| Object | "Staffa: Fingal's Cave," by J.M.W. Turner |
|---|---|
| Date | 1831-1832 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Where to find | Yale Center for British Art |
What to know: Amid stormy weather, British painter Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851) set off on a steamboat for Staffa, a small island off the coast of Scotland. Its hexagonal basalt columns, forged by prehistoric volcano eruptions, had long captured the imagination of Romantic artists - particularly Fingal's Cave, named after a hero of Gaelic mythology.
Turner, known for infusing natural landscapes with intense emotion, dramatized this encounter in "Staffa: Fingal's Cave." On the left, the mouth of Fingal's Cave is bathed in light; to the right, a steamboat - a symbol of the then-ongoing Industrial Revolution - sits on choppy waves amid dark clouds. This clash of natural power and human industry, mythology and modernity, is intensified by Turner's layering of thin glazes on thick impasto - a technique that heightens his dramatic contrasts.
