There are a good few old landscape paintings that depict scenes from poems of the time. This one depicts Thomas Gray:

(view the full sized image here)

I gave identifying info about this work to Perplexity with the instructions to research it and tell me all the interesting things it could about the work. Here’s what we got:

The Bard: A Welsh Hero's Last Stand Against a Tyrant King

High above the foaming waters of the River Conwy, a solitary figure stands defiant on a rocky precipice, his robes billowing wildly in the mountain wind. This is no ordinary man—he is the last of the Welsh bards, a keeper of stories and songs that have sustained his people through generations. His weathered face burns with righteous fury as he raises his arm toward the vast English army snaking down the mountainside below, their banners and armor glinting like a metallic serpent in the harsh light. In his other hand, he clutches his sacred harp, the instrument that has voiced the joys and sorrows of Wales. Behind him, storm clouds gather ominously, as if nature herself mourns what is about to unfold.

This is the climactic moment captured in John Martin's electrifying 1817 painting The Bard—a scene of breathtaking drama that would make any Hollywood blockbuster seem tame by comparison.

A Poem That Sparked an Artistic Revolution

Martin's masterpiece draws its power from Thomas Gray's haunting 1757 poem of the same name, which imagines a fictional confrontation between the conquering English King Edward I and the last surviving Welsh bard. Gray's verses paint a chilling picture: Edward, determined to crush Welsh resistance forever, has ordered the systematic execution of all the bards—the poet-storytellers who preserve Welsh culture and inspire rebellion through their songs. According to the legend Gray built upon, Edward feared these keepers of memory more than any army, understanding that as long as stories of Welsh glory survived, so would the spirit of resistance.

The poem's bard doesn't go quietly. Standing on his cliff above the Conway River, he unleashes a terrifying curse upon Edward and his descendants, prophesying doom for the entire Plantagenet line. "Ruin seize thee, ruthless King!" he cries, foretelling the murders, madness, and betrayals that will plague Edward's royal house for generations. Having delivered his apocalyptic prophecy, the bard makes one final act of defiance—he hurls himself from the precipice into the churning waters below, choosing death over capture.

When Art Becomes Spectacle

Martin transformed Gray's literary vision into pure visual thunder. The painting captures that heart-stopping moment just before the bard's final leap—his wild hair streaming like a meteor, his eyes blazing with prophetic fire. The artist borrowed the towering, Alpine-like landscape from prints he'd studied (the real Welsh mountains being far less dramatic), creating an impossibly romantic backdrop that perfectly suits the scene's mythic power.

Every element in the composition builds toward overwhelming psychological impact. The tiny figures of Edward's massive army wind endlessly down the mountainside on the left, emphasizing both the hopelessness of Welsh resistance and the bard's incredible courage in the face of such odds. In the distance, Martin adds his own touch—a Norman castle that symbolizes the foreign invader's permanent hold on the land. Yet for all the army's might, it's the solitary bard who commands the scene, his moral authority making him seem larger than life despite his isolation.

The Artist Who Painted Apocalypse

John Martin was perfectly suited to bring this tale of defiance and doom to vivid life. Born in 1789 in a humble cottage near Hexham in Northumberland, he rose from obscurity to become the most popular painter of his era—though critics would later dismiss him as a mere crowd-pleaser. Martin specialized in what scholars call "the apocalyptic sublime"—vast, overwhelming scenes that made viewers feel simultaneously awed and terrified.

His technique was as dramatic as his subjects. Working primarily in oil on canvas, Martin created compositions that seemed to extend beyond the frame's boundaries, suggesting infinite space and universal forces at work. He was also a master of mezzotint engraving, a technique that worked from dark to light, perfectly suited to his theatrical use of shadow and brilliant highlights. This allowed him to reproduce his paintings as prints that reached audiences across Britain and beyond, making him perhaps the first truly popular artist of the modern era.

The Bard premiered at the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition of 1817 at Somerset House, where it would have hung alongside works by Thomas Lawrence and John Constable. While critics might sniff at Martin's populist appeal, audiences were mesmerized by his ability to make paint seem to roar and crash like the elements themselves.

The Power of a Dangerous Story

What makes The Bard so compelling isn't just its visual spectacle—it's the way Martin understood the subversive power of the story he was telling. In Gray's poem and Martin's painting, we see art itself as an act of resistance. The bard doesn't fight with sword or spear; his weapons are memory, song, and the unbreakable human spirit. Even in defeat, even facing death, he claims victory through the power of his curse—the belief that truth and justice will ultimately triumph over tyranny.

This wasn't just ancient history to Martin's audiences. Britain in 1817 was a nation still reeling from the Napoleonic Wars, grappling with social unrest and political repression. The image of an artist-prophet defying royal power would have resonated deeply with viewers who understood that stories, poems, and paintings could be as dangerous to authority as any weapon.

Today, as we face The Bard in the Yale Center for British Art, we're confronting one of the most powerful expressions of artistic defiance ever created. Martin's wild-haired poet, poised between earth and sky, between life and death, between defeat and eternal victory, reminds us that some things—beauty, truth, the human spirit—cannot be conquered, no matter how many armies march against them.

In the end, the bard gets his revenge. Here we are, more than two centuries later, still telling his story.

John Martin (1789-1854) was an English Romantic painter born in Northumberland who became famous for his dramatic biblical and mythological scenes. Though dismissed by some critics as overly theatrical, his work profoundly influenced visual culture and continues to inspire filmmakers and artists today. He spent his final years pursuing engineering projects and died on the Isle of Man in 1854, having created some of the most memorable images in British art.

And that's it!

If you have any details you think Perplexity left out, reply to this email and I'll adjust my prompt to nudge it to include it next time.

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Thanks for reading!

-JP

Current prompt: I want you to create a newsletter post describing the fun and exciting stories around a painting. It should be a newsletter read for leisure and should be an enjoyable read (not just a list of facts) here's what you’re gonna do: Find the name of the following painting in its original language and any alternative names it goes by. Then Research the painting and give me blurb telling me all you can about the artist, the historical context/events it was created in, the style, the materials used, the composition and visual elements, the story/underlying message, what inspired the work/what it meant to the author, and whatever other info you find that helps give a complete understanding of the work. A description of what is depicted (mention subjects) should be the first thing, while the “biography” of the artist should be last. if the work has a lot of meaning behind it, then that is what the meat of the newsletter should be. Besides that you are free to present the information in a concise and captivating way, with the most interesting and novel stuff closest to the top. Order the presentation of information for which pieces have the most compelling and interesting story to tell. At least some of the description should be formatted like a story. [for example: a couple sits on a bench watching the sunset while a man next to them…]. ONLY include information that is for THIS SPECIFIC PAINTING. you will find info on paintings similar to this one but NOT this one. OMMIT INFO ABOUT SUCH PIECES. remember, the goal is to make the most compelling, intriguing, and fun to read newsletter as possible, so keep that above all else.