The Abduction of Parolles, from 'All's well that ends well'

This painting was correctly identified as a work by Francis Wheatley in the 2003 exhibition (co-hosted by the Dulwich Picture Gallery and Ferrara; this picture was only exhibited in the latter). It was painted for Woodmason's Irish Shakespeare Gallery in Dublin, which was modelled on Boydell's Shakespeare Gallery in London, which opened in 1789. Woodmason employed many of the same artists who had worked on the London scheme, including Henry Fuseli, James Northcote, John Opie, William Hamilton and Francis Wheatley. Wheatley may have met Woodmason when he was working in Ireland between 1779 and 1783 (to escape debtors and an angry husband whose wife he had seduced).
The subject is taken from Shakespeare's All's Well that Ends Well, a comedy written between 1601 and 1608, based on a tale of Boccacio's Decameron. Parolles is the companion of Betram, Count of Rousillon. When Betram is married against his will to Helen, a lowborn beauty in his mother's service, Parolles persuades the Count to leave France and fight for the Duke of Florence against the Senoys. During the wars, many Lords try to convince Betram of Parolles' true cowardly nature and Betram eventually agrees to collaborate in a plot to expose him. Ambushed and blindfolded by the group (disguised as enemy soldiers), Parolles soon betrays the secrets of the camp to his captors. The blindfold worn by Parolles, a symbol of moral-blindness, is here contrasted with the torch held by Betram, a sign of truth. The dog (a symbol of fidelity) about to be trodden under foot does not feature in the text, and may have been introduced to highlight Parolles' betrayal.