How you can use this image
This image can be used for non-commercial research or private study purposes, and other UK exceptions to copyright permitted to users based in the United Kingdom under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, as amended and revised. Any other type of use will need to be cleared with the rights holder(s).
Review the copyright credit lines that are located underneath the image, as these indicate who manages the copyright (©) within the artwork, and the photographic rights within the image.
The collection that owns the artwork may have more information on their own website about permitted uses and image licensing options.
Review our guidance pages which explain how you can reuse images, how to credit an image and how to find images in the public domain or with a Creative Commons licence available.
Notes
Add or edit a note on this artwork that only you can see. You can find notes again by going to the ‘Notes’ section of your account.
The subject of the picture is taken from Spenser's 'The Faerie Queen', (1590). The poem tells the story of Britomart, symbol of maidenly purity, who falls in love with a knight she sees in an enchanted mirror. She and her nurse go out into the world to find the embodiment of the reflection.
In the painting we see Britomart facing us, looking away from the mirror as she does not want to have her vision disturbed, asking her nurse to describe the image in the mirror. The figure on the horse is not, according to Watts, Britomart’s knight, but Artegal, the symbol of justice. Watts wrote 'I have made him climbing his horse, as justice must not over-ride sympathy'.
Title
Britomart
Date
c.1850
Medium
fresco
Measurements
H 85 x W 109 cm
Accession number
FAMAG:1923.17
Acquisition method
gift from Alfred de Pass, 1923
Work type
Mural or fresco
Falmouth Art Gallery
Municipal Buildings, The Moor, Falmouth, Cornwall TR11 2RT England
-
Euterpe Ionides (1861–1955) Victoria and Albert Museum -
An Old Man Restrained by Two Youths Victoria and Albert Museum -
Daphne's Bath Victoria and Albert Museum -
Henry Octavius Coxe (1811–1881) Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford -
Sir Alexander Cockburn (1802–1880), LLD, Lord Chief Justice of England (1859) Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge -
Constantine John Ionides (1775–1852) Victoria and Albert Museum -
Constantine Ionides (1775–1852) Victoria and Albert Museum - 562 more