FREDERICK SANDYS, 1868

Born in 1829, British painter and illustrator Frederick Sandys was profoundly influenced by Pre-Raphaelite art, embracing its characteristic taste for bold colour, fine detail, and high drama. Inspired by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, who was for a time one of his closest friends, Sandys’ work often depicted subjects drawn from Greek Myth, as in the case of Medea.

Visible in the background of the painting is an image of the Golden Fleece, alluding to the myth that surrounds the Greek hero Jason, who embarked on a quest to steal it, knowing that having the Fleece in his possession would give him a right to the throne. He is helped in his quest by the sorceress Medea, who uses her magical ability to guide him safely through a series of dangerous tasks to reach the Fleece. The two marry and start a family, but Jason eventually leaves Medea for a Corinthian princess named Glauce, this abandonment signified by the ship sailing away behind her, which leads the enraged Medea to exact her revenge on Jason by killing their children and poisoning his new bride.

Sandys depicts Medea in the process of concocting the poison, surrounding her with symbols of dark magic like the sprig of belladonna and the mating toads, which may also be a reference to Jason’s infidelity. She tears off her coral necklace, a stone believed to protect the young from evil, an act which foreshadows the death of her children. All the while, she wears a troubled expression, indicating her emotional turmoil in the wake of her abandonment, as well as her dilemma at the violent revenge she is about to inflict.

The painting was initially rejected from the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition of 1868, though it would seem that this was the result of internal politics rather than an objection to its morbid source material, as Medea was later admitted in 1869 and received much critical acclaim, with reviews praising it as Sandys’ greatest masterpiece.