Elysium & Tartarus, or The State of Final Retribution
James Barry Irish
Not on view
This etching reproduces a forty-foot-long mural Barry painted for the Great Room of the Society of Arts in London between 1777 and 1783. As the culmination of a series dedicated to the rise of culture and civilization from ancient to recent times, the image honors "great and good" figures across history, shown gathered here in a heavenly Elysium. At center, the angels Raphael and Gabriel guard the blessed from the darkness of Tartarus, at right, where unidentified forms writhe in torment. The print necessarily condenses and reduces the original to ensure that the faces remain readable. Barry etched and published the plate in 1791–92; his sister issued this state shortly after the artist’s death.
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