Turner, Joseph Mallord William (1775–1851) ; Robert Dunkarton, engraver (1744–1811)
Rispah | 2nd Book of Samuel. Chap. 21. First Edition of the Original Mezzotint
London: J.M.W. Truner, April 23, 1812. Sepia ctching and mezzotint by Turner and Robert Dunkarton, ‘Rispah | 2nd,, Book of Samuel. Chap. 21.’, published Turner, 23 April 1812..TImage 20.6 x 29cm. Shheet 32 x 39cm. Printed on rag paper watermarked Turkey Mill, Kent. Professional repairs to lower right blank margin..Finberg 46 iv/iv; Rawlinson 46 iv/iv..Turner distilled his ideas about landscape In "Liber Studiorum" (Latin for Book of Studies), a series of seventy prints plus a frontispiece published between 1807 and 1819. To establish the compositions, he made brown watercolor drawings, then etched outlines onto copper plates. Professional engravers usually developed the tone under Turner's direction, and Dunkarton here added mezzotint to describe a gruesome Old Testament subject. After the death of King Saul, his sons by his concubine Rizpah were executed by the Gibeonites, and left unburied. Their mother here protects the corpses, using a torch to ward off an approaching lion at night. The letter "H" in upper margin indicates Turner's category of Historical landscap.. Turner’s Liber Studiorum composition relates to the story of Rizpah [sic], as narrated in the Old Testament. King David delivered seven of his predecessor Saul’s family, including two sons by Rizpah, as reparation for Saul’s treatment of the Gibeonites. They were put to death in the days of harvest, in the first days, in the beginning of barley harvest. And Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it for her upon the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water dropped upon them out of heaven, and suffered neither the birds of the air to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field by night. .

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