson’s internationally sensational epic poems, Erse Fragments (1760), Fingal (1762), and Temora (1763). Published as literal translations of ancient Gaelic originals recorded by the bard Ossian, the poems were later exposed as literary inventions only loosely based on authentic ballads.
EEB
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=AC+2009.212 |
