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Lot Essay
This drawing illustrates verse XLVI from Rev. George Croly’s 1820 poem The Angel of the World. The poem is subtitled An Arabian Tale and is based on the story told by Mohammed as a warning against wine. The angels Haruth and Maruth had spoken of their power to resist the temptations which man so often fell foul of, and they were sent down to earth to prove their virtue. A spirit was sent in the shape of a woman to tempt them, and they ignored her charms until she convinced them to drink wine, whereupon they gave way to all excess at once, eventually being exiled from heaven. Ward has illustrated the central moment in the story, where the seductress, kneeling beside the angel in a richly decorated interior, turns a vine into wine:
The silent prayer was done, and now she moved
Faint to his footstool, and, upon her knee,
Besought her lord, if in his Heaven they loved,
That, as she never more his face must see,
She there might pledge her heart’s fidelity.
She turn’d, and pluck’d a cluster from the vine,
And o’er a chalice waved it, with a sigh,
Then, with bow’d forehead, rear’d before the shrine
The crystal cup. – The Angel rose in wrath – ‘twas wine!
'Tabley' refers to Tabley Park, the home of Ward's great patron John Leicester, 1st Baron de Tabley (1762-1827), who also owned several works by Turner.
The silent prayer was done, and now she moved
Faint to his footstool, and, upon her knee,
Besought her lord, if in his Heaven they loved,
That, as she never more his face must see,
She there might pledge her heart’s fidelity.
She turn’d, and pluck’d a cluster from the vine,
And o’er a chalice waved it, with a sigh,
Then, with bow’d forehead, rear’d before the shrine
The crystal cup. – The Angel rose in wrath – ‘twas wine!
'Tabley' refers to Tabley Park, the home of Ward's great patron John Leicester, 1st Baron de Tabley (1762-1827), who also owned several works by Turner.