print (mezzotint, etching and engraving): "Rispah [?Rizpah]" from Liber Studiorum

A remote countryside scene on a dark starlit night. A woman sits head in hand holding up a flaming torch which illuminates the dead bodies laying all around her. A lion appears to be crouching on a hill in the distance. Scene from a story in one of the Books of Samuel, in the Hebrew Bible. See also NCM 1901-73. Printed text ‘Drawn & Etched by J.M.W. Turner Esq.r R.A./ Published Jany. 1 1811 by Mr Turner Queen Ann Street West/Engraved by R. Dunkarton.’ ‘E.P’ at upper centre. [Epic/Elevated Pastoral series] ‘NCAM’ impression in circle at brc. ‘JMWT’ monogram at lower right. Originally issued in part 9 of the series., The Books of Samuel are part of the Hebrew Bible. A famine arises which David blames on Saul for having put many of the Gibeonites to death. David asks the Gibeonites what he should do as atonement, and they ask to dismember seven men from among Saul's descendants on Yahweh's mountain. David gives seven of Saul's descendants to them, and they are dismembered. Rizpah, the mother of two of them, uses a sackcloth to protect the remains from scavengers, and so David collects the bones of Saul, Jonathon, and those of the seven, and buries them at the tomb of Kish. The famine consequently ends.,