[CHAPTER XIII]
1806: AGED THIRTY-ONE
THE CHAOS OF THE 'HESPERIDES' AND THE PEACE OF 'ABINGDON'
Perhaps it is such pictures as 'The Goddess of Discord choosing the Apple by Contention in the Garden of the Hesperides' that folk have in mind when they say that they neither like nor understand Turner. And do the pages that Ruskin has devoted to the 'wonderful Hesperides,' that futilely magnificent attempt, hardly worth attempting, to outvie Nicolas Poussin, entice the observer to any closer observation of 'The Garden of the Hesperides'? I think not. We are uninterested in Turner's dragons, this or any other. What does it matter if 'the mighty articulations of his body' do roll 'in great iron waves, a cataract of coiling strength and crashing armour, down among the mountain rents'? Yet how often, how very often, the wonderful mind of Ruskin pierced to the truth. What could be better said than this: 'Nearly all the faults of the picture are owing to Poussin; and all its virtues to the Alps.'
Yes, Turner is here soaring to the mountain-tops, but he is also on his high earthly horse. Yet, to look long enough at the 'Hesperides' is to be lost in admiration of those mad mountain forms, and to see in them the giant workings of the magician's mind. Turner's 'Ode to Discord,' inspired by the idea of the 'Hesperides,' inspires us less, I am afraid, than does the picture. Here are two of the lines:—
'The guardian dragon, in himself a host,
Awed by thy presence, slumbered at his post.'
'Venus and Adonis,' which he painted about this time in emulation of Titian, and which was not exhibited until 1849, is simpler, but let it pass. Turner had his golden visions, now as afterwards, but he is too engrossed in competitive fury to rise often to the simplicity of expressing simply his wonder at the beauty of the world. In the 'Hesperides' Sketch-Book there is a study for the famous and absurd Dragon, and on the same page is a pen and ink suggestion for the beautiful picture of 'Abingdon' exhibited in 1810. That was Turner: to be busy at the same moment with the theatricality of the Dragon and the peace of Abingdon. But his mind was ever restless, ever pushing forward. In this year the Liber Studiorum was also engaging his attention, and other things, too, that have become interesting because he wrote them down. On page 1 of the 'Hesperides' Sketch-Book there is a pencil drawing of a building with trees, and written in the corner are these words—his momentary needs:—
'Varnish
Razor
Blue Black
Bt. Sienna
Fishing Rod. Flies,
Pallet knife
Shoes.'
Turner as Fisherman. A clever writer might compose an essay on that subject, garnering his material from the Sketch-Books.